FRANZ JOSEF TOWNSHIP, NEW ZEALAND

Yesterday we picked up Thomas from his hostel and drove south along the west coast of the South Island. And for the first time since we've been in New Zealand, the weather turned ugly, and it was miserably wet, windy, and rainy when we stopped to view another seal colony at a place called (appropriately enough) Cape Foulwind. After getting pretty soaked, we drove on to the very grey town of Greymouth. We had planned to visit the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, but because of the weather decided to save that for today. Which was a wise decision, as it turns out, because it cleared up nicely.

The Pancake Rocks are some cool coastal rock formations of layered limestone. But what's really cool are the giant hurricane-sized waves that come in across the Tasman Sea to crash into them. The cliffs are sculpted into arches and columns from all that battering, and there are a number of blowholes where the surf shoots out through the rock. It's really an impressive show. And what also makes it weird is that the surrounding vegetation largely consists of palm trees, in a climate that's nowhere near tropical. But that's New Zealand for you!