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April 8, 2009
We left Christchurch early this morning for Adelaide--leaving steady rain and green fields for the dusty, dry landscape of South Australia that has had no autumn rain, nor is it likely to have. Compared to the South Island of New Zealand, southern Australia is definitely a brown, parched land. Depressingly so.
Looking back on the trip around the South Island that included exploring the Heaphy Track, the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, and the Queen Charlotte Sound walk we agreed that our favourite place was the Paparoa National Park:
It was the place in the South Island we both wanted to return to stay and explore in more depth in terms of walking and photography. It is a small national park with dense native forest, yet it's ecosystems are incredibly rich and diverse.
Limestone underlies most of the park and it is responsible for the area's landforms - high coastal cliffs, impressive river canyons, delicate cave formations and the bizarre ‘pancake-stack’ coastal formations that the area is well known for. This is a wilderness with virtually undisturbed forest cover that includes tree ferns and palms and it is mostly easy walking on very accessible tracks.
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