West Coast Trip with Texas Friends

Continuing on with our trip with Karla and Tom. We left Wanaka in pouring rain and drove to Jackson Bay. Stopped at the Claypot for whitebait fritters, which is their specialty. The guide book said that you might be able to see blue penguins on the drive to Jackson Bay. In fact, there were penguin crossing signs on the road. Obviously penguins don't like rain because we didn't see a one! The guide book also recommended the Craypot. What the book failed to mention was that the Craypot was the only restaurant in Jackson Bay and it was quite an experience! But oh my, the food was really good!

Yes, this is it! The only restaurant in Jackson Bay. Of course, Jackson Bay only has a population of 20 - maybe 25 on a good day.

We then went on to the Fox Glacier. We were able to walk up to a viewing point for the glacier but did not walk on the glacier this time. Ernie & I actually did that 6 years ago when we were last in New Zealand with our friends, Heather and Brian.

Looks like a little snow drift but the glacier face is actually around 30 meters high

After the walk to this viewing area and stopping for a lot of photos, we got back in the van and headed for Punakaiki and the pancake rocks and blowholes. The rocks are limestone formations that have eroded to form huge stacks and several amazing blowholes.

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OK, look at the rock formation on the right and the rock in front - doesn't that look like a dog's head?

There was a great walkway to the rocks and on the way back to the car park, we passed several great specimens of the famous New Zealand silver fern. This is the symbol that the NZ All Blacks use along with most anything you see from New Zealand. The silver fern is a tree fern that can grow up to 10 meters high. We also came across a weka making his way from one side of the trail to the other.

The weka (woodhen) is a flightless bird that is endemic to NZ

While NZ is in the process of updating their roads and replacing some of the heavily used and more dangerous one lane bridges, they still have not replaced this one. See if you can figure out what is unusual about this bridge.

In case you haven't figured it out, yes those are train tracks going down the center of this one lane bridge. While the sign indicates that the opposing traffic has right of way, I contend that the train has right of way all the time.

We got back to Blenheim and gave Karla and Tom some time to get to know Joelle, Jasmin and Trevor before heading to Hanmer Springs and then Christchurch for their return to Austin. On the way to Hanmer, we stopped at the seal colony in Kaikoura and went to a sheep shearing show.

This is Ram Man. He's the resident ram on the sheep farm.

This was the candidate (victim) for the shearing demonstration - a  before shot

This is the poor fellow after the shearing - ouch!

And here's Ernie with something he hasn't had in a long time - HAIR on top of his head!

A few rousing games of miniature golf, a dip in the hot water pools, some great food and drinks in Hanmer Springs got them ready for the long flight back to Austin. We had a little time to drive around Christchurch so they could see the 'red zone' (the areas damaged by the earthquakes) and then on to the airport. We said our goodbyes in the car park (so much easier than dragging out the goodbyes.) They got home safely and spent the next week working through jet lag. We do so miss them and look forward to seeing them in May when we return to Austin.

That's all for now. Take care and don't forget - only 26 more shopping days to Christmas!