Sunday, February 3 - Punkaiki

      We'd had clouds the day before, but Sunday morning they cleared out and we had a beautiful day.

Our home for two nights

In the morning we hiked up the Pororari River Gorge.  It looks like Jurassic
Park.  In fact, NZ separated from the other continents 100 million years ago,
and still retains plant forms that were alive during the time of the dinosaurs.

These rocks reminded us of dinosaur bones

The South Island Robin is a very friendly little bird that we keep making
friends with in the bush.  He has a piercing, melodic song that he usually
starts singing in the early dawn hours.

No walk along a river would be complete without
leaf racing competitions.

Next we went for a walk to see the Pancake Rocks ...

... which are very unusual limestone formations near Punkaiki 

Then we explored a cave that went about 50 meters into the cliff before
the passageway got too small to squeeze through.  Happily, there
were no cave trolls there.

Relaxing before dinner in the camp kitchen

Kelly doesn't look too excited about Kristy's links, does she