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We arrived in Greymouth, this relatively big seaside town and had intended to move on further south, but we were pretty sick of driving and so went to the cinema and luckily for us we had arrived in time to see The Simpson's movie.
The next day we headed South and arrived at a town called Hokitika famous for Jade Jewellery and spent an enjoyable but draining day carving our own Jade necklaces, which I must say turned out rather fantasticly. That evening we headed to the Hokitika Gorge and found a wonderfully secluded off the beaten track campground in the middle of the rainforest (which living up to its name rained the whole night).
The next morning in the daylight we explored the gorge over a precariously high and swinging rope bridge (luckily by this point Kate had conquered her fear of heights) and admired the impossibly turquoise waters of the gorge.
The next port of call were the Glaciers Franz Josef and Fox, we went and admired the Franz Josef Glacier in the morning and then in the afternoon went and climbed up the Fox Glacier. It was an amazing experience clambering over the huge rivers of ice cracking and groaning as it moved. We were with a guide and had special cramptons on our feet to stop us slipping over. On the glacier we were offered the opportunity to clamber through this really narrow tunnel, of course we didn't need to be asked twice after all how many times are you on a glacier. And so struggled through this tunnel Laura getting stuck towards the end, to come out the other end soaking wet but laughing. That night we celebrated climbing the Glacier by treating out selves to a nice meal (a luxury we haven't taken since Auckland).
The next day was spent driving south again this time we were on the look for penguins so drove to Haast. We were told we had missed the best place to spot penguins so drove back up the road walked an hour to get to a beach, got eaten alive by sand flies (which are now also in our van) and saw no penguins only their footprints. So we continued our quest South having a quick glance at the sweeping Haast beach heading towards Jackson's Bay (the southernest town on the west coast) still on the look for the elusive penguins. Laura driving at the time got distracted by a dirt track on the way to Jacksons Bay and so we drove down a dirt track for about 22km over unsealed road more suitable for 4X4 wheeled cars than a van to come across this beautiful view, which basically summed up wilderness in a snap shot. Kate was unimpressed as she is suffering from what is commonly known as view fatigue. An illness which affects the patient by stopping her appreciation all the spectacular views just simply because we are constantly bombarded with wonderful views. Eventually we ended up at Jackson's bay this little tiny (dead) fishing village to find the spectacular views of the Southern Alps ruined by clouds and the walk that might take us to see penguins closed due to structal damage. New Zealand may be known as penguin paradise but we still havn't seen any! Then we headed back to Haast currently spending the night there before we tackel the Haast pass over the mountains in the morning. Wish us luck.
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