10/1: Westland- Hokitika and Franz Josef

Today we got up and visited a couple stores and galleries in Hokitika in the morning.  We were planning on playing the whole day by ear because it was raining, but it turned out not to be a big deal, it just sort of rained for literally a couple minutes and then stop a couple times an hour, all day.  Turns out it rains 240 days a year here- pretty much the opposite of Brisbane and Denver. We saw some beautiful Jade carvings and jewelry- Hokitika is famous for its “greenstone” nephrite Jade.

Then we drove down to Franz Josef, following the coast every now and then.  It was another incredible drive.  We stopped at a number of locations to take pictures- including a really pretty little lake.  It was the first day of Salmon season there according to the sign- I’m sure the salmon and trout from this lake are fantastic.

 

We got to Franz Josef and saw the glacier in the distance as we drove into town.  Since it’s the reason we’re here, we drove up to the parking lot and did a couple of short walks to view points-  make sure to check Nicole’s Flickr for pictures of everything. Seeing a glacier in the middle of lush rainforest was really weird. The valley was spectacular, with huge mountains and waterfalls- this was even more impressive than the Jonkoping glacier in Norway.

 

Since it was too late in the day to do a guided tour on the glacier itself, we went to the Hukawai Glacier Centre to do some indoor Ice Climbing- it’s the 3^rd largest of only 13 such facilities in the world.  Nicole and I geared up and gave it our best- its really tiring on your hands especially as a beginner, even though you’re supposed to use your feet more- it was a lot like rock climbing, but I think I like it a little better.  Afterwards we got some dinner, a quick soak in the hot tub, and headed to bed- we had to get up really early the next day to get to Wanaka in time for Leslie to catch her bus back to Christchurch