Well, the weather report was right! When we examined the Metservice website ( the NZ equivalent of BOM) , it said the rain would be constant and at times heavy through the morning bit should clear somewhat in the afternoon. We took our time over breakfast in the restaurant , a very good one with both tomatoes and mushrooms and some nice little apple danishes too! The rain was persistent all morning, but we put on our raincoats and thought we’d attempt to visit a couple of places in the town. Westland is definitely Wetland!
We stopped in at the Westland Tai Poutini National Park Visitor Centre and looked at their displays. I didn’t realise that Fox and Franz Josef are both very fast moving and also very rapidly reactive to climate events. From here you can also book helicopter and plane flights up onto the glacier but the girls at those desks were having a very quiet morning!
We walked up to the Westcoast Wildife Center which has a kiwi sanctuary, but by the time we got there ( only one block away) we were both pretty drenched so after a brief look at the shop we retreated to the hotel to change our jeans! We decided to spend the rest of the morning in the lounge working on our blogs. They have a nice fireplace here but the staff seem to have a hard time keeping it alight!
By 1pm we were ready for a bit of lunch but it was still raining, so we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and drove the two blocks down to town to the cafe. Neil opted for ( yet another!) pie and I had a Ham, cheese and tomato toastie and this time we shared a sausage roll. We took our time and enjoyed the cosy atmosphere in the cafe… and by the time we left the rain had stopped!
We were keen to take advantage of the drier skies so we drove the short distance to the parking lot for the Franz Josef Glacier lookouts. Firstly we walked up to Sentinal Rock, through the thick rainforest. From the top of the rock we had a great view up to the glacier and down over the rocky river valley below. UNder the rock the path led a little further up the river valley to another glacier overlook, The path used to lead much further along the valley and closer to the glacier, but flooding destroyed the path some time ago and it’s no longer safe. The views of the glacier really do capture you, the bluish colour is so different to anything above them.
As we walked back down towards the carpark, the rain started to come down lightly again so we decided to head back to the hotel. Luckily by the time we set out for dinner it had stopped again and we walked dwon the road to the Monsoon Restaurant – another good choice! This one is in a big log cabin with roaring log fires and they were busy! We saw that several tables were reserved but they found us a nice table right in front of the fire and we both enjoyed a tasty meal of local fish and chips.
Despite the dodgy weather we have managed to see both the glaciers in “Glacier Country” so I count that as a win! Tomorrow we continue north up the west coast, hopefully it will stop raining!