Punakaiki

Nice lie in and if you didn’t want to visit the Franz Joseph Glacier you don’t leave until 10pm. We didn’t go because we saw it from 10,000 feet on the Mount Cook trip, just can’t be sure which glacier it was. 

But then it all went pear shaped, the bus which should have brought the glacier group back arrived empty, and took us back down the road to the Glacier.

Waited about half an hour and back to Franz Joseph town for a 45 minute coffee break, today’s journey isn’t long but the reason for the wait was to try and get some of the group onto helicopter trips but the cloud cover was too low and wasn’t likely to be good enough until the afternoon.

We leave for Hokitika, home of the native Greenstone, a form of Jade. The supposed factory at which we were dropped was not very good and very expensive, Gwen walked into town and found another shop with better and less expensive jewellery and bought a necklace. They have a wonderful town clock, best bit of the town.

 At Punakaki we visited the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes for 30 minutes and then a  cup of tea at the café where we saw a Waka bird a close genetical cousin of the Kiwi, except it has a very different character. Kiwi nocturnal and very shy, Waka chasing tourists for food and aggressive, it saw off a Gull; a Kiwi with attitude.

  

 

Hotel was right on the beach and looked OK, we sat in the bar afterdinner and watched the sunset.