South Island, New Zealand, (29th January to 21st February) - Part 2 (from 7th Feb to 13th Feb)

Continuing blog from New Zealand from 7th Feb when we arrived at Milford Sound:

Tour boat for Milford Sound

Liz on board

Classic Milford Sound scenery - mountains and waterfalls plunge into the sound everywhere you look.

Travelling past Lake Wakatipu to Queenstown

and on over the mountains.....

to Makarora on Lake Wanaka for a well earned rest.

then past beaches inhabited only by sand flies....

to Fox Glacier

we didn't walk on the glacier since the scale of it was quite visible from the lookout

we camped in sight of Franz Josef glacier

The three km walk through the debris field of Franz Josef glacier, where it has been receding for the last few decades.

to the glacier itself, but not very close. The scale is hard to take in. Features on the ice face almost too small to see in this photo are bigger than a house. Access to the ice is currently limited only to helicopter trips.

New Zealand Great White Heron in wetland at Okarito Lagoon.

'Pancake rocks' at Punakaiki - origin of the pancake layers is still uncertain.

Tidal blowholes at Punakaiki. 

Beautiful river walk near Punakaiki with more 'pancakes'

The best dead tree ever! Would look well at Chelsea.
Totally colonised by every possible local flora and no doubt a few fauna as well.

On to the north coast of South Island.

Beach.....

and wetland next to the campsite at Totoranui.
Well worth the 11km unsealed mountain road access.
A lot more wildlife to see.

Pukeka grazing in the wetland meadows.

Gannet fishing at the beach

Pied Shags cleaning up after a good fishing session.

Caspian Tern at the wetland.

California Quail on guard for his family at the wetland.

A flightless Weka tidying up at the campsite.