South Island, New Zealand

New Zealand's South Island is far less populated and the landscape seems far more rugged. We began our exploration on the northern peninsula at Abel Tasman National Park. The shoals along this coast go out so far that at low tide boats simply rest aground, or, the locals use tractors and trailers to pull their boats ashore. Certainly a new experience for us, but it allowed us to kayak up the coast and be ferried back to our campsite.

We also got to see the "pancake" rocks at Punakaiki, a cool geological formation of eroded limestone, the layers of which were created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine plant and animal sediments. We visited the funky town of Hokitika and its Wild Food Festival (see blog posting). Finally we went to the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers and took a helicopter tour of other smaller glaciers in the region. Totally cool.....

This tractor is hauling our outboard boat to shore.

Low Tide. No apparent worries.

The Abel Tasman shore at low tide.

A cormorant sunning himself.

Jennifer kayaking from the bow.
Jon always has my back!

Lunch break on the shore.

Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki.

Punakaiki

Hokitika Beach

Sunset on Hokatika beach.
Later we saw the young girl in the buggy with her
father and a group of friends night fishing. Their house backed
up on this beach. Nice life.

Glacier touring.

NZ's mountains are young and still forming, thus
they are really steep. Hopefully this photo gives
a sense of the topographical grade.
It would be a very difficult climb, except for mountain goats.

Helicopter view of
approach to Shackelton Glacier.

Shackelton Glacier

These crevices can be 80 feet deep.

Franz Joseph Glacier

Franz Joseph. You can see hikers to the lower left of the glacier.
It's the end of summer here, and ferns are growing
from where we took this photo.

Fox Glacier; about 15 miles south of
Franz Joseph Glacier.