Punakaiki and Hokitika

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From Nelson, we headed west to the coast and then south to the very small town (about 7/8 buildings!) of Punakaiki. On the way we travelled through some pretty spectacular mountains, with lots of low lying cloud - another place where Lord of the Rings was apparently filmed. In Punakaiki we stayed in a bizarre lodge type place which was just set back from the coast in thick rainforest. What was even more strange was the 'stargazer tent' we opted for, which was like a small hut with a bed in and a glass roof which meant you could look up and see the stars at night! We went on a couple of walks, with some amazing rocks and coastline views, including the famous 'pancake rocks' which is a tourist hotspot.

After just one night we moved down the coast further to Hokitika, another small town full of arts and crafts shops which we enjoyed walking around. This area is known for its production of the green jade, a popular NZ souvenir, and we appropriately stayed in a hostel above the 'Jade Factory', one of its biggest outlets. This bizarrely got raided by police while we were there though, for the suspected possession of stolen jade!

From Hokitika we moved on to Fox Glacier, where the weather was unfortunately too bad to do a glacier walk or even see the glaciers themselves! So we just stayed here as a stop-off before continuing down the coast.

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