May 22, 2014
We were up bright and early to get out of our illegal parking spot before anyone noticed us. We brushed our teeth in McDonald’s and headed on our way. On our drive to Westport we would stop occasionally for some scenic pictures. 
Westport wasn’t much of a town, especially with the grey skies, but we drove out to the beach and played for a bit. We dipped our feet in the water, which was surprisingly not as cold as the water in Bodega Bay. We played tag and collected rocks. We also took lots of jumping pictures, which the kids love to look at later and comment on how high they can jump.
It started sprinkling so we headed out to Punakaki to see the pancake rocks. They are these cool sedimentary rocks near the cliffs that look like stacks of pancakes. Scientists aren't really sure why these breakfast rocks are situated where they are and look like they do. There is also a blowhole there, but we didn’t get to see it blow because of the low tide.
Then we headed to Greymouth, which from the weather we experienced, is aptly named. It was raining so we went to Shantytown, which is a replica of a shantytown from the gold rush in New Zealand in the 1860’s. We rode a steam engine and panned for gold. The guy helping with the gold laughed when we told him we were from California. He wondered out loud why we were panning for gold halfway across the world when it is in our own backyard. I laughed and told him it was because we aren’t tourists in California. Connor's favorite part was playing on the mini-zipline at Shantytown's play area. The kids would zip along very fast and then come to a sudden stop against some tires. Connor fell flat onto his stomach on the ground when he hit the tires one time. He (and the rest of us) thought this was hilarious.
Westport wasn’t much of a town, especially with the grey skies, but we drove out to the beach and played for a bit. We dipped our feet in the water, which was surprisingly not as cold as the water in Bodega Bay. We played tag and collected rocks. We also took lots of jumping pictures, which the kids love to look at later and comment on how high they can jump.
Then we headed to Greymouth, which from the weather we experienced, is aptly named. It was raining so we went to Shantytown, which is a replica of a shantytown from the gold rush in New Zealand in the 1860’s. We rode a steam engine and panned for gold. The guy helping with the gold laughed when we told him we were from California. He wondered out loud why we were panning for gold halfway across the world when it is in our own backyard. I laughed and told him it was because we aren’t tourists in California. Connor's favorite part was playing on the mini-zipline at Shantytown's play area. The kids would zip along very fast and then come to a sudden stop against some tires. Connor fell flat onto his stomach on the ground when he hit the tires one time. He (and the rest of us) thought this was hilarious.
Then we grabbed some pizza at a local pizzeria and checked into our campground. It was so nice to have running water, electricity and showers again!
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