Out and About in the Southern Alps: Wanaka to the Pancake Rocks

The girls are out of school for 2 weeks for Easter break, and Jeremy had a 5 day weekend last weekend, so we decided to head north into the alps, up the western coast all the way up north of Greymouth, then through Arthur's Pass, back down through some back roads to Geraldine, on to Lake Tekapo, and then home via Cromwell. There was a massive amount of scenery. Consequently, I shot over 1000 photos. Editing them has been no small feat, and I'll only show you my favs. Even then, I think I have about 4 blog posts just to try to order them. Here goes. This post will be pics of after we left the Cardrona, starting at a beautiful little lake town called Wanaka (above pic), and running through the glacier region, and up to the Pancake Rocks north of Greymouth. 

To put it into context, if you can make out that purple dot and line, that is the route we took. I'd say starting from our house, we traveled more than 2/3 of the way up the South Island.

View of the Rob Roy Glacier in Mt Aspiring National Park.

The bottom peaks of the Southern Alps. The Southern Alps are the backbone of the South Island, and pick up just about where the Fiordlands stop.

View of Lake Hawea.

These are the Blue Pools at the mouth of the Blue River.

It was absolutely teeming with trout.

In the fall, they travel up river from the lakes to feed.

The banks of the river are covered with cairns that people have left behind.

I think by now everyone knows how much I love the colors of the water here. It's wondrous and magical.

One of the dozens of lakes coming out of the glacier region.

Glimpse of the Fox Glacier, just before the clouds closed in on us.

The Gray River after a pretty heavy rain the day before. It is filled with so much rock flour that it is saturated and milky. It's so concentrated that it doesn't give off a color until it dilutes enough downstream.

Super quick glimpse of the Franz Joseph glacier as the rain began to start again. It was so cool that there was a hole in the clouds right above the glacier. Everything else was socked in, and stayed that way the entire time we were there.

Old rail bridge at the Brunner Monument to the coal miners who have lost their lives.

Look! The actual end of the rainbow!

Pukeko in a field. These guys are rampant in the fields of the west coast. They are quite full of personality.

Heading deeper into the mountains. They begin to look like the Misty Mountains about now.

Hitting the ocean, the whole coast was socked in.

Slowly, the clouds started breaking up for us.

And then we got this. The west coast is famous for it's temperamental weather. But truly, our entire time here so far has been beyond gorgeous weather-wise, so we really can't complain too much.

Pancakes anyone?

The rock formations here have eroded in such a way that they are completely layered, and filled with tunnels. Some of them are more eroded than others, and many have already crumpled into the sea. 

They are absolutely so much grander than I had imagined.

Leading down into what would be a blow hole, had we been there at highest tide and when there is a westerly gust.

And another view, trying to take in the magnitude.

This was actually once a cavern, but most of the roof has collapsed into the water. Now it's technically a surge pool as there is a chasm that feeds it. There are several openings to the back reaches of the cave, and when the waves hit just right, they pound into the underground cavern's walls and you can feel the sound coming up through your feet even as you hear it. Kindof like a sonic boom. So very, very cool. Next up, I'll tell you about some Greenstone.