South West Coast, New Zealand South Island – April 18th – 20th, 2017

After a few more hours of driving past Greymouth (where we last left off), we visited a glowworm dell in Hokitika. We had no idea what to expect, I mean, what is a “dell” anyway? To the extreme annoyance of our fellow tourists, we walked in headlights shining strong. Apparently, dell was just a fancy way of saying the overhanging rock faces lining the trail where thousands of glowworms lit the path. The bright butts of the worms made headlamps not only unnecessary, but off-putting too. Oops… guess we should have read the signboard before leaving the parking lot. I attempted to take some long exposure pictures with our new fancy pants camera, but without a tripod the pictures just turned out to be black with small blurry blue specs. Note to self, buy portable tripod for Dandy’s Grand Adventure round 2.

Without a visible sign prohibiting camping, we assumed that the rugby field in Hokitika was fair game for an overnight stop en route to Franz Josef Glacier. Our presumption was confirmed (or at a minimum, our illegal camping went unnoticed by the local authorities), when we woke up without a $200 ticket. When we finally arrived at Westland Tai Poutini National Park around noon, it was pouring rain. Our plan was to hike up Robert’s Point to an overlook for Franz Josef Glacier. Although we considered changing plans when we read what Scott wrote: “The track is rough, rocky and steep—superb for fit trampers in fine weather, but maybe best to avoid it in wet weather,” we instead chose to ignore Scott’s advice and do the 5-hour hike anyway. This should come as no surprise, to those of you that know us well. In this instance, we lucked out. The weather cleared and the hike turned out to be incredible (although rough, rocky, steep (and wet) was an accurate description). The overlook was stunning, with spectacular views of the glacier as well as a waterfall that was about 1800 feet tall! It was crazy (and sad) to see how far the glacier has receded in the past 5-years though.

Had a little fun at the dump station in Ross. I didn't quite make the timer the first time around. Andy's facial expressions were priceless! 

Robert's Point trek to Franz Joseph Glacier.

Franz Joseph Glacier from Robert's Point. 

Forced to pay to camp in the town of Glacier, we woke up in the morning, enjoyed unlimited time hot showers (such a luxury) and like rebels, moved to a powered site to charge our electronics and use the internet. We left a few minutes after checkout (rebel move again) and drove to Fox Glacier where we did the quick valley track to a viewpoint. The glacier has receded so much in the past decade that the trail has had to be extended periodically and is still quite far from the glacier giving meh views in comparison to the views of Franz Josef Glacier from Robert’s Point. Before continuing south, we ventured out to a viewpoint in the plains overlooking the mountains and glaciers. It was once again “stupid beautiful” and we enjoyed getting a different perspective on the scale and beauty of the mountain range from a distance.

Fox Glacier valley track.

Fox Glacier from a distance.

Eventually veering from the coast, we drove Haast Pass towards Wanaka. We made many quick stops along the way including Thunder Creek waterfall, Fantail Falls, Wilson Creek bridge and slot canyon, and the Blue Pools. All were enjoyable in their own right, but as we have been incredibly spoiled when it comes to waterfalls, we were only really impressed by the Blue Pools – which were exactly as they sound… blue pools. Not just blue though, they are B-L-U-E! Super cool, as usual, the pictures don’t do it justice.    

Haast Pass.

Blue Pools at Haast Pass.