Greymouth and the glaciers

The route from Nelson to Greymouth was one of the most beautiful drive we ever did so far in our travels. It even puts a shadow over the Great Ocean Road...
The Road leads through some amazing national parks. In the first half we followed the Buller River. The road leads many times close to the river banks and presents spectacular views.

Around noon we took a small detour and visited a small seal colony on the coast. There were maybe 20 seals we could see from a high lookout.

We also saw this little fellow.

It's a weka which is often mistaken by tourists as a kiwi (Oli seems to be the stereotypical tourist that way...). Like the kiwi it is flightless, indigenous to New Zealand and has become rare today. The biggest difference though is the much shorter beak.
The second half of the drive follows the coastline. The road is built at the edge of the sea and offers stunning views over high cliffs and deep drops.
Our next stop was at the Pancake Rocks. These are rocks with strange layers that have become visible by erosion. The beautiful foot track provided us with several lookouts on these geolocical features.

Being geocachers it didn't take long until we ended up off track and after a leap of fate, Flo stood right at the edge of this amazing rock.

We continued our drive to Greymouth, the biggest city on the westcoast of the south island.
 
Today we drove to Franz Josef. It is a small village near Franz Josef Glacier and not far from Fox Glacier.
The Road leads through a subtropical rainforest and over many ice cold streams that come directly from the close southern alps.
That we had most of the time sunshine or just some clouds is actually unusual for the westcoast of the south island. And the two mentioned glaciers are the exception of the rule, for they are both advancing due to the excessive rain in this region.
On our way up to the Franz Joseph we climbed on the sentinel rock and had this magnificent view.
 
 

 
But the Peters Lake nearby was amazing with its mirroring effect.
 
 

 
The Fox Glacier as well was stunning to look at. What makes both glaciers special is that they reach down to the forest zone. And the combination of the ice next to the rainforest is just unique!