Franz to Nelson

We woke up at our campsite with a grand view of the edge of Franz Joseph Glacier on Thursday, so we ate quick, and drove up to the edge of the glacier, where you can take a further 45 minute hike out the the edge of the ice itself (or at least to within a few hundred yards for safety).

Then it was mostly a long drive north along the west coast to see how far we could get. It started raining shortly after lunch so photo taking was sharply curtailed.

We pulled in to our campsite at about 8:00 pm, drove quickly into Nelson, but everything was closed, and it was pouring, so we bought some groceries and came back, and went to bed.

Today we're crossing the ferry to the north island, hopefully we'll get to explore some of Wellington, and hopefully it's not raining so hard up there!

the view from our campsite

The hike to the glacier's edge

The leading edge of the ice, melting slowly into this very icy stream

very icy, see?

My little cairn

Some hikers paid to have a guide take them further up on the ice.

The west coast is very barren of anything but these deserted beaches, and very twisty-turny two-lane roads.

The Pancake Rocks we hard to see close-up due to the driving rain.

but I got a few shots.