Five go down to the sea

We set off from st arnaud in bright sunshine for a day of travelling. We were aiming for franz josef, a glacier village five hours drive away. However, the scenery on the way promised to be spectacular. First we passed though the Buller Gorge, a river valley between mountains. The road was amazing with loads of sharp bends. New Zealand bends have a very handy speed limit in them, so 65, 45, 25, we even came round a 15. They also have a 'rule' whereby if you are slow and there are four vehicles behind you, you should pull in and let them past. Ian thinks it is wonderful. We came out of the gorge at Westport and headed south, and it wasn't long before we reached the sea. We stopped at a small beach with big rocks, and not another person to be seen. Still lovely sunshine so we all had a stroll. Kathy took her shoes off for a paddle and immediately got soaked by a big wave. Ah Kathy! Back to the car we set off along the coast road voted in the top ten in the world by Lonely Planet, and you could see why. Mountains on one dies, then a windy road, then the sea. We reached our lunch stop at Punakaiki, or pancake rocks and decided to eat before exploring. Chris decided on the all day pancake stack, the board said bananas, maple syrup, cream, bacon, so he assumed he had to choose, but no, it was the lot. Obviously pandering to the Americans. We then went across to the rocks which, as you can see, are worth a visit.  

Not actual Walters footage, that and more photos to follow when we get good internet footage. 

Here we are

Off we went again through Greymouth, where we stocked up on food and petrol, and on down the coast. As we got closer to franz josef we could see that the area had had a big storm recently as loads of trees, and even some houses had been levelled to the ground. The rain started as we reached our destination, a very posh new motel with an old battle axe in reception, which immediately put me off. It was very nice but very sterile, not my favourite. Franz josef is famous for its glacier and it's hot pools so we sloshed over the road, it was raining very heavily now, and into the pools. The hottest pool was very relaxing and good to say we had tried them. Because of the rain we tried an Asian restaurNt right next door to the motel which proved to be really good. Then it was early to bed as tomorrow we needed to be up very early (for us)