The town of Hokitika is quite small but there are a few things to see in the area and one of the best known places is Hokitika Gorge Scenic Reserve.  The water here is glacial so it has that milky look and with the water being so green-blue, it’s a beautiful and magical place.  That’s just the water, though.  There’s also the native bush and birds.  The most interesting bird sound is the Bellbird…and I’m not picking on that bird just because it has a great name.  The sound is really lovely and when we heard it for the first time when we were kayaking, we had to ask what kind of bird made that sound.  Of course, when we were walking through Hokitika Gorge, there were Bellbirds singing many songs but we couldn’t get it recorded…but I did!…when I wasn’t trying.  Here are some pictures of the Hokitika Gorge and I’ll post a couple of videos too.  The first video will be the one with the Bellbird.  Listen carefully near the end.

And then the sun came out for a moment and the mist lifted….

We walked out of the gorge and back to the car park checking out the plants and the water along the way….

Because we wanted to make sure we got to Franz Josef Glacier before dark, we needed to leave Hokitika Gorge. We made some stops at a couple of more waterfalls and a lake that is quite popular, crossing The River Styx not once but twice!

Let me add some maps so you have an idea of where we were on the South Island. The red pin is Hokitika.

As you can see from the last map, we had a journey ahead of us to make it to the ‘town/village’ of Franz Josef Glacier and then we needed to get to a point to see the actual glacier itself. One of the things that our Frommer’s guide book mentions and is really so true: where else in the world would a person be on a South Pacific island among ferns and in a subtropical climate and be able to walk to a glacier at 1000 ft elevation, seven and a half miles from the sea? It really is an odd thing. Granted, the glaciers here are receding at quite a fast rate, faster than was predicted years ago, but still this is yet another amazing thing about this place. I found myself continually trying to compare various places in New Zealand to other places: it’s sort of like Northern California but also like Hawaii but there’s some places like eastern Washington or Oregon. Some people we met said it was a lot like Colorado. This went on and on. I finally gave up and decided it’s all uniquely New Zealand.

As we made our way south, we became aware of the mountains looming to our east and glacial rivers heading toward the sea.

We made it to Franz Josef, the town, before dark and checked into our motel. The manager gave us a map and said that if we hurried we could probably get up to a certain viewpoint to see the glacier before dark. She hesitantly asked if we had a helicopter tour planned for the glacier the next day and was very relieved when we said no. The weather the next day was forecast for huge rain and likely all helicopter trips would be canceled. Our only chance to really see the glacier was the next hour. We dumped our luggage in our room and off we went to the Franz Josef Glacier Park where all the trail heads are. Our walk was a short 20 minute, fairly steep uphill to a place called Sentinel Rock. Good thing it was short because darkness was falling!

I’m not sure you can see the graphics on the interpretive board but they’ve put a 2010 prediction of where they thought the glacier would have receded to and it doesn’t match the same rate of melting to where it is today. Time to update the information and increase the rate of recession, unfortunately.

We walked back to the car in the dark, happy that we got to see the glacier even if it was from a long distance. If we had had more time, we definitely would have taken one of the longer treks to get closer but at least we can say we saw it in 2018 when it was still visible without having to take a helicopter to the top.

We drove back to Franz Josef Glacier, the town, and chose an excellent Indian restaurant for dinner. If you’re ever here, try The Copper Pot. Delicious!

Another lovely day in New Zealand. And more to come. Stay tuned!