Down the West Coast, Part 2

By Jen.

While checking the map of my list of places to visit, I realized that we hadn’t been to Hokitika Gorge yet, so we set off for it. My coordinates to it seemed a bit off, and sure enough, when we arrived at the point, we were in a cattle farm on a road nicknamed “John Deere”. Upon another search for it, we discovered a more likely destination and set off for there with better success for it. Turns out it is a charming little gorge with mesmerizing water.

Continuing further south, we came across the twin glaciers again and thought we would make a go of it. First off was Franz Josef Glacier (pronounced as “glassyer” in NZ). This one we got to walk up the river valley, close to the terminal face.

Someone had hauled a chunk of ice quite a ways from the glacier.

A large, fallen rock wedged in front of a waterfall.

It is a fairly large glacier!

Unfortunately, Fox Glacier’s access road is still blocked by the landslide (aka slips here) that occurred during the first former cyclone. So, we didn’t really get any better view than what we saw last trip through here, which is sad as I think it is probably the more impressive glacier. I must say, it is a bit mind-bending to be looking at ice through a warm rainforest (although that day it was cold).

We made a stop at Ship Creek where there were 2 walks with interpretive panels. We learned that in 1867 a large piece of a ship’s hull washed up on these shores and rumors flew as to whose it was. Turns out it belonged to a ship that wrecked off the shores of Victoria, Australia, and washed across the Tasman sea to land there!

The beach stretches from here until Jackson bay (50 km), and sand continues reaches inland 10 km to the foot of the Southern Alps in the form of ancient dunes. This results in some of the nicest road sections in NZ!

The trees towering over all the others in this image are the tallest species in NZ, reaching up to 65m tall. Known as the kahikatea, they live up to 600 years old.

Sadly only 2% remain, as their fertile lowlands were cleared for farming and their wood for butter and cheese crates.