We left Nelson early in the morning and drove west to Westport…what a difference in terrain…we stopped at an old townsite of Lyell…and hiked to the cemetery which was a ways up the mountain…that is all that is left of the town…it came with the gold rush and eventually totally died out…setting was beautiful…ferns very subtropical…beautiful…we had lunch at Cape Fowlwind…where Nelson beaches were blue and beautiful…here the waves just crashed into the rocks and ocean spray was everywhere…the ocean was dramatic and wild and very rugged…our lunch was amazing…the cheese is absolutely wonderful here and the fish and chips are second to none. Jerry and Tamara hiked to the seal farm in the rain…Gloria waited in the car…we then drove on down the west coast to the pancake rocks…another phenomen of nature…the cliffs along the west shore are layered very much like shale is in Canada only in thicker layers…they jet out of the sea up to 8 to 10 stories and are constantly being molded by wave action…there are caves along the beach washed out by the wave action…raining as we travel but the west coast is known for its moisture.

We arrived at Franz Joseph Glacier, which is actually just a little tourist town, with no rooms booked…to make a long story short Jerry ended up getting us a room, but that is all it was…it had a bunk bed…double bed on the bottom and single bed on the top…shared bathrooms…it will be something we joke about for the next 10 years…after that experience Tamara was given the responsibility of getting us rooms for each night…the price per night just increased $40/night…but there is no doubt we have been enjoying our hotels since!!

We hiked to the Franz Joseph glacier which was absolutely incredible…we went to the base of it and it is unbelieveably huge…very crystalline blue with a myriad of spires…very dangerous but you could go ice climbing with a guide…huge glacial crevices…not for novices…the people climbing the glacier were like little specks in comparison to the glacier…the tramp was great for us as we jumped water and rocks to make our way to the base…great fun and great exercise.