Through Lewis Pass to Greymouth, Hokitika, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier... and to the rain.

Hey hey

Apologies if this is making little sense as it is 7.30am and have not yet quite woken up! We managed to drive along a beautiful road to Greymouth, through Lewis Pass (stunning - the others were very kind and let me stop to take photos!) on the west coast of the south island. Greymouth is a normal kind of town, but we saw a free exhibition about jade, a photo exhibition and went to watch the sunset off the dock, taking 2 Dutch guys with us. A lovely relaxing afternoon and evening, and the hostel was beautiful. Our dorm was a converted chapel, the living room was huge, with new, comfy sofas, and the kitchens were massive. Lots of love people staying there, and so ended up chatting for a few hours.

Ever onwards and we took a diversion to look at some pancake rocks. They are rocks with many many rings on them, looking like a pile of pancakes, but I was disappointed to find out that the rocks weren't circular. Quite upsetting. However, the scenery was pretty spectacular anyway, and the sun was still rising onto the ocean. We jumped back into the car and drove down through Hokitika, to buy some jade and see some real live kiwi birds and massive 200 year old eels (I think it made my fear of them worse rather than better). We then stopped at Franz Josef, which has a massive glacier a few kilometres away. Franz Josef is a small town, but nice enough, but unfortunately a little overpriced as it is a tourist trap. (The next petrol station heading south is 120km away)... We arrived and decided to brave the drizzle to see the glacier on a 20minute walk. It was quite impressive, but unfortunately the photos don't look took good as it was so grey. The glaciers here are covered with dirt which has blown onto the ice, giving them a brown look. It wasn't as nice as the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia, Argentina, but it was still impressive.

So then hiked for 4 hours yesterday morning in the pouring rain in non-waterproof waterproof trousers, boots, jacket and so on. We spent about an hour walking with crampons on the glacier, which was just like walking on ice really. Unfortunately we couldn't walk through any tunnels, and photo opportunities were severely curtailed due to the shape and size of the glacier at the moment, and the heavy rain beating down on us... why did we think it was a good idea to pay money to do this?! Still, it was an experience, and great to dry off afterwards (even had to get dry underwear out of the car)... a lovely staff member at the Fox Glacier put our clothes into his dryer, but even that wasn't enough so we had to do them again at the hostel. But we were very grateful anyway.

So spent yesterday afternoon dodging the torrential rain (still raining this morning), and watched 'Dirty Dancing', Éntrapment' and checked emails... brilliant way to avoid the weather. It is feeling very much like the UK here! We are heading to Wanaka or Queenstown this evening, not sure where yet, but will let you know when we arrive.

Lots of love from us all, to you all,
Alice xxx

sorry, going to get back into bed now! xxx