Haast to Hokitika

We were now on the West Coast and needed to cross the mountains again before our flight back the day after. We decided to head up towards Arthur's Pass. The scenery on the west coast is completely different to that on the East. Rather noticeably the west coast has the highest rainfall in New Zealand (although we had perfect weather) and the mountain sides were covered in rainforest.

We had our breakfast by an open fire in Haast and then Anna started the drive North. It was icy (the temperature being about -1C). The scenery was eerie - huge tree ferns rising from the mist ... and then ... the ocean. We stopped at Lake Paringa and got very wet trying to walk up the middle of a river. Back in the car, we drove down a typically bendy road to find ourselves overlooking the Tasman sea! The road sign said "Caution. Debris on highway during high seas". I like that! We didn't see any debris from the high seas, but we did from the rock fall! That caused a slight detour.

We built an inukshuk by the side of the road overlooking the ocean and then continued along the road. We got distracted by a large suspension bridge and I, rather stupidly, decided to climb down some scaffolding to get a good view of the raging river below! More sensibly, we then went for a walk alongside the river. This was part of the Karangarua Valley hiking trail which would be amazing. There were plenty of signs warning that said things like "Christmas Flat Hut and Horace Walker Hut are in known avalanche paths"!

Finally we got close to the Fox Glacier and turned up a small road that led to the the non-touristy side of the glacier. We found a 1.5 hour hike and started off through the rainforest. Every-so-often we'd have to jump on stones across a river or I'd have to wait for Anna who had found another big rock to climb! The first clear view of the glacier was breathtaking. It's huge.

Unfortunately you cannot walk on the Fox Glacier without a guide and so we went on the Franz Josef Glacier. This was also superb. What was most amazing was the sign indicating where the glacier had been in the past. Only 20 years ago the glacier had been tiny, now it was of moderate size, but in the 1800s the glacier must have been enormous (and covering the cliff face

where we viewed it). Obviously the landscape changes fast!

It was then starting to get dark and so we continued North to Hokitika. Hokitika has "wide streets, notable historic buildings and excellent local craft studios. Hokitika is perhaps the West Coast's most attractive town." hmmm. Well it had a great hotel (including towels), a pub that Anna refused to go in (because the clientèle were obviously "axe murderers"), two petrol stations, a nice restaurant/pub (where we had some drinks/food and played pool) and a great beach (as far as we could tell in the dark). We got wet.