Stumpy the Kiwi

Trip Start Mar 14, 2006
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Trip End Mar 15, 2007


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Flag of New Zealand  ,
Sunday, December 31, 2006

In no real hurry this morning we checked out late and again stopped just up the road to see Franz Josef Glacier hardly being able to tell it apart from Fox other than the blue sky above.

Continuing up the coast through small once gold mining towns we arrived at Hokitika a colourful little town where there was also a kiwi center which we decided to check out. The place had two live kiwi's kept in dark enclosures with them being nocturnal animals seemingly oblivious to our presence despite being only a few inches away. Perhaps one reason for this is that one of them had only one leg and was spending most of its concentration trying not to fall over.

After a stop in Greymouth (move along, nothing to see) we managed to time our arrival at the Pancake Rocks at high tide when they are their most impressive. The Pancake Rocks are columns of limestone looking a little like stacks of pancakes, minus any syrup or toppings, which when the tide is high the water is forced up through them producing blowholes of sea spray out of the top.

A few blown blowholes later we turned up the hostel for the night just south of Westport, a solar powered eco-lodge type place which the owner was very proud of though think she may have had a slight heart attack when Saar asked where the TV was.
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