2X Woods Vacation-Glaciers and Pancakes, Day 8

We had hoped to awaken to a bright blue sky, so that we could easily find and see the glaciers. We stayed in the town of Fox Glacier last night and took  a hike to an overlook that on a clear day would give us some great photos of it.  But that was not to be, but we had a great hike and saw many things.

Trevor, a great hiker we found along the way.

Fox Gacier is in the clouds. On a blue sky day, it reflects in this lake.

We were having a great time. Everyone loved to take our little hikes.

The Franz Josef Glacier was about 1/2 hour north. Both locations were hard to get close to the glaciers without paying a fee. The lower icefields and access were owned or leased by vendors who liked people to pay for the privilege to see the natural beauty. So we got a few photos of the area.

Franz Josef Glacier

zoomed in view

After leaving there, we headed north to Greymouth, and enjoyed a holiday dinner of Indian Food. Since it was a holiday, the restaurants that stay open charge 10% extra, but it was a great meal. The 3 little kids opted for pizza again. After dinner we headed toward Pancake Rocks, which is a great tourist draw. The main attraction is that there are holes and fissures in the rocks, and at high tide, there are many blowholes.  We had read the tide chart wrong, and got there at mid-tide, so missed the main sights, but it was still very awesome. Hopefully our photos give a small idea of how spectacular it is.

From parking lot, we had a 45 minute loop walk

you can see the pancaking on the rocks on left.

Description of the rock formation.

Good example of the pancakes

A warm summer day is relative down here. Some are tougher than others.

We then had about 3 more hours of driving to our remote accommodation off the grid. We stayed on a hilltop with a lady who was retired from her dairy farm. Solar, water tanks with water from the rain on the roof. Coal and wood heat. Sorry, no photos, it was raining the whole time there.