North, Along the West Coast

We travelled north along the West Coast today from Fox Glacier to Punakaiki towards the north of New Zealand’s South Island. My story today is much better illustrated by photos than by text.

Although we were near the coast at Fox Glacier, we were also on the edge of the Southern Alps, the backbone of the island.

Today, we traveled alternatively between hilly areas with winding roads and dense forest with stretches of flat alluvial land where sheep and cattle grazing took place.

In the background, the mountains still looked spectacular with their high peaks.

Around 25 kilometres north of Fox is NZ’s other coastal glacier – the Franz Josef Glacier. It is a 12-kilometre-long temperate maritime glacier in Westland’s Tai Poutini National Park. It descends downs a steep sided valley from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres above sea level. Like all the glaciers in the world, it was once much longer.

We reached the glacier car park by following an interesting road along the river valley. As usual, the car park was chock-a-block full with cars, campers and motor homes. We were lucky to find one tight parking space and I headed along the walking track through the forest to a view point 15 minutes way. There was a clear view of the glacier from there.

We stopped in the town with the same name (which was buzzing ) and had the most expensive coffee that I have ever bought – $8.50. This part of NZ is not only remote but also expensive.

Along the way, we passed through a couple of little towns and it was getting a bit late for lunch. Eventually, we found place that still had a couple of pies in the pie warmer and that was all. The pies were so hot that we waited until we had reached a pretty little lake twenty minutes further on by when they had cooled enough to get anywhere near our mouths.

By this stage, the mountains had receded more into the distance and the land had become more flat and undulating. The rivers were broad and braided. We crossed them on long single-lane bridges.

Jill found a shop in the town of Hokatika that sold Paua (Abalone Shell) jewellery and we spent a little time exploring the town. We remember this place from a visit years ago when it was just a back country town. It was then old and the menu in the pub was spelled phonetically. Now it looks much larger and more modern.

For the last part of our day, the road hugged the coastline and we had some pretty good ocean views.

We were a bit later than normal in reaching our accommodation for the night at Punakaiki. Walking around the cliff top tracks to see the pancake rocks added a bit to the time. These are made of thin layers of sedimentary rock and seem to be only in this location.