Glacier Country

We spent 2 nights in Fox Glacier and unfortunately the weather was terrible. We should have been able to see the mountain tops and glaciers, but it was just to rainy. It was rainy, cloudy, hazy, and chilly. We were scheduled to go on an ice climb, but we decided against it in the weather. Some of the groups still went out, but we just weren't up for being cold and wet all day. If you look closely at the picture you can see a couple groups of people on the glacier. After all it was so cloudy you couldn't really see the extent of the glacier. We went to the town of Franz Joseph Glacier one day

to go to the wildlife center. We saw the Rowi kiwi, which is the most endangered of the kiwi's.
Saturday we left Fox Glacier, but stopped on our way out of town to get as close as we could to the ice. There was a wild Kea in the parking lot, just walking around checking everyone out. He was so funny. When we were leaving he was flowing Dave all the way to the car door. We would have loved to take him with us. Even though the weather wasn't ideal in Fox Glacier, we still had a great time. Maybe we can go back one day and see the beauty that was hidden by the weather. We got on the road and headed north up the west coast of the south island. With no reservations for accommodation, we decided we would stop in some of the towns and when we were tired of driving we would stop. We ended up stopping in a couple towns and drove all the way up to Nelson about 500 kilometers. We had a nice day on the road, stopping to taste/buy fresh goat cheese from a farm, stopping to shop, and enjoying the reserves we drove thru.