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Today, we're heading further north up the West Coast for a couple of days at Hokitika, then on to Westport. It's an easy drive with the Pacific Ocean / Tasman Sea occasionally visible on our left, and the snow-capped Southern Alps on our right. It also takes us passed two of New Zealand's best known glaciers, the Fox and the Franz Josef. The Fox Glacier has a rather long walk from the carpark, so we decided to go to the lookout, with is actually further away from the glacier than the main road. This is because it is far enough away so you can see between the valley walls. By the time we got to the Franz Josef, it was all clouded in, so we kept going.
At the lookout there is a large carved Maori canoe pointing at the glacier. For the full story, see here
<Above> Fox Glacier with ominous clouds
<Right> The lookout's stylised Maori canoe
<Above> Hokitika, spelled out in driftwood, along with a concrete lounge chair!
<Left> We are not worthy... (There is a town called 'Ross'.)
<Left> Straight out of a Western movie, this was our lodging for two nights. As they say, don't let looks deceive. Motel units at the back were very nicely appointed, and the hotel's restaurant was terrific. Built in 1865/70, but dragged to its present position on beer barrels in 1878.
Full story at this site.
On the road again! We decided to get off the coastal route at Greymouth so we could drive down a part of the Buller Gorge to check out some photo sites for the next day, just in case the infamous West Coast wet weather (that was forecast) would hinder us tomorrow. This meant we'd miss out on the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, however, we'd seen them on a previous trip, and figured they probably hadn't changed much as they'd been there for a few million years.
New Zealand's air is one of the clearest in the world. This was brought home to us as we called into Greymouth for a hot chocolate (me) and a cappuccino (Sue) at the breakwater. (There are coffee caravans everywhere here!)
This shot was taken at the breakwater at Greymouth. As pointed out to us by a surfer who just got out of the water ('It's warm, mate. About 12°!'), the snow-covered peaks in the distance are Mt Tasman and Mt Cook (Aoraki).
I checked on Google Earth when we got to the motel. Mt Cook is 3,724m or 12,218' and is 160kms or 100 miles away from where we were standing!!
<Above> Kilkenny Lookout on the Buller River. Note the 'slot' in the cliff.
<Left> The 'slot' with a large truck for scale. When you can't go over or around...
<Above> West Coast Sand Fly - life size - on top of an old boiler.
<Right> Weka - a flightless wood hen about the size of a chook.
Not in the slightest put off by our presence.
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