Position 42 06.390S 171 20.147E

After pizza lunch, a Paul treat. Left Hokitika and ambled along the coast to Punakaiki.  Arrived too late to do the Pancake rocks, Paul happy as he got to eat steak in the pub.

Visited the beach first thing in the morning.  More logs and then Pancake rocks and blowholes.

Really unusual to see this sand hopper out and about.  Some big bivalves – assume they are edible.

Masses of shells.  The spit in front of the river.  Tide was coming in whilst we were here, surging up the beach.

This is a Wake, the first time we have seen this bird.  Opportunist feeder.  Chick on the left, parent and big chick on the right.

These are the pancake rocks.  Formed from limestone made from dead marine creatures.  They began forming about 30 million years ago. After being buried and compacted, the bits of shells and skeletons were under so much pressure that they dissolved.  For some reason, some minerals then formed thin seams of mudstone between the layers of limestone.  100,000 years of erosion have enhanced the pancake effect.

You can see the layered nature here.

Looks like a couple fo faces here, or maybe three.  Soemone with along hair and a top knot, then long hair and big nosem then long hair and little.  Mum, Dad and Junior?

The blowhole.

Although impressive even better was the colony of white bellied terns (I thought all terns had white bellies?).

Paul managed to get these two shots of tern with fish in its mouth.

They breed on the rocks from October to January. Looks like it is all getting underway - having nooky. Act nonchalant.

Way down on the rocks a group of spotted shags (Stictocarbo punctatus).