Paparoa Track Day 3

Day 3 was a relatively short 16 kms, starting with some typical bush.

Nice shade from the canopy.

The track here was a lot easier than the first day which was very hard rock.

Lots of birds about.

A rare solid bridge across the river.

The Pororari River was next to the track for much of the day.

Back into fern territory.

Steps down as we hit river level.

Was very tempted to jump in for a swim.

In this section you basically go into a sort of cave formed by huge boulders wedging together, and there is a small set of steps out of the rocks.

Beautiful view of the river, near the end.

The final stretch.

Fellow trampers at the pub at Punakaiki.

After 55 kms of tramping on blisters, the answer to the question “Shall we walk down the road to see the Pancake Rocks” should be “Hell no” but masochism is under-rated so I said “yeah” and we walked around 1 km down the road to see Pancake Rocks, which were awesome.

A great view of the coast from Pancake Rocks.

As you can see the boot didn’t do so well, and it resulted in constant squeezing of the foot as I walked.

I ended up with a total of six blisters on my sole, my big toe and the side of the foot. The more blisters I got, the more I speeded up so I would be able to get the boots off at the end of the day!

Was still an amazing experience with great company and scenery, but next Great Walk will see me with different boots!