New Zealand - Te Anau to Grey Mouth via Franz joseph Glacier.

We have travelled now north along the west coast and are currently staying on the beach in grey mouth. The drive to get to the west coast was very similar to the drive to miford sound with farm land turning into mountians into grasslands, into forest ect ect

We stayed for a night in the glacier capital of NZ Frans Joseph. However the weather has been quite sour and most of the drive there was raining. As a result we didnt book any guided tours on the glacier thinking that it would be rainy only to wake to another fantastic weathered day. So we missed out on that but managed to fit in a self guided walk to the bottom of the glacier of the glacier 'terminal' which took about 2 hours return over a kilometer or so over dry rock and rubble. Fortunately though on our walk back the clouds rolled in and by the time we were on the road it was pissing down rain. 

We punched it though to grey mouth during a 3 hour drive though thick rainforest and rural coastline. The photo's lately have been taken a little less vigourously due to the higher driving rate and the poor weather in the second half of the trip. 

there photos however are a collection of images on the drive to and stay at Franz Joseph Glacier. The rainforest photos are of a waterfall tucked in a crevasse in the side of the road. I went and checked it out. the water was the cleaerest I have ever seen and almost jumped into 2 ft of water thinking it was dry rock. See the photo 6th from the bottom, The water reaches up to 2-3ft depth but almost looks like there is no water. 

The franz joepsh glacier, apparently is one of few glacier in the world today that is actually advancing and comes down to 250m above sea level into thick rainforest (see photos)...