8 - West Coast and Fox Glacier

We camped overnight at a primitive DOC site. The rain and thunder storm was so earth-shaking that an atheist couldn't doubt there was a God. We kept thinking of the poor guy in the tent 100 meters away...hope he stayed dry. We had a nice, leisurely breakfast, and by the time we hit the road hints of the sun were starting to appear. Though it was very cloudy, the drive down the rest of Haast pass was beautiful....it's hard to imagine what it would have really looked like if we could have seen all the mountains and valleys. There were fantastic waterfalls at every turn, sheer cliff walls that towered over the highway going up at least a 1000 ft, if not more. Rainforest, granite boulder-lined rivers. It was almost too much to take in in such a short time. Our joke became, oh there's another waterfall tumbling down another rock cliff into the lush rainforest below shrouded by clouds. Around the next turn, the same thing. Looking across the river to the opposite side, the same thing. Unbelievably beautiful.



The visitor center mentioned that very few people see the mountains in all of its phases. We saw them in a cloud-shrouded mist. I'm sure they are spectacular in the sunshine, ominous in a down-pour, and all-together beautifully frightening in the snow.

We took the opportunity to snap a photo of how considerate the Kiwis are -- they provide regular reminders of which lane you are suppose to drive in, which is particularly useful after the numerous one-lane bridges.



Our water pump stopped working the night before, so we made a quick stop in Haast proper to get it fixed. It took an hour or so, but no worries, we're on holiday. After the repairs were complete, we started north and did a short tramp on the beach at Ship Creek (after all, we just made it to the West Coast for practically the first time) and laid eyes on the Tasman Sea.



The coast reminded us a lot of Oregon. We saw interesting rock sentinels in the sea at the Knight's View Lookout.



We followed the highway up the rocky, narrow coast (think Highway to Hana but with the cool and clouds of the Pacific NW)

We arrived at the Fox Glacier in the early evening. Because it doesn't get dark until almost 9pm, we walked the hour to the glacier. The pictures don't do it justice, as it's really immense. We had to ford a few creeks from the ever-present waterfalls down the steep cliff faces and skirt around glacial-blue ponds to get there, but luckily we had on our waterproof boots!




Walking through the glacier boulder field allowed us to discover some amazing rocks -- you'd have to see them to believe them. Steve tucked a few smaller ones into his pockets...we'll see how far he gets with those as contraband.



After the glacier, we called it a day and stayed at Fox Glacier Holiday Park.