Glaciers and the Westcoast

On Monday evening Nathalie mentioned that she had to work and as such would not be able to join for the walk to Roy's Peak. Taking that into consideration it was a good day to travel to the west coast. 

Leaving Wanaka provided a nice scenic drive towards Haast (1st settlement on the west coast). A short stop at the blue pools turned into a nice hike. The pools supposed to be a half an hour return trip. Which in hindsight was even less, however after walking for at least 45 minutes I did not see something which resembled pools. In the meantime some other tourists joined as well for the quest to seek the pools. Eventually it turned out to be much closer to the carpark then expected. The pools are really nice and the water is extremely clear you could easily spot trouts swimming in the streams.


Haast is just a small settlement which provided a nice stop over to have lunch. Driving towards the Glaciers was another nice trip. A stop at Fox Glacier was nice although there was a little bit of rain. Travelling from Fox Glacier to Franz Josef Glacier was a small challenge with a lot of curves.


The next day at Franz Josef was a nice clear blue sky day, and the perfect day for a daytrip up the Glacier. After getting all the proper gear (mountain shoes, cramp ons and a good raincoat) we left by bus to the glacier parking. During the next hours we walked up a number of paths created by the guides. The initial ascend was pretty steep. The next part on the ice was challenging and awesome. During one of the optional activities (crouching through a narrow piece of ice) one of the group members got stuck resulting in an extended break to free him. This allowed us to enjoy the magnificent views and also refill our bottles with fresh glacier water. After walking through an ice cave we started the descent, which took another 2 hours. In short the trip up the glacier was great, and the clear weather conditions only happen once every 2 weeks so we were incredibly lucky. 

Thursday was a travelling day again towards Punakaiki at which the pancake rocks are located.