Journey to Westlands across the Southern Alps

Today we have had a magical & most wonderful day. Leaving Wanaka behind we set off on a 6 hour drive, we were not really looking forward to it. In the end it only took 4 hours and that was stopping every 5 mins to look at waterfalls, rivers, rain forest, mountains, rainbows, glaciers, to mention but a few things. We passed rivers called Roaring Billy and Waterfalls called Roaring Thunder. We saw huge dry rivers that must have been a half mile wide. The mountains that were cloaked in cloud were on one side & the rain forest and the Tasman sea on the other, it was truly paradise. We stopped to paddle in the Tasman sea and once having reached the waters edge I was suddenly very frightened. There was no one else around the sea was roaring although the waves were not high. There was just a huge expanse of beach and miles & miles of sea, I felt very insignificant in such powerful surroundings. We arrived in Fox Glacier and booked our helicopter flights for the morning although today is good weather tomorrow is supposed to be better. We walked around Lake Matheson saw many wonderful ferns, tree ferns, mosses and beautiful plants and birds in a very quiet and green place.