pot of ice

The South Westland of New Zealand might as well have been called the South Wetlands.  We’ve had rain following us from Christchurch since we left on Tuesday.  The weather forecast is optimistic so we are keeping our fingers crossed, best as frozen fingers can be crossed!

Despite the rain, the view through the Lewis Pass was just astounding.  We stayed one night at Carter’s Beach in Wesport and did a walk at Cape Foulwind, where we were glad the place did not live up to its name.

At Hokitika, we went to the Punakaiki pancake rocks, whose formations geologists have never really understood.  The blowholes were not in action that day, much to our disappointment.  Going through the gold town of Ross, we spotted a captured gold robber getting his deserved punishment.

As we drove south towards the Franz Josef glacier, the rain pursued us.  But our reward was the pot of gold (or pot of ice!) at the end of the rainbow at the glacier.  I have never seen so many rainbows as I have over the last two weeks; the first one greeted us at the KLIA airport at our point of departure.