Past Haast to Frigid Franz Part 2

So from there, we really didn't have a lot of options but to head north, so we did. It was a slow trip as there was, all the way along regardless of weather, lots of very pretty places to stop & enjoy the view. This was one of them. It was on top of a hill somewhere or other & the whole layby was a dedicated memorial to the surveyors that opened up the coast..
















A sure sign of an enlightened local body was these composting toilets at this spot. Our local council wont have a bar of them, which is sad because they really are very environmentally friendly...
After all this excitement, it was nearly an anticlimax to stop for lunch at the salmon farm . I will say that the farm, along with most attractions on the Coast is very wheelchair friendly. It is an absolute pleasure to go to these places & have easy access for a chair & friendly staff that dont talk across or down to folk in wheelchairs. Anyway, we had a lovely lunch there, (Salmon of course..) & were fortunate enough to see our first ever Kotuku, or white heron.
So onward we pressed.This is a beach where , apparently, everyone stops & writes their name on a rock at the side of the road.
So, we did too....
We pressed on...... and on...... and on......... through lots of Beech forest like this...........

Across lots of bridges like this
Until we finally got to here.........
Here being a nice snug motel unit in Franz Josef. We didn't get to see this view until the next morning, as by the time that we got to Franz, it was persisting down rather heavily. Sadly, we didn't get to see either of the glaciers, as The Fox was coyly draped in a heavy layer of mist when we went through, & Franz Josef isn't visible from the road & neither of them are wheelchair friendly at all. It was a very interesting day weather wise though. In the one day we had sunshine, frost, snow, rain , hail, sleet, wind, thunder & lightning. As you can guess, this made for a very interesting day on the road. We were quite glad to snuggle up in a nice warm motel unit for the night & listen to the tumultuous sound of good heavy West Coast rain on the roof.