NZ's south island / west coast

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I've been in New Zealand for about 10 days now - and although I felt like I got off to a bit of a slow start, things are definitely rolling along now. I'm doing the Stray bus (hop on hop off bus route) around the south island first - then I'll head to the north island finishing in Auckland a month from now.
Seens loads of seal colonies and a few dolphins. Been doing a bunch of hikes. Abel Tasman (right at the top of the south island) is an easy coastal hike - we had a great day for it, did about 3 hours around the coast then got picked up by a catamaran and napped all the way back !! The next day poured rain non stop, so I'm glad I got it in when I did!
As we worked our way down the west coast of the south island, there are lots of scenic stops - but the overnight at Franz Joseph glacier was a highlight. Did a full day hike on the glacier - they outfit you with waterproof hiking books, and strap on spikes. It was about an hour's walk along the river to get to the terminal face of the glacier - then you strap on your spikes (I forget their proper name already) and up you go in groups of about 12 people. Lucked out there too with the weather, it was a beautiful clear day, so you could see all the way down the valley, and see up to the mountain tops. Apparently there is rain there about 75% of the time (being that it is a rainforest region). It was beautiful, and great fun trapsing over the glacier and along the crevices - after 5 minutes with the spikes on you're game to walk over any surface.
Just down from the glaciers you get views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman (the 2 highest peaks in NZ) - and once again the weather held and it was clear skies to get the reflections of the mountains on lake Matheson - see the photo!!
We left the west coast via the Haast pass - great scenic drive. You start getting into more rugged mountain terrain (no more rainforest). We spent the night in the middle of no where - the town was pretty much the hostel/campground we stayed at (which was also the local store, gas station, cafe and karioke pub, and booking centre for the scenic flights that take off across the road) and the tourist office for people starting out on treks (sorry tramps in NZ).
Today was the most amazing day - went to Lake Wanaka (see next blog entry for my adventures there), then to the original bungy site (no I didn't try bungy - even though it was a little one at 43 M, the highest in NZ is the Nevis at 148 M - a few of the guys/gals off the bus and doing that tomorrow). Ended today in Queenstown - cute little town on the edge of a lake, surrounded by the mountains. Lively place with lots of restaurants and bars - I quite like it.

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