We rode to see the seal colony in the Cape Foulwind near Westport. The seals were in their natural environment there. All the observing platforms were built so far to the hill, that people couldn't disturb the seals. In the beginning the cape looked just like a rocky cape full of round sea-formed grey rocks. Then some of the rocks started to crawl. Whe your eye learned to see the seals, you could notice, that the cape was full of seals.

There were some flightless birds in the parking place of the seal colony. The souvenir kiosk lady told they are called Wekas. She also told she sometimes fools the visiting North Islanders that they are South Island Kiwi-birds. When we came to Cape Foulwind, we also saw a road sign for Greymouth. However this road was a dead end. We asked also the lady, what turn should we take to get to highway 6 for Greymouth, so we wouldn't need to return to Westport. She told that we should take the "Wilson's Lead Rd". Another good example of the poor roadsigns of NZ.

Our next stop was in Punakaiki, where we saw the Pancake rocks. These rocks really looked like huge piles of pancakes. The other famous phenomenon in the area are the blowholes. Water has made it's way through the rocks to the sea. Now when the holes are there, when the waves hit the coast, the seawater bursts out of those holes like geysir. The water also makes funny noise in the holes. Sometimes like a steam train in a tunnel. In punakaiki we saw one couple on a BMW R100 RS currently putting on their raingear. They told us that they live near Hamilton, and they were on a week's holiday in the South Island visiting their friend.

We took gas in Greymouth, and we met this couple again in the gas station. When we told them about our route plans, they replied, that if they have settled at home again before we pass Hamilton, we could stay one night in their home. We found that we had reserved tickets to the same ferry back north, so we knew we'd see each other again after six days.

On the way to Franz Josef Glacier we passed Kumara Junction. A big roundabout with railway splitting it diagonally. Because of the mountains, in NZ the roads and railways often follow same routes, since they are mostly the only reasonable route to get from a place to another. There are lots of railway crossings in very slight angle. Normally the rails are clearly under the road level, but one has to be still very careful especially when it's raining, and the rails are slippery.

We also rode across two one-lane bridges, with railroad. The feeling was like on the ferry's vehicle deck. The bridges were so narrow we had to ride between the rails. Again the rails were crossed in a very slight angle. The wooden surface and the rain made me very cautious. Later, back in Auckland, one local biker told us that once also in the rain he came too fast to such bridge ending to throw his Ducati to the bridge wall.

Franz Josef, and Fox Glacier are world's fastest advancing glaciers. The big ice streams start from snow topped mountains and move down to rainforest, closer to the sea than anywhere else in the world. The ice melts from its lower parts, and flows as a light grey, stone dust coloured, cold stream to the sea. The glaciers move a meter pro day, in average, but some parts can advace as fast as five meters a day. The location of the ice terminus depends of the ratio between the melted ice, and the snowfall on top of the mountains. The terminus location has varied some kilometers during past fifty years.

We visited the Franz Josef Glacier, saw its terminal lake, and huge white mass, but we didn't stay longer, since we had reserved this guided hike on top of the Fox Glacier the next day.

The road between the two Glaciers was amazing. Mountains come very close to the sea in this point. The road is quarried into a very steep rock. It's very curvy, and you are just between the sea, and the rock-face. We saw first time a traffic sign recommending only 15 kph speed for a curve. We were in the inner lane there, and for not getting to the oncoming traffic lane I felt like I had to turn the steering all the way to the stopper.

The Fox Glacier Backpackers was very praised, but we felt it worst so far. The place was beautiful, and the scenery marvellous, but that couldn't compensate the dirty toilets and the kitchen with a sticky floor. Also there were so many people that in the morning you had to queue to the toilets a long time. In the evening we went for a evening stroll, and visited a swing bridge, that crosses the glacier stream. It got dark, when we came back, and we found a possum in a tree near the road. Interesting creature, like a mixture of a squirrel and a cat. We also visited the Glow Worm Grotto, near the backpackers. There was a kind of grotto in the forest bush. it was full of glow worms. It was pitch dark, but from the street there was a hand rail leading to the grotto. One felt like being in a planetarium under those thousands of glowing spots.