Saturday 3 October 2020

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We woke up and decided that we are not giving up on having whitebait so we made our way back to Hokitika where we had whitebait fritters for brunch. What a let down – it was basically just a semi scrambled egg with a little bit of white bait. All you could taste was egg!!! We then drove to Franz Joseph and stopped at Our Lady of the Alps church. From here we went to Lake Matheson and did the walk to the jetty. It is a beautiful walk and the reflection of the mountain and clouds on the water was stunning. Then made our way to Fox Glacier. We wanted to take pictures of Our Lady of the Snow Church but couldn’t as it was pouring with rain.

We started making our way to Haast and stopped the the Salmon Farm Café where we bought some deliscious salmon pate. From here we went to Jackson Bay. What an amazing drive through the forest – it was quite mystical with a soft rain falling all the way through the forest. It really felt like the forest was giving us a hug as the road went through a tunnel of trees. We parked up at Jackson Bay for the night and had crackers and salmon pate for dinner.

Thursday 1 October 2020

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We had a lazy morning and then drove to back to Westport. We stopped at Cape Foulwinds and it lived up to it’s name. We walked to a lookout and it was very windy! Our next stop was Punakaiki beach. It was low tide so we went for a walk along the beach towards the pancake rocks where we found a blowhole which we could enter at lowtide. From here we made our way to Golden Sands Horse and Cart Tours.  We did a sunset tour and stopped to have tea and griddle cakes on an open fire on the beach. What an amazing and unforgettable experience! We parked up and slept at a spot on a a lookout at the top of a cliff overlooking Punakaiki beach.