Day 168 New Zealand, Westport to Franz Josef Glacier

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Hello People,



We left early after breakfast, we wanted to make sure we got to the glacier by days end. On our way we drove past the Buller River and amazing coastal views (hope the pictures do it justice).



First stop were the Punakaiki Caves and the Pancake rocks and blowholes in Punakaiki. These were really amazing; they could not work out how they formed. After a little wait the high tide came in and then they started shooting up as as the waves pushed the water into the underground caverns, a really great spectacle to see!!

We stopped off in Greymouth for fuel then drove through Hokitika and then to lake Lanthe for views and a soup lunch. We got some really good photos of the mountain reflecting off the lake!!



Then we drove to Okarito lagoon, we walked the 3.5km return Trig walk it was amazing and the top views were even more so!!! I did it in 44min!!! Vick 46mins!! (because he decided to run the last bit and claim he did it faster) Ha Ha!!!

We arrived at Franz Josef eventually via views of Lake Mapourikato. Once there we had a beer at happy hour in a bar while getting Wi-Fi and looked at all helicopter tour prices as we had both done a few glacier walks before and thought a helicopter ride would be awesome!!! Bad weather stopped this as all helicopters were grounded due to the fog!!!



Slept on a back street cooked a quick dinner and watched a spooks and had an early night as we wanted to start early and beat the fog in the morning.



Love N&V X

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