Nelson to Punakaiki Drive via Lake Rotoiti/St Arnaud

On the 3rd day of our New Zealand trip, we started our road trip with our rented Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. We decided to take a short detour to the Nelson Lakes National Park while driving to Punakaiki. We drove to St. Arnaud, near the lake and walked around the beautiful place for a while. The weather was sunny and gave the lake a shiny blue colour. Along the next part of the route, there were not much to stop and see but the road was scenic and a pleasure to drive on. The road followed the Buller river before finally reaching the west coast where we hit the Great Coast Road. The road is surrounded by greenery all the way. On the west coast the weather was completely different. It was cloudy and windy, making the views a little dull. But later in the day when we walked to the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, nature had put a little surprise for us. We got the perfect sunset light on the pancake rocks and the magical views of the rocks along the Tasman sea coast revealed themselves. At Punakaiki, we had only a night's stay to break our long journey to the glacier country. We stayed at Punakaiki Beachfront Motels which was beautifully located by the sea. It's a nice little town for a short stay, there are longer hikes also around this area, but with our limited time we decided to only take the Pancake rocks and blowholes walk which is really a must see here.