Wekas

After the sunset, we stood outside the car for a bit in the absolute darkness looking at the dome of twinkles above. There are definately more stars in the Southern Hemisphere. No question about that. No recognisable constellations or patterns, we just stood and gawped. However, the temperature on the coast really takes a dive after sunset, so it was rather chilly. We got back in the car pronto and went to sleep.
Nest day, we awoke and breakfasted while watching the hilarious Wekas. These are flightless birds, bigger than ducks, with individual distinguishing features. One, for example had scarlet legs, while another was sporting particularly bushy white eyebrow streaks. They are meant to be quite rare, but we have seen about 6 of them now. These two were zooming round the flax plants over the hills at top speed. I'm not sure what the one had done to offend the other, but they were really going for it, like marathon racers. It was hilarious to watch!
We visited the seals again before we left, seeing them plop in and out of the water and heave up onto the rocks from the foamy sea. The little ones were playing together and racing about quite fast, considering their transportation limitations on the land. A few were still just sunbathing as they had been the day before!
We also ran into a fellow campervan driver we had met in Nelson, so had a brief catch-up and then we moved on.
We drove down the coast and got to the Punakaiki National Park, where we parked up in order to sea a biazarre natural phenomenon. This was spectacular - Pancake Rocks! It occurs when limestone and mudstone layer up and the mudstone is eroded, leaving limestone 'pancakes'. The sea, gushing in and out of the rocks at high tide (minutely calculated so we could see them at their best! Skills!) was awesome! The rocks have formed giant blowholes and cave systems, so you could stand and watch a huge wave swoop into the rocks and then boom out of the blowhole in a resounding crash. It was excellent and the walkway was pretty cool too, weaving in and out of the rocks. Back in the carpark, we encountered Wekas again, hiding in the bushes around our car. They are so curious, they come out and start tapping at the car and giving you the oddest looks.
We continued along the coastal road, which was beautiful, with views right out across the waves. We stopped for lunch and once again, practically stumbled on an entire Weka nest. This was a huge (comparatively speaking) complex of flax plants with their leaves woven together to make rounded dens. Inside, was the parents, the aunts and uncles, as well as a few chicks and an adolescant bird. The teen was a total poser, stealing bread from Alex and then dancing about for my camera. The chicks were tiny, fluffy black things on legs and stoof in the shadows of the nest, chirping. The father was a massive one with angry red legs and big feet. The others were delicate looking and speckled brown and rushed in and out of the flax stealing bread.
We reached Greymouth, one of the only settlements of any sizable note down this side of South Island (due again to the Gold Rush) and had some amazing fish and chips while sitting on the jetty looking out at the whitebait fishers. They are all obsessive over a minute little white fish, which has a fishing season of about one month. They all sit there with their nets for hours - whitebait is a delicacy round here, although we have yet to sample any, due to its massive cost for what seems like a tiny herring.
After Greymouth, we moved on to Hokitika, the last proper town before Invercargill on the very bottom of the South Island. Here we stocked up on groceries and petrol before finding a remote spot to settle for the night. It poured all night long with ferocious intensity, the winds howling around the car. It was so dark it was impossible to see anything, although, amusingly, we did catch sight of a Weka poking the tyres just before the light faded!

Today then, we awoke to blue skies and a burning heat from the sun! After a quick breakfast, we went back into Hokitika to do some craft sighting. We wandered round a gold nugget museum/shop/gallery and marvelled at how incredibly expensive it was. Then we sauntered round some jade carvings (this is one of the prime jade supply areas in the whole of NZ). We watched a glass craftsman working at the furnace and curling the molten glass into shining curls representing ferns. Lastly, we visited a Kiwi House, where they have a captive breeding program to see these birds. As they are the national emblem of NZ, and many other random NZ creatures were there too, we had a look in. We saw tuataras, which have not changed since the dinosaurs and which can live for over 300 years! Also, giant eels being fed, which was horrible. They are such manky creatures - nasty to think they were in the cave water we tubed down in Waitomo! Then we saw the Kiwis. They are crazy birds! We are glad we have seen them, because if we had heard their call in the forest, alone in the car in the middle of the night...well, suffice to say they sound like someone being murdered, horribly. They are so loud! It is the noise used for the raptors in the Jurassic Park films. They skitter about in the dark, running with such an odd gait and scuffle noise. They have ridiculously long beaks which they poke into the ground looking for bugs. They make funny grumbling, huffing noises too. Freaky if we come across them in the wild, in the dark!
After leaving Hokitika, we drove down towards the glacier country -this road hugs into the Southern Alps instead of the coastline. Cue more twisty bendy roads. Also, bizarrely, the straightest flattest road we have yet come across. It is as if the Romans turned up, tutted at the NZ natives roads and went to work to show them how its done.
Now, we are in Franz Josef! We can see a solid river of white ice creeping down between two mountains and the sky is crystal blue. The sun is actually burningly hot, but strangely, there is still drizzle. We are going to have a snack and a walk down to the glacier. Then onto Fox glacier, which is our chosen destination for some glacier high jinks!