Hostel on the beach at Punakaki

Glaciers and Earthquakes

---

March 2nd 2011
I have finished off the South Island and am starting the North Island adventure. After leaving fiordland, I headed along the north west coast to the glaciers. First Fox and then Franz Joseph. It's a really cool experience to view a glacier from a rain forest and then drive to the ocean less than 20 miles away. I continued up the coast stopping along the way in Hokitika (cute artsy beach town), a ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island

---

The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year... ... read more