West Coast

After a week in the north of the South Island we drove down to the west coast and the first place we stayed was Punakaiki. We woke up early on the first morning to see the famous pancake rocks. These rocks are amazing because they look like huge piles of thick pancakes coming out of the sea.
After Punakaiki we headed along the coast to Hokitika. The beach there is wild and covered in beach debris like driftwood, seaweed and rocks. Because of the debris the town holds a sculpture competition every year. Anyone can enter and the only rule is that you can only use things you find on the beach to make your sculpture. My favourite sculpture was called 'Viking Cruisers', it looked like a Viking boat and amazed me because it was made out of so many natural things such as pebbles, driftwood, seaweed, shells and sand. The sculpture that won was called 'Goin' Swimmin' - it was a turtle carved out of a piece of driftwood that had once been a tree root. There were a lot of brilliant sculptures on the beach.

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