We camped by the shores of lake Hawea then headed for our next destination: The West Coast. En route we stopped at many a viewpoint and waterfall, for fleeting glances of snow capped mountains amidst the cloud.
We finished for the evening at Gillespie’s beach, where to our disappointment the path to tunnel bay was closed due to half the bridge having washed away. We decided to start out along the beach anyway to a lagoon partway and set off through the pebbles and driftwood in the evening light. After some stone skimming along the lagoon we decided to just have a look at the bridge to the tunnel, decided it was definitely passable and to continue regardless. We emerged from the tunnel halfway up a cliff to pretty views of the bay below, although no idea why anyone ever built it as it doesn’t look like an easy walk down!
We rose early the next morning to try to make the most of a weather window because we were very keen to get a good view of one of the ‘coolest’ west coast attractions: Franz Joseph glacier. There are 2 ways to see it- walking or flying. We, of course, were walking. After 2 hours of scrambling over tree roots we reached Christmas lookout on the Alex knob (Tee Hee!) track and, very appropriately, it was snowing. Luckily, it cleared up in time for us to get a view of the glacier snaking down from the mountains above and we left very satisfied that we’d done ‘glacier country’ properly.
We headed into the town for the afternoon keen to tick off another classic NZ sight, the kiwi! Lacking the patience, funds or time to try to see them in the wild, we went to the wildlife centre in Franz Joseph town to try to see one there. We went into the dark room and watched him peck around for a while before staring out some Tuatara and standing in some plastic glaciers. To top off the day we gave a hitchhiker a lift to Greymouth (why do all hitchhiker’s want to go to Greymouth??) Then finished the day with venison sliders in Monteith’s brewery, with of course a few accompanying beers 😀
The following morning we headed to the pool for a long awaited wash and a good splash around, then pretty much spent the rest of the way driving most of the way with Noah, who gets 5* hitchhiker status for good chat while we took turns to sleep/chat with Eddie, and provision of chocolate when we had a rest stop in the middle of nowhere for a van coffee (which he was exceptionally grateful for- we felt it was an excellent trade!). We dropped him off in Motueka, then continued to Tanaka hill lookout to camp for the night.
Parenting Responsibly 