Tiki Tour March 2-March 4

Onward down the west coast from Greymouth to Fox Glacier with a few pit stops in between. Beautiful drive through spectular mountain ranges, coastal villages, and rainforests!

Our first port of call was to the little town of Hokitika, home of the annual "Wild Food Festival" not until later in the year, but a happening little place none the less. Jade capital of the south island, there are plenty of greenstone's around. Great gift shops, and a place that makes fudge on a marble counter.

Then it was a little inland amongst the rainforest's were the possums run wild, we found a place called "The Bushman's Centre" It's basically a roadkill diner, complete with possum pie! All the stools & benches are covered in possum fur.

We then pushed the limits on the windy roads in order to make it to the glaciers before the last heli hikes of the day.... however the clouds settled in and we couldn't fly, so had to rebook for the following day. Stayed in Fox Glacier for 2 nights. Took in a couple of tramps to the glacier, and around the park, Lake Matheson, and a visit to Gillespie's Beach. Incredible scenery, with the mountains peaking out above the clouds. Helicopter ride was awesome, got to sit shot gun by the pilot, swing an axe and go sliding through the ice formations.

Tiki Tour! Feb 25- March 1

Hello! I'm back from the South Island Roadtrip with my friend Alison from the UK. Here are the highlights:

Days 1-4 I spent hanging out in Christchurch, I rented a car, walked around the city. Saw Catherdral Square, climbed the 109 stone steps to the top of the flower tower in the catherdral, went up the Lyttleton Gondola, and took a drive along a scenic trail to a beach. When Alison arrived on Friday we organized our route and took in a rugby match that night, Super 14 League - Wellington Hurricanes vs Cantebury Crusaders. Not many photos to share at this point as I had to buy a new camera in Christchurch, because my other camera had water damage from hot water beach in Coromandel. :(

Saturday Alison and I set off for the west coast of the south island, we drove across Aurthur's Pass to Greymouth. There is also a train that runs along this route, and it is one of the best/most spectaular train rides in the world. If I ever go back that will be on my to do list! We stopped in to see these really neat boulders that are just scattered in these hills. Must be left over from a glacier melt years before. Very strange to see all these massive rocks in the middle of farmland!

Greymouth was a funny little town, for a saturday afternoon... everything was closed! no shops open! Coming in to town as you can see from the photo above is a little dodgy... I'm not really a fan of sharing one lane bridges with trains. The traintracks run across the bridge, and you can't really see if trains are coming....
We arranged to go for a rafting trip in the morning, floating on innertubes down a river, and then into a glowworm cave.
That afternoon we took a little drive north along the west coast for some spectaular scenery up to Punakaiki- Pancake rocks. These are limestone rocks that are layered with shellfish remains, the stronger the year of the shellfish the stronger the rocks deposits... so as the ocean erodes at the rock, the softer layers get washed away and funky layered "pancake rocks" remain.

After checking out the Pancake rocks we went on a little tramp through the rainforest to the coast where we found a great little cove at the end! This was my favorite spot to take photos the whole trip!