Gow's Creeek

So, Hokitika is a lovely little place with a great beach from which to watch the sunset. The beach, like many on the west coast, also has a huge collection or sun-bleached driftwood.

Last month there was an art competition on the beach which, from the looks of it, involved creating something from the driftwood and other natural items found on the beach. Many of the competition entries are still in place and created a fantastic landscape. Not ones to be left out we, of course, had to create our own masterpieces (pics to follow) which I am sure would have been prize winners on the day.

We stayed in lovely cabins at Shining Star with the most comfortable of the 77 beds so far and a glow worm dell just round the corner. It was a shame to have to leave the next morning really - Hokitika deserves a few more days at some point and that bed was sooo good...

Still, we had plenty to look forward to as we headed south, stopping along the way at places such as Pukekura (pop. 2) which has a cafe serving possum and a very beautiful stag which you can hand feed. But the main destination was glacier country. Plus - we managed to find Gow's Creek on our travels. That's Gow 1- Byrne 0.

Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are within 30km of each other, so we managed to visit the two on the way south. We weren't able to walk to the terminal face of the glacier at Franz Josef as two stupid tourists had ignored the safety signs the day before and been airlifted out to hospital with serious injuries from flying ice when standing up against the terminal face. Dumb asses. Not that it stopped 30 or so people walk through the barriers and further whilst we were there. We got a great view of Franz Josef from the two viewpoints however, and took some great photos.

We were able to get much closer to Fox Glacier - with it's cathedral like peaks of blue ice. We even tested the water temperature of the river flowing out of the glacier, which had ice cubes floating in it... Very interesting rock formations too.

Some of the glacier ice had made its way to the 'right' side of the safety barrier and we have several pictures of us holding it. There was even a piece big enough to stand on and Larry took great delight in 'standing on a glacier' albeit a very mini one.

There seem to be a lot of Harley Davidson motorbikes around at the moment. Apparently there was some rally or other somewhere in NZ last week. Two very nice machines pulled up next to us at the petrol station in Franz Josef and, when we pulled into Saturday night's accommodation, we had more bikers for neighbours. Whilst to some people this might be daunting Larry, being a bike enthusiast, took the opportunity to talk horsepower with his new found friends.

On Sunday we continued to follow the mountains down the west coast. It should be mentioned here that we failed to see the peak of Mount Cook / Aoraki on our journey due to low cloud. We did, however, manage to see plenty of other impressive peaks, along with plenty of waterfalls and river gorges. All in all the drive was very scenic and we don't feel that we have missed out much by not seeing Aoraki yet.

It was a lovely journey between Haast and Wanaka, where we stopped to eat ice cream and admire the view. We're going back up there at some point as I am determined to go to Puzzling World. Some gorgeous views and very windy roads later and we were in Queenstown. A little busier than I expected, but with everything we need.

The apartment here is very chic. The poshest place any of us have ever stayed in with massive plasma screen TVs, waste disposal, surround sound, 2 dishwasher drawers, free broadband internet and fancy bathrooms. Oh - and the view of the lake is stunning...