(Picture : Franz Josef glacier and surrounding bush) In the morning I went for a stroll up to the Sentinal Rock lookout for Franz Josef glacier. I never did any of the glacier walks as Tom and I had already invested a lot of hard graft to walk 25km to get to the Mount Aspiring Glaciers, and although the heli flights would have been great, they’d have been no different to the heli snowboarding trips I’ve done in Europe (lucky barsteward that I am ;-> ).
I didn’t break the week’s ‘sit in the car while the sun shines’ theme today either. I stormed in the miles up the west coast again today.
My aim was…….well like usual I never had an aim for the day. Maybe stop in Hokitika, Greymouth or shoot right up to the North if time allowed.
I stopped off in Hokitika for a quick peek round a few Jade shops, lunch on the beach, some supplies incase I stopped in a basic camping place again, and left to head up to the Pancake Rocks.
(Picture : Pancake Rocks) As usual with my tide timing, it was out, as was the tide, so no impressive upwards blasts of the sea to witness for me. The rocks here all have visible layers and they’re not 100% sure of why they have been formed like this.
I still had a couple of hours before darkness to bombed up towards Westport to put in even more bloody petrol, and drove until I got bored in the dark and reached a suitable DOC campsite. I managed to push on all the way to the Nelson Lakes National Park, and stopped off at the head of Lake Rotoroa. By the time I arrived it was dark, so for the first time I decided I couldn’t be arsed pitching the tent, and pulled the duvet over the passenger seat and snoozed off. I had purchased a rather handy ‘no cooking required’ bacon and egg pastie so scoffed this with a few beers while lounged out in the passenger seat reading a book. It’s a bit bizarre eating and drinking in your car, but the sleep was pretty good after I got over the weird and wonderful nighttime sounds from the surrounding forest – at least thats what I thought I was surrounded by as I couldn’t see a bloody thing.