We had a relaxing morning at
Te Nikau (our backpackers) and Punakaiki due to our crazy day o' driving the day before. After breakfast and packing up the cars, we headed down the path to the beach. Another beautiful/amazing/gorgeous beach...sigh. Some of us explored. Some of us chilled out. All of us took pictures.
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| Mijin and I did the chilling out. |
We had lots of time to drive very little today, so we headed down the road to the
Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. The rocks look like a stack of pancakes due to some million-year-pressure-seismic miracle, and during high tide, something about the water pressure makes water blow up through the crevices. Apparently it's quite a spectacle to behold, but sadly, the tide wasn't high when we were there. We just admired the rocks and took some band photos.*
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| Pancake rocks |
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| Kickass band photo |
* Band Photo: invention of Graham and Vanessa and so much fun. Group shot made to look like a 'too cool for school' photo of a band that you might see on a poster or album cover. Best photos are when no one is looking at the camera, and poses are completely random.
From there it was on to Greymouth for lunch and a quick read.
After Greymouth, we headed to Franz Josef where we were spending the night. Check out our cute little travelers' cabins! Bunk beds for everyone. :)
From here it was just a short drive to the glacier. The maps and signs said that the roundtrip hike was an hour and a half which I was kind of dreading because I figured it would be uphill and you still wouldn't be that close to the glacier, but I was wrong! It was flat, and we could practically walk right up to the mouth of the glacier!
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| Franz Josef Glacier |
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| Todd and I at the start of the walk to the mouth of the glacier |
It felt like we might be walking on the surface of the moon because it was so gray, but there were beautiful green waterfalls on either side.
Check out how close we got. It was a wee bit cooler here temperature-wise, but we didn't really care. It was pretty amazing to be that close to a glacier (without shelling out money for a guided tour anyway!).
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| When you're this close, you have to be careful. It's dangerous. |
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| Stop here...or we'll kill you. |
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| Thanks for taking a great picture, Mijin! |
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| One of my favorite pictures from the entire trip...I love my chiquita! |
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| Explorer Katie |
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| Another kick ass band photo |
Yet another great day exploring this country...thank you, New Zealand.
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