Drift wood sculpture, Gillespies Beach

Back to Franz for coffee and a few supplies today. While only 28km's from Okarito, Franz receives 50% more rain. Yesterday's decision to stay around Okarito was a good one as Franz received nearly 2 inches of rain.

We drove the short distance through winding hill country to the other major glacier in South Westland, Fox Glacier. We'd seen it from the air 2 days ago and today headed to nearby Lake Matheson. Still cloudy (but dry) with occasional watery sun. We walked right around the lake. The sign said it took 1 1/2 hours. We took closer to 2 hours with plenty of stops to photograph bush, blue toadstalls (no, I haven't taken anything, they were definitly blue ;-), and muted reflections of mountains and bush on the lake.

It was a good opportunity for Mum and Dad to spend time getting to grips with their new camera. I was most impressed with how they handled the walk. Plenty of people younger than them wouldn't have managed the walk.

We then headed out to Gillespie's Beach. It's a wild high-energy West Coast beach. It's quite remote and a spot Mum and Dad recall visiting on their honey moon 57 years ago. Other than a few signs showing parking and restored mining dredges, the beach is unchanged.

Today there was little wind and it was warm. We fossicked for interesting stones and driftwood. It's such a remote location few people cart away wood to burn (or put in their garden as I wood). It provides an unending display of sculptural shapes and I've chosen one as today's blip.

PS Is you look closely there a couple of figures set against the horizon on the right. They give a great indication of scale.

Another great day. What a privilege to be in such a magnificent part of our country.