New Zealand Day 4

We woke up at 6 to catch the sunrise, and boy, what a sunrise it was! The whole sky lit up like fire and the red clouds were so bright they reflected off the water. It was absolutely stunning. After taking some photos, we packed up our kayak and head out for an early start. We had a pretty far distance to cover.

Our first stop was at a beach called the Anchorage. It was quite crowded with a lot of boats parked out front. But it was nice. We refilled our water and then continued. Next we kayaked past Adele Island. We saw quite a few seals hanging out here. We wanted to stop on the beach at Adele Island, but seemingly it was not present at high tide.

We continued to Appletree beach, which was nice, but crowded. This is where I took a small nap. After that we paddled back to Marahau. It was low tide, so the tractors were pulling boats all the way to a buoy in the water. We returned our gear and then began our 4 hour drive to Punakaiki.

The drive was lovely. The most beautiful spots were next to the Buller River and then along the coast near Punakaiki. We stopped in Westport for groceries, gas and dinner. We ate at PortSide Restaurant, where we had some green mussels. We made the drive to our Airbnb with the last few minutes of daylight. The Airbnb was just a shack on the beach with no internet and no electricity and an outhouse, but it was in a beautiful location. The owner, Blaze came by to orient us, then he helped us start a bonfire. We watched the stars while letting the fire burn out, and then went to bed.