Haast Franz Joseph and Hokitika NZ Feb 6-8 ,2015

Haast, Franz Joseph Glacier and Hokitika Feb 6-8.2015 So now we are touring the west coast of the South Island. this is called the wild country. Virtually no one lives here and there are few roads. The landscape is mostly rainforest and high mountains with thundering waterfalls and so many paths to walk. We have walked miles and miles every day through the forests and hills. We have found abandoned gold mines high up in the mountains , walked across scary rope bridges. The absolutely most exciting thing happened to me on a short walk at the end of the road in Jackson . As I was strolling across a short rainforest boardwalk ,a fat little fjord crested penguin popped on in front of me. We just looked at each other for about 15 seconds as I quietly fumbled for my camera . too late, he hopped off into the bush. However I was thrilled as they are very rare. Even the lady in the visitor center 50 miles away was impressed. In Franz Joseph we hiked to see the glacier, nothing special, maybe a little whiter than the glaciers in Alaska. One cool place was Hokitika . A small beach town , there was crazy drift wood all along the beach and the locals have used it to fashion wonderful sculptures such as dragons, the 4 images of the evolution of man, a giant bed , to name a few. At 10 at night,when it was dark,we drove to the glow worm dell at the edge of town. You walk in pitch dark into a sort of cave~grotto and at the back ,on the walls,are hundreds of tiny larvae that glow, looking like a starry night. They are sort of like our fireflies but they do not fly or blink on and off. It was magical and a little eerie. Sent from my iPa🐪