Jan 20/21

(meg) Belated post!

Our first full weekend in NZ! We wandered around our new town, picked up odds and ends at local op shops (secondhand stores), and I got a library card! (Hoooray!). We visited some of the beaches, a local weekend market, and I tried to find penguins. Hasn't happened yet, FYI.

Carter's beach!

Beaches are fun with this guy.

Getting more graphic novels at the library.

We went exploring down the coast to the Pancake Rocks., about a 45 minute drive south to the village of Punakaiki, which is part of the Paporoa National Park. The visitors center has these blue penguin statues that Van found-these are the world's smallest living penguin, and they have nesting sites along the west coast. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Can you spot the girls and Josh?

Ladies being forced to walk and see pretty sites.

Pancake rocks! They looked stacked (like, say pancakes)-but how? To the google for answers-

"The regular layering that can be observed in the Pancake Rocks results from a process called stylobedding. Under the influence of high pressure and compaction, small imperfections in the calcium carbonate that forms the limestone tend to aggregate in horizontal planes, in a process known as grain boundary diffusion. This leads to regular bands of stronger rock separated by weaker and more erodable mudstone rock. Thousands of years of rain, wind and spray have mechanically weathered away the surface of the mudstone layers, leaving the limestone layers in relief."

Hector's dolphins! Endemic to NZ, they are the some of the smallest dolphins.

Views on the drive back to Westport.

More beach time. Common theme at the moement. Stayed tuned for this past weekend's adventures to Nelson!