wanderlust: happy easter part 2

We stayed the night in Greymouth, then went to church on Easter Sunday. It was my first time at a Salvation Army church. They had a piano and a baritone horn for the hymns. Pretty cool.
Anyhoo, we then headed south down the West coast, stopping at Hokitika to shop for some greenstone. We also saw some AWESOME artwork, which if I have an extra $5000 I would gladly spend on some really cool pieces.
Here's a guy who is carving some pieces.

Then we went to the Hokitika Gorge, which when it hasn't been raining is usually a milky blue green. Pretty regardless.

Jon got over his fear of heights to clamber over the swing bridge, smiling the whole way... well, maybe not the WHOLE way.

Pretty!

The beginning of the track that Josh and I did on Monday--we went up to the Welcome Flat Hut, which has HOT POOLS at the top (thanks to the lovely Eichtens for that piece of advice)!!
Yes, that's a skull wearing glasses.

SQUEEZE!

It was pretty cloudy on the way up, so I didn't take lots and lots of pictures. Imagine that. I did, however, get some really great blisters!
Josh soaking his cares away.

The hut warden told us about the waka birds(a bigger flightless bird, about hte size of a chicken) that are around the hut--they make a racket! And she said they are 'cheeky little guys' who will take all kinds of light objects and drag them off to the bushes. Good thing boots are too heavy.

So I was sad that night (as sad as one can be while soaking in a hot pool after a great 6 hour hike), as the hut is supposed to have beautiful views of Aoraki/Mt Cook. Thank goodness when I woke up there was a beautiful sunrise and gorgeous views!

So there were some scary swing bridges to go over. And I like heights!

We got down a bit faster than going to the hut, and met back with Josh's parents. Then we headed do see some glaciers--which look just like frozen rivers. Imagine that.

It was a very rainbowy day.

And then the beautiful sunset over the Tasman Sea. By the way, why do they call the ocean any different names? It's all the same water, isn't it? And how do you know, for example where the Tasman ends and the Pacific begins? Anyway.

Cool bridges.

Cool skies.

Cool TRAINS! (Full of coal, and you could see the coal, even.)

Driving back across the Southern Alps, where they built a nice little overhanging thing to let the waterfall keep going over the road. Cool engineers.