NZ travelogue Day 14 to 16

The West Coast and the Glaciers

With much of NZ lands being transformed for the purpose of agriculture, a few places are left in their original state or being conserved by the government. The West Coast of the Southern Alps is a heritage site  for its wondrous coastlines, national parks and glaciers. Early settlers came here for the coal and gold.

 Haast Beach and the Tasman Sea. Wild and windy.

Bruce Bay, the last bay we saw before the Glaciers and Hokitika.

Fox Glacier

 The ground we were standing was glacier 40-50 years ago.

 David going to cross the stream to have a closer look at the glacier while Jo and I preferred to stay on this side of the stream.

Franz Josef Glacier

 A fascinating reflection on Peter's Pool. The reflection is clearer than the real thing.

The shrinking glacier.

Sunset views from the Glacier Gateway Motel

 Magical!

Lake Matheson. This is the place where one can see a perfect reflection of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman. We were out of luck. Too cloudy. Well, we walked round part of the lake through rather dense forest, and had an encounter with these two curious animals.

Hokitika

Pounamou (Green Stone).  Bought these at the Jade Factory in Hokitika.

Also visited the Museum, the building which has been a library built by a donation from the Carnegie Foundation in America. This coach was used to travel between Christchurch and Greymouth on the West Coast, and the journey took 9 days. And now the same journey took only hours.