Day 12: Punakaiki

Oct 2nd

Logan woke up about 1:30am which is unusual for him these days. But, he seemed to be cold (it WAS cold) so we gave him a bottle and he fell back to sleep in our bed....and then Jon moved him to the crib shortly afterward (I'm not going to pay for a crib and then not use it damnit!)

Because Logan woke up in the middle of the night, he didn't wake up again until 8:30am, which was nice for sleeping in, but not so nice for the early start that we were hoping for. So, we all had a really lazy and relaxing morning instead; ate some breakfast and hung out in the cabin while Jon ran back and forth down the hill to tend to our laundry.

We decided to walk to the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes (about 1/3 mile down the road) while our laundry dried (did I mention the dryers are definitely not as good here?). And ended up spending a really long time there!! The pancake rocks were nothing like I've seen before. Sea, wind and rain have etched out layers within the limestone rock formations along the coast and it was absolutely amazing. We got there just as high tide was approaching which was perfect to see the blowholes in action as well!

After our excursion, we packed up and headed back south, through Greymouth, where we stopped for lunch. But, it being 3pm, all cafes were closed again (they shut down between 2-5pm for some weird reason). We ended up at the same pizzeria because it was the only place open again.... but we got pasta this time and it was sooo disappointing. :(

I think we were all finally starting to have enough of each other and definitely enough of the car rides.... at least, I was! I got cranky and argued with Jon - about nothing really. Jill and Eric had moments where they no longer thought Logan was cute but just loud and annoying instead. And Jon was tired of driving everywhere. :(

I won't lie - it's definitely harder traveling with a baby, and being in a car the majority of the time is even worse. There were times on the trip where I was even sick of Logan myself! (I'm definitely not used to caring for him 24x7) :)

So, the next trip I will need to plan out less driving and allow him more time to crawl and explore. I've also decided that two weeks is probably the max we can travel with him (I was wanting to travel longer but now I think it's better we didn't do any longer than we did). On the other hand, if we had more time, we could space out the drives more and then perhaps it wouldn't be as bad. Hrmmm.

It rained most of the drive south to our next stop, Franz Josef. All four of us napped (minus poor Jon), which was probably good since we were all starting to get at each others' throats a bit. We pulled into Franz Josef early around 6:30pm which gave us a bit more time to relax and find a nice place to eat. Our "tree house" wasn't really in the trees like we were hoping for - but it WAS a beautiful HUGE cabin! And perfect timing for a nice place to lift all of our spirits up. It had 3 bedrooms, full kitchen, bath/laundry, dining room and huge living room. It was great! Especially for Logan to crawl around in - and better still, he even got his own room. ;-)

We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant down the road which was pretty good. Jon and Eric got Chicken Tikka Masala hot and extra hot (respectively) and were literally SWEATING through their meal :) while Logan played peekaboo standing on a chair, watching some nearby women. What a flirt!

Besides being such a flirt and also super loud, Logan started taking everything (food) OUT of his mouth, examining it and then putting pieces of the food back in his mouth. Aiiieeee. Also, he wouldn't eat ANY of the veggie jars we got him throughout the trip. Talk about frustrating! :( All of the veggie jars did have meat - so either he's a natural vegetarian ;-) or our veggie jars at home are more plain, or sweet or something?

He has also started walking around coffee tables and furniture a lot more which again, was particularly great with the cabin we were in. :) From time to time I'd even catch him trying to stand on his own but he'd still lose his balance pretty quickly.

Next time we visit Franz Josef, we're going to have to stay at the Rainforest Retreat again, and we're going to have to stay longer than just one night. *sigh*