Pancakes, Rocks not Tea

Woke up quite late this morning and had a leisurely breakfast chatting to the other people staying at this lovely B&B. The huge windows have beautiful views and in our room you can hear the Tasma n Sea pounding on the beach. The other guests were all racing on to Franz Joseph to visit the glacier but we had decided when planning the holiday to have 2 days here as a bit of a rest. Listening to the others, Nigel and I decided we’d made the right decision. Franz Joseph sounds a bit of a circus. Asked our B&B host what he would recommend for us to do and he suggested a place to the north of here called the Pancake Rocks.
The weather has bucked up again and the drive northward along the coast was lovely. The mountains (Southern Alps) come right down to the ocean and it is really lovely. When we reached the rocks, it was quite a busy place with a bit of infra-structure; proper car park, tourist office and café. We soon saw why. A proper path had been cut through what would once have been native bush, with important species of trees labelled. As we approached the ocean the amazing Pancake Rocks became visible. They were huge stacks still joined to the headland but only just. They have their name because they consist of layer upon layer of thin rocks (literally like a stack of pancakes), with blow holes in. The scientists still do not really understand how such a strange rock formation has come into being. After our stroll around we decided to go a little further north, to enjoy more of the fabulous coastline – apparently some of the most spectacular in NZ.
On our return drive we stopped in a little place called Brunner, which had once been quite a big place with a coal mine. At the end of the 19th century a lot of miners had been encouraged to come to NZ to work in the mines further north of here but then proved an unpopular workforce because they had brought fledgling notions of unionisation with them. So they and their families moved on to the mine here at Brunner. An interesting point was made about the relative stability of this community compared with that of the gold mines nearby. The coal miners were living with their families whereas the gold mining communities were all male preserves.
I’m writing this while Nigel is out running. He has run every day of our holiday (only a couple of times resorting to hotel treadmills) and he is feeling very fit. He won’t be able to the day after tomorrow when we have our 24 hour cruise up Doubtful Sound, although he hopes to go sea kayaking – me, I’m happy with a good book and lovely scenery!! (Although I walked and scrambled quite a bit today).
It seems funny that we have been talking about our journey home today. The time has gone so fast, although we are beginning to look forward to returning to see everyone and pick up our routines.