The West Coast

Our west coast tour was brief but as we have come to expect from NZ – beautiful. At Punakaiki we saw the pancake rocks and blowholes, part of the sea ravaged coastline. Pretty cool as far as rocks go!

Also at Punakaiki we walked along a gorgeous river to the Fox River Caves. They are in the middle of nowhere so they are not attended, there’s no road, and no guides – you just have your own little exploration! It took a couple of hours and at the end Matt and I nearly had a little falling out as he had only brought one torch along and it was out of battery! Luckily for us our trip was not wasted as another couple who were better equipped came along after a while, and so we followed them in. Apparently there are over 200m of caves but we only made it about 20m in because it was quite scary and the footing wasn’t very easy.

The next day was Valentine’s so we went to Hokitika and Matt bought me a handmade jade necklace in a Maori design. We did another walk called Okarito Trig up some hill. Not fun! Too steep and all giant sized steps. It was a great deal of effort for a disappointing view at the top! Views were of Okarito Lagoon and in the very far distance, Franz Joseph Glacier. In the same day we walked to the Franz Joseph Glacier – 200m from the terminal face. We didn’t do the hike onto the ice as unfortunately it was a bit pricey – can’t do it all, boooo. We stayed in a nice campsite but it was invaded by the Kiwi Experience coach so the bar was heaving with horny 18 year olds
(not very romantic!). Luckily we were booked in for an Indian down the road which was very tasty!

Next stop was Fox Glacier – not as impressive as Franz Joseph but you can get much closer – 80m from the terminal face. Take a look at the pics – it is very surreal standing in front of a glacier on a lovely hot sunny day!

We drove through more stunning scenery – which I will never tire of – in Haast Pass. Then it was on to Wanaka and Queenstown – I will let Matt cover that one!

Laters x