Pancake and Blowhole Rocks

Friday we got to sleep in!! We didn't leave until 9:30. We drove about 2 hours to a town named hokatiku where we stopped for a bit to have lunch and to window shop. It was a nice day and easy going. After a bit we piled back into the van and headed to our destination which was the pancake rocks!

It was only about an hour drive. We stopped first at our hostel to drop of our stuff and settle in since high tide wasn't until 4. This is the coolest place I have ever stayed in!! After driving into the bush and finding the reception desk in the middle of nowhere we then proceeded to find our hostel. Because of the size of our group Erika rented out the whole house (there were mini houses instead of rooms like a hotel). So our directions were drive about five more minutes into the bush and then park the car at the car park (it as a gravel road/carpark). Then take the trail through the bush, over the bridge and around until you come to the hostel. So we unloaded the car and packed in all of our stuff. The hike in wasn't too bad just about 5 minutes or so. But we are definitely in the middle of the jungle.

It is so cool!! Our house is basically like a log cabin. After dropping of our stuff we drove the few minutes back to the pancake rocks visitors center. We got there just at high tide. So basically it's a place where you can go to see these rocks that look like giant stacks of pancakes. They also call it the blowhole rocks too because since we are right along the cost the ocean surges up against the rocks and it creates a blowhole effect. It reminded me a lot of the Oregon coast. There were so many caves and holes in the rocks that helped to create the water splashing up. One of the holes was called the chimney pot because the ocean waves would come up and pound against the rock and then spray would come through a hole on top that went through the rock. It was pretty cool. Funny, there was also a wedding about to happen on the rocks as we were leaving.

We came back to our house and got some dinner. We had salad and bread. So yum! After dinner we took another trail through the bush to the beach. We hoped to see the sunset but a storm front was moving in and it started to sprinkle on us. We still enjoyed some time at the beach. It was super fun to explore and climb over rocks. The water kept hitting up and making huge splashes against the rocks. It looked so cool! At one part of the beach there was a rock that looked like mud but it was rock. It's just because of the way that the sea water eroded away parts of the rock. The pools were small tide pools full of snails and mussels. It was really cool and fun to explore.

The rest of the night was pretty chill. We had some milo when we got home and we watched the 3rd LOTR since Sara hasn't seen it before. It's fun to pick out some of the sights in the movie that we've been to. Tomorrow we'll be putting on sacrament meeting and the ward promised to feed us lunch afterwards :). A fair exchange I'd say.