Friday, 26 February 2010

West Coast Blues

Our next stop on the way up the West Coast was Wanaka - a small resort town at the southern edge of enourmous Lake Wanaka:



The ducks were very friendly! When they start climbing on your toes to try and get some bread you know they feel pretty safe:





Panorama of the lakes from Mount Iron:





Lake Hawea in the gorgeous sunshine





Having fun on a very wobbly suspension bridge!



Haast Pass - one of only 3 passes across the Southern Alps, and home of huge waterfalls



The aptly named 'Thunder Creek Falls'



And on to the famous 'West Coast' - with an annual rainfall of 3-7 metres depending where you go - it's usually pretty wet here. However we were blessed with beautiful blue skies and seas:





Beach of strange sculptures:





And gorgeous misty coastlines:









Punakaiki and the pancake rocks, with a blow hole that wasn't performing for us despite the impressive ocean swell:







The high rainfall makes for good dairy farming country:



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