Driving the west coast

Trip Start Jan 19, 2006
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Trip End Jan 19, 2007


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Sunday, May 14, 2006

Woke up next morning directly next to a beautiful lake, which we had actually seen quite well the night before as it was a full moon. Lovely spot. Then had a great drive up Haast Paaass where we stopped on the way to see some waterfalls and then up the west coast where we walked around some dunes and the beach which was littered with driftwood. The west coast is pretty wild and most of the beaches are unsafe to swim on, esp as its a bit too cold this time of year!

Further up the coast we were coming towards the mountains and glaciers and stopped first at Lake Matheson to walk around the lake which mirrors Mount Cook, etc, except today as it was a bit cloudy! We then drove up to Fox Glacier and did the walk to the terminal face - basically the end of the glacier. The drive up the valley was pretty amazing to think a glacier made it - there are also signs on the way showing where the face was in 1750 and 1940 - it has been retreating a lot in the last couple of hundred years. Apparently it is now advancing though which is good news. As we walked through the grey rubble up to the face you could see the glacial river run from underneath the bottom of the glacier and down the valley. The glacier is very dirty and full of debris at the face and then white/blue further up. Will stop trying to describe it and leave it to the photos now!

Weather forecast for tomorrow was fine, unlike today, so we took a gamble and booked a heli-hike for Franz Joseph glacier and drove up there.
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