We awoke to sunshine so headed north along a coast battered by great waves and strewn with large rocks amongst lush forest. I guess rainforest from the amount of rain they get.

We were heading to Pancake rocks at Punakaiki, and they do look like layers of pancakes. If you get there around high tide you can see some spectacular waterworks through the blow holes when big waves surge up into the undercut cavities and erupt like booming geysers from the holes. These rocks were formed 30 million years ago from minute fragments of dead marine creatures and plants that landed on the seabed about 2 km below the surface. Immense water pressure caused the fragments to solidify into *************e layers sandwiched between soft mudstone layers, called Stylobedding. A bit of seismic action lifted them above the water and some mildly acidic rain, wind and seawater ate away at the mudstone faster than the limestone giving the pile of pancake shape.

On the way back to Greymouth to go to the pictures Peter went Quad biking which looked rather muddy but he said it was fun. He was a little peeved when he found out I had forgotten to give him a 20% of the price voucher for the quad biking- opps, I should have kept quiet.

The following day we headed down the coast to the Franz Josef Glacier village, in the heart of New Zealand's Glacier Country, which is situated on the South Island's West Coast and is part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area.

We drove through some amazing temperate rain forest although a lot had been cleared for cattle. In fact we are sick of the sight of cows. They are everywhere, hundreds of them. So far we have not seen any arable crops so assume they must import all their grain and veg which could account for the high price of their food.

We weren't in any hurry to get to Franz Joseph so had a leisurely drive visiting Hokitika gorge where the Hokitika river with its beautiful turquoise glacial water is compressed through a small limestone gorge. It has a beautiful suspension bridge. After waiting for me to get to the middle Peter starting jumping up and down scaring the life out of me, so childish! The turquoise water is because it contains a suspension of very fine rock particles from the action, from where the glacier grinds over the rocks

We popped into Hokitika town to see some of the old sites associated with the 1860’s gold rush that affected the whole area (gold had been found in the North Island as early as the 1840’s). By 1866 it was one of the busiest towns in NZ but by the end of the 60’s it was all over.

The guided walk leaflet they give you at the Information Centre needs a bit of revamping as the map is tiny and the pointers are sitting in the middle of a street so you have no idea what building they are referring to. We got fed up with guessing the building so popped into the sock knitting machine museum. Yes there is a museum for machines that make socks. This consisted of a lot of knitted socks and a shelf of the machines. What can I say?

We arrived in the town of Franz Joseph late afternoon and headed for the Helicopter scenic flight office to check out the likelihood of suitable weather the next day to fly over Franz Joseph Glacier and its neighbour Fox glacier. Hopefully we can’t go wrong this time and will see something unless very rapid climate change melts the glacier. There are at least 8 companies offering trips –the place must be seething with helicopters. We chose the one for which I had a 15% off voucher- I remembered this time.

These glaciers come down from the Southern Alps mountain range which is 720kms long and includes Mount Cook (3754m) and Mount Tasman (3497m). The Tasman Glacier is the longest at 27Km on the east side. Where we were on the west side is the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. These two are unusual because they drop to quite low altitudes (from 2700metres to 260 metres). In fact Franz Joesph’s terminal is surrounded by rainforest. Why you ask. Even if you don’t I am going to tell you. The first reason is that the wind patterns of the Tasman sea result in a lot of precipitation (around 15m annually compared with London which has 600mm) meaning a lot of snow high up, the weight of which makes a massive 300m pile of ice. This massive weight of ice combined with a thin water layer under the glacier means it gets up quite a speed down the mountain, in fact 10 times faster than other glaciers. The result is that the glacier moves faster than the ice can melt so they get down to low altitudes. These glaciers are very impressive. Fox is 13 Kms long and Franz Joseph is 10Kms long.

We got up early next morning and headed into the office to be told all was clear up on the glacier so of we went and they were right it was so clear with brilliant sunshine that the reflection of the ice was painful to the eyes, but well worth it. I have never enjoyed a trip more. The helicopter flew up the fox glacier and then over to the top of the Franz Joseph glacier where it landed and we had a quick walk on the snow before we flew down the glacier.

After all this early morning excitement we went for a walk up to the terminal of the Franz Joseph glacier , after which Peter went for a long run up a hill before we headed back into town for a bit of tandem quadbiking.

The town had a European bakery (not sure what that means) where Peter devoured a couple of meat pies and even took one away for later. Peter had made the quadbiking sound so good I fancied a go but not the driving so this tandem quadbiking was ideal. The only problem was Peter was driving and went at it like a maniac so within minutes I was covered in mud and spent the whole hour screaming. My arms were really aching next day from all the hanging on I did.

Before we left I popped into see a Kiwi conservation programme which involves collecting eggs from less than concerned parents who don’t even notice they have gone and hatching them in a controlled environment, raising the chicks to a year old before releasing them. This helps them survive their early vulnerable stage when stoats and the deadly possums get them.

At the town of Fox we went on a walk to the terminal of the glacier before heading south to cross back over to the east of the alps through the Haast pass which is quite often closed so they can clear rocks from the road. At the Fox campsite I came across a very strange sign in the shower which basically advised people not to poo in the shower- they do have some funny habits!