We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and headed south. Our motel manager, Maria, suggested that we take a diversion to view Hokitika Gorge, as our final destination was only three hours away. We stopped in Hokitika and wandered around the town, popping into various artisan shops where pieces were crafted from wood, bone, goldstone, and pounamu, New Zealand jade. Then we took Maria's advice and headed onto local roads to the gorge. created by glacial runoff, the water was that beautiful otherworldly ice-blue colour. I also gathered a number of small pieces of jade from a stream feeding the river.
After that, we drove numerous hairpin turns to get to first Franz Joseph, then Fox Glacier village. We will have two days to hike near both glaciers and hopefully on one of them.
16 Jan: Torrential rain (we are in a rain forest, after all...). So we stayed in and wrote, phoned, read, and watched some television. Tomorrow promises to be brighter, so we will plan to see the glaciers then. After the rain finally let up some, we had some interesting glimpses of the mountains - see below.
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