West Coast and Fox Glacier

The west coast of the south island is quite different from the rest of New Zealand. It is mountainous, wild, sparsely populated. Oh yeah, and they measure annual rainfall not in mm or cm but in meters. Today was a good example. As the Kiwis would say, it was pissing down rain all day. Despite the weather, it was gorgeous (just be patient with the pictures, my camera didn't really appreciate the rain).

One of the nice things about all the rain on the west coast is that most of the wilderness is actually classified as temperate rainforest. It's incredibly dense and lush, and it's very beautiful!

This is the Tasman Sea (the ocean from the west coast of NZ). There are supposedly seals in this pictures... Well, even without the seals, it was still a pretty spectacular coastline.

The bus driver claimed that this lake was the base location for the filming of Narnia, although I didn't get a good enough view to guess which one he meant. I thought it was pretty sweet, though. Apparently I've now been to multiple fictious worlds: Narnia, Middle Earth, and Oz (ok, Oz is a bit of a stretch, it's really just a nickname for Australia, but it makes a pretty sweet sounding list :-D)

This is Fox Glacier!!! (or the tip of it, at least)

PJ and I in front of the glacier! We didn't have time to take a tour on top of the glacier (it's one of the few glaciers in the world that is safe to hike around on without ropes and things), but we were able to walk right up to it, which was still pretty sweet. The picture doesn't really do it justice, though; it was much taller, more impressive, and less dirty looking in person.

This trip is nearly over. Tomorrow PJ and I are taking a bus to Greymouth and then catching a scenic train ride over the Southern Alps and back to Christchurch. It's been a pretty amazing trip!!! Once I'm back in Christchurch with proper internet access, be prepared for many more pictures... :)