Fox Glacier to Westport (3 - 5 March 2008)
We were finally on the West Coast, known as the most scenic part of New Zealand. And we were very pleasantly surprised to see the sun creeping out from behind the layers of cloud. At this stage it had been raining for nearly a week and the West Coast is not exactly known for its great weather.
We started in Fox Glacier (this is actually the name of the town as well, how unimaginative?) and directly went to have a look at the glacier. The car park was stacked with tourist busses, but luckily for us, they did not bring their unattractive hiking boots (seeing that it is not high fashion with the touring teens) and they could not do the flooded, rocky walk all the way up to the glacier.
I was quite impressed with this massive piece of moving ice. Well, as far as glaciers go, Fox had the advantage of being one of the first proper glaciers I have laid eyes on. Unfortunately, due to safety reasons, one could only actually walk on the glacier in a guided tour, so we settled for the view from about 80 meters away.
We skipped the rest of the Fox town and headed towards Franz Josef. We booked into the holiday park, parked our van and then made a beeline for the hot Jacuzzi! That evening, we made some popcorn and vegged out on the couch in the living room - boy, it is so great to have a little taste from home!
The next morning the Franz Josef glacier was up. The main walk to the glacier was closed due to flooding, so we did the Peter’s Pool walk. At least there was no wind and we got some really great reflection photos of the glacier on the pools.
We then hit the road all along the coast to Hokitika (another one of Tannie Carike’s songs popped into our heads - “Hokitika ja ja!”). We stayed in a camp site just outside of town. There were a couple of short walks that we could do here, but when they say ‘short walks’, they really do mean it. We are talking of 10 minute walks here! So on the walk to the swimmers beach, the boredom kicked me into creative mode and I got a bit creative with Eon’s jacket (see the pics as proof). Oh, and I just have to mention that the swimmers beach is officially the smallest beach we have ever seen - it is about half a meter wide and a meter long and looks out on a lake!
We got up early the next morning to phone Eon’s mom and wish her a happy birthday before she went to bed (SA time difference). And then it was back on the road again towards Westport.
On the way, we stopped at the Pancake Rocks. These are huge rocks in the ocean that look like layers upon layers of stone, hence Pancake Rocks. But Eon and I were spoiled with a spectacular show by a dolphin. As we were walking along the path, I noticed something black about 100 meters into the sea. Just as I was pointing it out to Eon, this dolphin did a show-stopping summersault for us! No one else had seen it and it was like a special gift just for us.
Very pleased with what we just witnessed, we jumped back into the van and drove towards Westport. Just before the town, we turned off to catch a view of a seal colony. They baby seals were very cute - they were running around and playing as if they were little kittens. So, after a day of watching God’s amazing creations we settled into a holiday park, did our laundry free of charge and enjoyed a proper BBQ. This was a great day!
Click on the image below to view gallery of Fox Glacier to Westport: