Turning back from the end of the road

Continued on out mission to cover the whole of the West coast road. First we stopped for a short walk at Tauranga Bay to see a colony of fur seals. Loved the babies playing in a rock pool (the sea was a bit rough for them).

Then a small detour just North of Westport: a small mining community (now abandoned) called Denniston. Not big on mining so we skipped the tour and just had lunch. The views weren't as good as expected as there was plenty of cloud. In the end just came back down again - quite a hassle (8km uphill takes forever) for nothing.

Weather was looking bad so we decided to cut our losses and ditch Karamea. 100km to see some rocks in the pouring rain didn't seem worth it. So we went back to Westport and then up the Buller Gorge (very impressive river gorge that goes on for miles) towards Nelson. Stopped when darkness fell just before Nelson at a free campsite and set up camp.