Glacier Country. West Coast from Berlins to Fox Glacier.
So as the final days on New Zealand came and went we made our way south along the west coast. Richard and I were still heading to Queenstown together as our flights were a couple of days apart. We stayed at the small town of Punkaiki with its famous pancake walk and blow holes. I also took an early evening stroll along the very popular River Walk. It was here that I saw my first and only Kiwi scurrying along the path and into the under growth. The Pancake Walks were awesome. They are believed to be millions of years of build up of shells, sea animals and crustaceans.
Our next ride was to the Lake Mahinapua campsite which we reached by taking in the Wilderness Trail from Greymouth. New Zealand has amazing trails and if I had more time I would complete more of them. Maybe next time.
On our way to Franz Joseph Glacier we met and rode with Claudia from Quebec. It’s really inspiring seeing people especially girls and ladies who have set off on travels by bike. She had a fully loaded tour bike and took on a handful of 600 metre plus hills without stopping, awesome.
We set up on the grass at a hostel and took the few miles walk down to the unbelievable Franz Joseph Glacier. It put me in mind of the grand canyon in Nevada. The size is so mind blowing and really difficult to capture on camera. The helicopter rides that fly in give a good opportunity to show some actual scale. Our latest ride took the now 3 of us down to Fox Glacier to do the Lake Matheson walk. Due to the weather being cloudy we didn’t quite capture the famous mirror image of the lake and mountains but the sights were still amazing.
