An update on our day at Fox Glacier (which is the name of a village, as well as a big lump of ice), followed by what we've been up to between there and here.
Fox Glacier, Tuesday 24th February
On Monday evening after we arrived at Fox Glacier we went for a short walk around the woods above the village, where there are lots of forest glow worms living in little mossy hollows and glowing bright blue (like the ones at Waitomo caves).
On Tuesday morning we investigated a helicopter flight over the glacier, but the only available slot was cancelled due to low cloud (very busy touristy place). In the morning we walked up to the glacier from the village, which is about a half hour walk, and reached the glacier viewing point about 200m from the toe of the glacier.
It was big and grubby, a bit blueish and not at all pretty! There were lots of signs telling us not to cross the barriers, which was good advice as two tourists were squashed in 2009 after they did just that and 100 tonnes of ice fell on them.
From Fox Glacier we drove northwards to a tiny village called Okarito, where we stayed for the night.
Okarito, Wednesday 25th February
Okarito is New Zealand's secret paradise. A tiny, pretty village on the beach with colourful houses, a kiwi reserve, a pristine lagoon wetland and a place that hires kayaks.
And, it's got its own raingauge; there was a very heavy downpour in the night (got to keep up the average to reach that 5,000mm annual total!).
We hired two double kayaks on Wednesday and paddled up the lagoon (against the tide unfortunately), then into the Okarito river and on up into the rainforest. It was very quiet except for the birdsong and the cicadas, and a beautiful morning with a backdrop of snow-covered mountains.
Punakaiki, Thursday 26th February
From Okarito we drove to near Punakaiki, where we camped in a layby right on the beach. This is the west coast, so it was the Tasman Sea - next stop Australia - and the surf was enormous! It pounded on the beach all night. No swimming here sadly, much too dangerous, but a lovely sunset and a million biting insects.
Today (Thursday) we walked around the pancake rocks - layers of limestone with mud between which has eroded away faster, so they really do look like stacks of pancakes. Out in the (huge) breakers there were several pods of dolphins playing and surfing.
From there it was a long drive north, via the Buller River gorge (spectacular) to the north coast at Motueka.
Mike, Vicky, Thomas and Kitty xxxx
Looks fantastic, missing the beachy photos though. Is it a bit colder now? We would like a weather update and a guided tour of the campervan in your next post please! Oh and the children would like to see a glow worm - are they photogenic? What do they eat?
ReplyDeleteHi Whittles! Sorry, very difficult to photograph the glow worms, which is a shame. They look like hundreds of tiny blue Christmas lights! They eat little tiny insects that they catch with sticky strings.
ReplyDeleteWill try to get some camper photos up for you....we are off kayaking again this morning. It's slightly cooler up here but still sunny xxx