Thursday, November 14, 2013

South Islands west coast

The last few days were rather busy, traveling can be really hard work if you have no time to lose.

On Sunday I drove south mostly along the west coast. My first stop was at a seal colony near Westport where I could observe several seals enjoying the sunny weather on the rocks and swimming in the sea. My second stop for the day was at the pancake rocks, a very unusual formation of thin rock layers. In the evening I arrived in the tourist town near the Franz Josef glacier.

On Monday I had a closer look at the Franz Josef glacier and the Fox glacier. These are the only two glacier in the world that end in the rain forest. Unfortunately it is not possible to actually walk on the glacier without a professional guide. Normal visitors can only get up to 200m from the face of the glacier but the view is still spectacular.

From the Fox glacier it was a long ride to Wanaka with many amazing sites along the route - the Haast pass, Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea.

On Tuesday I decided to climb the Roy Peak which is a mountain next to Wanaka. The carpark for this track is at 350m and the the summit is at 1578m and it takes about 5-6 hours for the entire track. The view from the top was definitely worth the effort! After the hike I went to the Puzzling World amusement park and spent an hour in their amazing 3D maze.

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