Beautiful views

Driving along the east coast of the souther island we saw lots of mountains.

The "Southern Alps" are beautiful.

So, this is it for today.

"Maybe tomorrow, maybe tonight,

It's a wonderfull feeling,

To see you back on my site"

(vrij naar een popnummer van 30 of 40

jaar geleden).

Weka

Since most animals in New Zealand are protected (except possums and rabbits as far as I know) you can see often signs on the side of the road to be carafull when driving.

We also saw lots of Possums, dead on the road.

The "Weka" a New Zealand wild chicken

On the west coast of the southern island you can often see the "Weka" (Most birds in New Zealand are called after the sound they make).

The Weka is a chickenlike bird which is not afraid of people at all. You can almost touch them.

Another seal at Cape Foulwind

After we filmed the first seal Ankie sat in the sun (the sun was shining later on the day) and I went to look for more seals. After some climbing on the rocky coast (I am a well known climber as most of you might know) I found another seal.

I was able to get very near this seal (about three meters distance only) and it ignored me (if I were the seal I would have done the same) and I made some ten small videos.

It is still different from the seals in Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam.

Seal at Cape Foulwind

The seal we saw at Cape Foulwind.

Cape Foulwind (maybe somebody farted?)

Ankie went looking for more gold but she couldn't find more so we both left for Cape Foulwind. First we had our lunch in a restaurant with a deck, from which we could look over the bay of Cape Foulwind. Was really nice and the chowder was very good.

After we finished lunch we hiked to the cape and, guess what, we saw a seal. So I made this little video.

Old goldmineshaft

To get the gold, the people at that time had to dig holes in the ground to reach the goldore. So they made lots of shafts in the hills around the coast. This is a picture of an old shaft; look at the rusted rails on which the trolleys, full of ore (coming out of the mine) were pushed to some sort of crushingmachine.

When they were emptied, the men had to push the empty trolley back, into the mine again (if they don't do that they run out of empty trolleys, ain't it?)

There is light on the end of the shaft, because they dug the whole mountain behind it, away.

Sorry, this is not a very exciting picture, but not all of my photos can be spectacular.

GOLD !!!!!

The whole westcoast of the southern island is well known for its goldmines. Our guide tells us that at the time they found gold in New Zealand it was one large pandimonium (the guide says that Klondike was nothing compared to what happened here on the south island around 1870).

So we vesited an ancient goldmine and guess what, Ankie found a nuggett of about EUR 500,-!

I left her there for looking for more gold and I went off to Cape Foulwind. The name has probably to do with ships that run aground on this rocky coast.

Punakaiki Pancake rocks and other rocks

Punakaiki Pancake rocks

This morning, November 19th. we left Greymouth and it rained (a little). We set for Murchison, in the middle of the southern island.

After an hour or so we reached Punakaiki, which is famous for its "pancake rocks" (see picture) and its blowholes (the guide told us).

The pancake rocks are special.

The blowholes we didn't see.

But all in all it was a nice stop apart from the drizzsle now and than.

Hokitaki

A picture of the centre of the big city of Hokitaki on the west coast of the southern island of New Zealand.

In the background you can see the "Southern Alps".

Hokitaki is famous for its New Zealand Jade.

Practically half of the shops in this town sell jade jewellery of typical New Zealand style (Maori style).

Franz Josef Glacier

The F J glacier again, but from a totally different angle and without clieds and with lots of sun and still very cold and uninviting (that's something else, don't you think?)

Franz Josef Glacier

The Franz Josef Glacier from another angle and..................look, no clouds (clieds).

Franz Josef Glacier

The Frans Josef Glacier lies moreless next to teh Fox Glacier. They are both:

- cold

- made of ice (pressed snow)

- of the same colour.

The diffrence between teh both glaciers is that the Fox glacier has lots of clouds (clieds; see the pictures) and the Franz Josef glacier has no clouds at all.

Fox Glacier

The end of the glacier (in 1750 the end of the glacier was at least a kilometer farther to the west and the glacier is still getting shorter and shorter (global warming and all).

Fox Glacier

The "mouth" of the glacier, morealess in the middle of the picture.

Lots of glaciers have a "mouth", a sort of cave at the end of the glacier.

Fox Glacier

Ankie near the Fox Glacier (It was not to cold but there was not much sun either).