New Zealand West Coast May 22 - 29

We went off the beaten path and stayed at the Okuru Beach Bed &Breakfast. Marion and Derek were excellent hosts. In these more remote areas of the west coast, you can get a lot more for your money...and a B&B for $25.00 USD was worth checking out.

We woke up the next day to snow! It's a pretty rare event in Okuru. Apparently, this was only the second snowfall in 36 years. We were lucky enough to see snow on the beach! We had a very scenic drive up to the Franz Josef Glacier.

region	lodging	$US / night	rating	notes
Okuru	Okuru Beach B&B	$25.2		Comfortable stay, but nothing to see/do

Wow...WOW! Nothing like hiking a glacier to rattle your confidence and get the adrenaline pumping. You just might hate us after viewing these photos. We lucked out again with the weather...it was a great day for the hike. We originally scheduled a helicopter hike, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. We ended up doing the full day hike the next day.

New Zealand is unique in many ways, but having 2 glaciers (Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier) that feed into temperate rainforests is REALLY unique! We did a 7 hour hike on the Franz Josef Glacier. We were outfitted with special ice boots, ice axe, etc.. To keep from sliding off the ice, you really had to dig your feet in with every step ...and that's no small feat when you're walking across this. The ice axe was used to help keep balance and chisle out steps where needed (our poor guide did most of that). There were 12 people in our group. We had some minor slips, but nothing major...we all made it out O.K. (I still can't believe it?!?).

The glacier is approximately 10 km long. We hiked up 4 km of it ... up the terminal face, then slowly working our way to the pinnacles. The blue ice of the glacier was really beautiful...the higher we went, the more blue ice. The blue ice is has no air in it and absorbs all the colors of the spectrum - except for blue (that's why it's blue). We came across many ice formations, holes (which appeared to be bottomless), and caves. We climbed in and out of several caves...and nobody got their tongue stuck on the ice.

We highly recommend this activity while in New Zealand ...but it's not for claustrophobics or the weak of heart! (Our guide, Pete, was from The Guiding Company)

Pancake rocks and blowholes...hey, what more can you ask for?? These are the coolest rock formations I have ever seen. It's a mystery as to why these rocks have taken the form of stacked pancakes. It looks like a Hollywood set for Planet of the Apes...almost doesn't look real. The blowholes are really amazing...it's best to view them at hightide so you get a "better show" of water shooting up high into the air. We saw the pancake rocks in the rain, sunshine, morning, and sunset.

We stayed at the Punakaiki Beach Hostel. It was right on the beach - perfect for morning walks! The weather stone hanging outside was very accurate at predicting the weather.

region	lodging	$US / night	rating	notes
WestCoast	Chateau Franz Josef Backpackers	$16.8		Eclectic, a little crowded
	Forest Park Cabin	$23.1		private, quiet and all amenities
	Punakaiki Beach Hostel	$18.04		on the beach