Pancake rocks and mountain passes

Lake Mattieson
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After Fox Glacier we headed out to see the nearby Lake Mathieson. Apparently on a good day you can see Mount Cook reflected in it. This was not a good day, all we could see were the ripples from the rain falling into the lake. However we walked around it for an hour nonetheless.

We then headed north past Franz Josef, another glacier, getting a glimpse of the big monster as we passed. From there we went onto Hokitika, famous for greenstone, or jade, which is important to the Maori. We did an interesting little drive from there, around old gold mining lanes, where you could still see the marks on the landscape. From there we headed up towards Punakaiki, famous for rock formations which are said to look like stacks of pancakes.

Every so often there'd be a whoosh of seawater as it found a blowhole and came rushing up through the rocks

Okarita beach, en route
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When we saw the rocks it was hard to believe they were natural. Basically it's layers of harder an softer rock which get eroded at different rates (told you it was like a Geography lesson here). Therefore the stacking effect. There was a colony of terns nesting on the rocks, swooping about and every so often there'd be a whoosh of seawater as it found a blowhole and came rushing up through the rocks. It was very interesting. On our return to the car, we came across a curious Weka.

We headed inland then again, toward Arthur's Pass a winding road through the mountains. There were many scary bends but breathtaking views. It was really gorgeous but quite amazing that they managed to build the road at all!

Kiwis Crossing
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We kept driving until we made Christchurch and then went back to visit Dec and Karla again. Managing to get well and truly lost on the way! We stayed overnight in their very comfortable house and in the morning we went west to visit Akaroa. This is supposed to be like a French town, originally settled by the French. It's not French, but it's a very pretty town. We drove back along the mountain road to Christchurch. From then back to Windy Welly.