Nelson to the west coast

It was a gorgeous day again when we left Nelson after picking up another hire car, again a Corolla, great little car like we had before. The trip through the Buller Gorge was so pretty, we stopped off and walked on the longest suspension bridge in NZ, pretty site great photos.
When we reached the coast, it was still clear and the surf was very calm. The "pancake rocks" was another stop, great rock formations but because the surf was calm there wasn't any blowhole effect happening.
We stopped the night at Greymouth, feeling rather beat after our busy week.
The next morning was slightly cooler and overcast, but the scenery down the coast was still impressive. We stopped off at Hokitika, then made it to Franz Joseph glacier by lunchtime. We decided just to walk up to the base of the glacier as opposed to doing an organised walk, as the weather didn't look like it would hold. It was the right decision but disaster struck at the base of the glacier when while snapping a self portrait with the camera on a tripod, a gust of wind blew it over and John's wide angle lens suffered damage. Needless to say he was not happy with himself!
We then headed off the Fox Glacier, making it to the base of it before the rain set in. Unfortunately the rain got heavier and we were unable to make it to see Lake Matheson. We think we just saw a glimpse of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, just before it became clouded in!

After steady rain and wind during the night, we set off from Fox Glacier on the drive to Wanaka. Despite not being able to see all of the mountains surrounding us, the wet weather did make the rivers and streams run really well, and there were an amazing number of waterfalls along the journey through the mountain ranges. It was tempting to stop often, and often we did! By the time we made it through to Lake Wanaka the rain was easing and we couldn't get over how beautiful this area is. The trees are changing colours and as the sun came out late in the afternoon the scene around the Lake was just beautiful. We have heard that another change is on it's way, this time with snow forecast!