Today was another travel day. We departed Abel Tasman and headed south for Franz Josef Glacier via the West Coast. We’d heard a great deal about the rugged beauty of the West Coast, and it lived up to its reputation. The terrain on the South Island is less pastoral and more dramatic: green valleys surrounded by lush mountain ranges, blue-green rivers carving out gorges, and beautiful coastline.
To break up the long drive, we stopped at Buller Gorge and walked across the New Zealand’s longest swing bridge (110m). There was a limit of 15 people at any time on the bridge. The bridge was surprisingly more bouncy than we expected, and we had deal with passing an elderly couple going the other way in 12 inches of space. After crossing the swing bridge, we took a short hike to the White Creek Faultline, epicenter of the 1929 earthquake. To get back across the gorge, we rode a tandem flying fox (zip-line). Fun!
Our next stop on the way to Franz Josef was the Pancake Rocks and 
blowholes at Punikaiki. It was really interesting. Pancake Rocks is a sedimentary rock formation that looks like a bunch of pancakes stacked on top of each other. Neither of us has seen rock formations like this. Even scientists aren’t sure how they formed that way. And the coastline was breathtaking too! It reminded us of Big Sur.
Today was another travel day. We departed Abel Tasman and headed south for Franz Josef Glacier via the West Coast. We’d heard a great deal about the rugged beauty of the West Coast, and it lived up to its reputation. The terrain on the 
blowholes at Punikaiki. It was really interesting. Pancake Rocks is a sedimentary rock formation that looks like a bunch of pancakes stacked on top of each other. Neither of us has seen rock formations like this. Even scientists aren’t sure how they formed that way. And the coastline was breathtaking too! It reminded us of Big 
1 comment:
You guys did a lot of driving...
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