Christchurch to Greymouth was one of the most scenic drives I’ve ever been on. We stayed at the Gables self contained apartment. We cooked Chilli Con Carne. Greymouth is a lot bigger than I remembered from our trip 20 years ago. In the morning we drove 40km north to Pancake rocks and were surprised by the number of tourists there. There are heaps of rocks shaped like a stack of thin pancakes. Then we headed south to Hokitika to have look at the gorge. The water in the gorge was a bright aqua color and the lush greenery was spectacular. We stayed in Franz Joseph Glacier town in a self contained unit the next night .The weather turned nasty getting cold with slanted rain but fortunately cleared by the morning. We next headed to the Franz Joseph Glacier in the morning and there was a 1 hour return trip to where we could see the glacier from . A glacier is a frozen river that moves slowly and melts slowly . We next headed to the Fox glacier which was also spectacular. We drove 260 km from Franz Josef glacier to Wanaka and it took a while cause the road is winding and there are a lot of single lane bridges over wide rivers. It was also a spectacular drive with the Alps visible in front of us and to either side a lot of the time and huge mountains covered in rainforest. There were farms of deer; beef ;cattle; sheep and dairy farms in the flat areas. We didn’t see much sea ; mainly rainforest. We were so fascinated by the incredibly beautiful scenery. Wanaka is stunning too. We are staying 3 nights here in a 2 bedroom apartment. We can see snow covered mountains from our lounge. We are going to have a big explore in the next couple days. Rick is taking the 7 hour bus back to Christchurch tomorrow!