Glaciers

Westport was a pretty desolate town.

But our hostel was nice.

I enjoy their well stocked kitchens.

Neat rock on the side of the road.

Saw this passage through the rock from the highway, but couldn't find a way across the river.

...so we took the long way around.

It was pretty early still... 8:30ish... so the morning fog was still hanging about.

Strange red log on the beach.

Finally found a side entrance to the mountain.

Chris is standing where three passageways meet.

This is the one we saw from the road.

That's me losing my balance on the rocks. 

Out again, but realized the tide had come up quite far, and we were close to being stranded!

That same beach, from the next mountain.

Obligatory couple shot.

These birds are everywhere.  They look like a "kiwi", but kiwis are supposed to be noctural... with a longer beak.  But it's so similar it must be a close relation.

Chris doing some sort of mating dance with the kiwi-like bird.

We stopped at the "Pancake Rocks".

This is called the surge pool.  We were there on a day with nice big waves, so the water in the pool was violent.

Found myself a pancake chair.

We stopped for lunch here, on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.  It was quite possibly the quietest place I've ever been.  A perfectly still day, and no people or traffic to be heard.

We made it to Franz Josef to see the glacier.

We're noticing the change in climate as we head south.  Quite chilly when the sun isn't shining.

A speedy drive through the forest to our next glacier.

Chris found some Vanilla Coke.  Yum.

Jacob's River!

Second glacier of the day... Fox Glacier.

We continued down the west coast, and stayed in Haast for the night.