Saturday 21st March

Lake Paringa at sunset.
My first attempt at an HDR image - you'll only know what that is if you're a photo geek.


Lake Paringa after sunset.

Our new trip mascot - Pukeko Pete, enjoying the ride.

Massive salmon at the salmon farm just before Lake Paringa.

The piles of stones that tourists have built on the beach at Bruce Bay.

Pukeko Pete keeping an eye on Andrew's
Our trip mascot "Pukeko Pete" - purchased at the gift shop at Lake Matheson.

Michelle getting all tactile with the local mosses.

Michelle's response to me taking photos.

A friendly Tom Tit.


Fox glacier.

We bumped into Andrew's Auntie Helen and Uncle Marty at Fox glacier. It's a small country.
They were on travelling round to celebrate their 40th wedding aniversary.

Fox Glacier's no swimming sign.

Today we drove from Franz Josef to Lake Paringa with several stops along the way. First off was Fox Glacier, where we walked to the terminal face and ran into Andrew's Aunt and Uncle - small world!

Next was Lake Matheson which has famed views of Mt Cook reflected in the lake on a clear day - unfortunately today was not one of those days with low cloud obscuring all the Southern Alps - so we did the walk around, took a few photos and visited the gift shop - where we bought Pukeko Pete, who will be our trip mascot and photo star. The weather wasn't looking too flash for the following morning either, so we decided against staying in Fox and returning to Lake Matheson in the morning and continued on the road south.

We had a quick stop at Bruce Bay which is famous for having beautiful Rimu forest right down to the shore line. We were eaten alive by the millions of sandflies, so after a few photos we jumped back in the van and headed off.

We stopped at the DOC campground at Lake Paringa for the night, the lake was beautiful in the evening light - pity about the salmon fisherman all over the place in their noisy runabouts!