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Friday, March 18 – Fox Glacier to Greymouth

Well, today was an eye-opener.  Remember the photo of Fox Glacier I took yesterday?  Today was much sunnier, so we went back to the glacier viewing point and discovered that what we saw through the clouds yesterday was only a small part of the glacier. Here's a photo of the whole thing! Mount Cook, the tallest in New Zealand is hiding in the clouds at the right side of the picture.

Fox Glacier - the whole thing

We spent much of the day driving from Fox Glacier to Greymouth, also on the west coast. As always seems to be true here, the drive was a bit hairy driving on the winding narrow roads through the mountains, but it was again a lovely drive. 

We stopped along the way to visit the West Coast Wildlife Center, where we got to see a couple of kiwi (the birds, not the fruit or local New Zealanders!).  Kiwi are very endangered and are nocturnal, and you basically don't see them in the wild.  So there are a couple of places in NZ where they have a few kiwis on display in a "nocturnal room" where it is quite dark.  It's neat to let your eyes adjust to the low level of light and then watch the kiwi foraging for food.  We weren't allowed to take photos in that room, however.

We followed an old car along the winding road to Greymouth.  At first I thought it was a Model A, but when we got closer we found it wasn't.  Fortunately, the couple driving the car happened to pull in to Lake Mahinapua when we did and I had a chance to talk with them.  The car is a 1923 Lorraine Dietrich, a car built in France.

Lorraine Dietrich

 It turns out that there is an old car rally here in Greymouth this weekend.  We have a Hupmobile parked outside our hotel room tonight. Fun!

 
       
 
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