Amazing West coast, June 2005

Mount Cook and mount Tasman from lake Matheson.



Mount Cook, culminating by 3754m high.

Misty conditions on the rain forest...

Sunset on the pancake rocks, a renowned spot between Greymouth and Westport.














The west coast of the South Island of New Zealand is splendid and spectacular...
combination of Glaciers plunging into the Tasman sea, native bush( also called rain forest) glowing after the common rainfalls (about 6000mm a year, up to 9000 in the Fiordland national park!! and definitely the densest forest in the world for a temperate climate), and fantastic wild sandy beaches...
That's New Zealand as you dream of it and probably my favourite part of NZ as a whole region after 20000km touring around!

Haast pass on my way to the magical West coast with a typical scene in NZ, the cloudiness flirting with the mountain side...




Haast pass and a scenery quite similar to the Fiordland national park.
You can now easily understand why New Zealand is also called the long white cloud country!

The native bush or rain forest...







Haast beach and a swim with hector dolphins playing around.
Pretty unusual by wintertime, because they are supposed to reach the deep waters and to come through the shallow waters in summertime...
I got lucky!

And by the way...if you're asking yourself if I'm kidding you, just check the snow at the summits of mountains...the Tasman was about 12 degrees at that stage! Freezing...