From Hokitika Gorge to Franz Josef Glacier

Since Tuesday we have been on the road again with the car and camping at different campsites. Our first stop was Tuesday evening at a campsite just past Hokitika. In Hokitika we visited the Hokitika Gorge, an impressive gorge through which a river flows with luminous green-blue water, and the Hokitika Glow Worm Dell, where you can see blue glowing glow worms after sunset! (Unfortunately, they cannot be photographed without the right exposure..) These little larvae hang on the rock wall, so in the dark you can see lots of small blue glowing dots, really beautiful.

The next morning we had to get up early because we had rented a kayak for 8 o'clock. We paddled on a small river with the kayak, which ended in Lake Mahinapua. Unfortunately, the weather didn't play along, it was quite cloudy, but the river and the lake were still beautiful and we finally got to train our arm muscles a bit.

We spent the last night at the Okarito campsite, where we went for a short walk in the evening that led to a viewpoint with a great view of the surrounding area and Okarito Lagoon.

Today we went to the Franz Josef Glacier, the first glacier I have ever seen in my life. The way there was totally crowded, but the visit is really worth it, the glacier looks simply fascinating.

We have been in Fox Glacier for a few hours now, tomorrow we will go to the second glacier in this region. The only annoying thing is that there are hardly any affordable campsites around here. Everything here is totally overpriced, the cheapest thing we found is to camp in the parking lot of a hostel and even for that we had to pay excessively.. (also for being allowed to use the kitchen and common areas here) Let's see where we will stay tomorrow night.