6. West Coast, South Island, NZ

Leaving the ski resorts and lakes behind us we stayed with the Southern Alps range but headed out west towards the coast. This beautiful drive provided us with a few nice stop offs, like these Blue Pools, reached via a walk through podocarp forest and across bouncy bridges, full of crystal clear glacial water.

We were following the route of the Haast River from the top of the Haast Pass right down to Haast Beach where it met the sea. 

Quite apt for Valentine's Day we saw a pair of Hector's dolphins playing in the waves just near the shore as we had lunch on the beach.

We arrived at the small settlement of Fox Glacier for a couple of nights, and once again were very impressed with our motel accomodation. So far in NZ all of our accommodation has been great, the people here are so friendly, there is no litter to be seen anywhere, footpaths and trails are beautifully way marked, roads are wonderfully empty and facilities are excellent. Even the days are lovely and long, waking up to daylight and still enjoying light at 9pm is much appreciated.  We are feeling relieved that we did book up all of our accommodation in advance as nearly all motels are still displaying NO VACANCIES signs.

A variety of terrain was on the agenda today and we began with an early morning stroll, in order to beat the tourists, along the wide, carved out valley floor and uphill cross-crossing little streams 

to see Fox Glacier, an 8 mile long glacier, unique in the fact that it plunges from a high snow level into tropical forest, only 300m above sea level. We were able to get a good view of the glacier terminal but not actually touch it.  

Next, a couple of minutes drive took us to Lake Matheson with a pretty circular forest walk to obtain many view points of Mount Cook (at 3754m the highest peak in NZ) reflected in the lake.  Unfortunately for us although we were in sunshine the peaks in the distance were shrouded in cloud. 

Wondering why all of the forests and woodlands are so densely packed with vegetation we researched indigenous animals in NZ to find that bats are the only ones!  Although other creatures have since been introduced the lack of deer and other woodland creatures ensures that all plants can flourish unchecked.  We did see a NZ robin today though, which instead of being brown and red is black and white! Onwards to a coastal walk at Gillespie Beach, once a gold prospecting town but now the only legacy is a small cemetery and a few rusty items of machinery. We paddled in the sea, scoured the beach searching for some local precious greenstone (jade) once highly valued by the Maoris,

then continued our beach trek to Gillespie Point, to join a solitary male fur seal in watching the waves driving in on our 'private' beach. The cooler air but full sunshine makes for ideal walking conditions and the lack of tourists here made it perfect.

Hokitika is a real gold rush town and the setting for the 2013 Booker Prize winning novel 'The Luminaries' so we stopped off to find out more.  We followed a self-guided leaflet heritage trail tour and although not many original buildings have survived from 150 years ago we did find Gibsons Quay and saw some terrific old photographs of the town in its heyday.

The driftwood and trees on the beach have been used creatively though...

Tonight we strolled through the rear motel garden and straight on to the beach, after a lovely supper of NZ lamb and red wine, to watch the sun setting. Last time on the west coast so we had to make the most of the opportunity.