The West Coast

So after leaving Wanaka, we headed up the rugged West Coast, our first stop was a place called Haast. Sadly the weather wasn`t as good, so the view of the infamous Haast pass, a lovely drive through a mountainous region, was lost on us.



Pushing on, we then reached the first of the 2 main glaciers situated in the Southern Alps region. The first was the Fox Glacier. We took a short 1 hour walk to the face of the glacier to see the mass of ice carving its way through the mountains. All in all, pretty impressive. Sadly becuase of my arm, we were not able to do the walks or heli-hikes on the glacier (but something to add to the list for when we return...).





What amazed me most was the various posts and markers on the drive up to the glacier, charting where the glacier had previously been. Over the years it had receeded up the valley, but only some 70/80 years ago, it was over a Km further down the valley.



We stayed one night in Fox and visited the local beach and lakes. It was noticeable that the beaches along the West coast are rugged and very much windswept. The next day we headed to the other glacier, the Frans Josef Glacier. A similar if not smaller, but prettier glacier (if that is possible). Again a short walk up to the face of the ice and very hard to comprehend the size and scale of these huge slabs of ice. We drove on to a little coastal town called Hokitika, which would be our home for the next 3 nights and NYE !



With NYE approaching, we decided to venture out in to our surroundings to check out the night life. Sadly there was not much. We explored Hokitika, a local mecca for the New Zealand Jade, used in jewellery and other small arts.