NZ - West Coast

From Marahau we drove to the West coast. Our first stop was in Buller Gorge to see New Zealand longest swing bridge and the epicenter of an earthquake. It wasn't that interesting to be honest but a good stopping place.The next stop was Westport. We had promised ourselves fish and chips for lunch in Westport which was nearly very upsetting because there was no fish and chip shop! Luckily we found one disguised as a chinese restaurant - silly! Nothing to see in Westport so onwards we went.

Next stop was Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks. The sea has shaped the rocks so that they look like stacks of pancakes, which is quite cool. It was freezing though!

That evening we stopped and stayed in Greymouth. We found quite a nice hostel, Dukes Backpackers, where the guy gave us 2 duvets each and a hot water bottle plue free soup! We watched the end of the first lord of the rings and all of the second one...a long, cold night!

The next morning we continued driving down the West coast. We stopped at Hokitika to see the jade factory and again at Lake Mahinapua (I think):

And then Lake Wahapo or Lake Mapourika (cannot remmeber which):

We drove through Franz Joseph, over the mountains to Fox Glacier and went to see Lake Matheson which has awesome views of the mountains and offers great photos because of the reflections:

We then went and saw Fox glacier and just viewed it from the bottom:

We drove back to Franz Joseph and found somewhere to stay. Luckily there had the third Lord of the Rings so we took charge of the t.v. and subjected about 18 people to the full 3 hours!!!