Franz Josef was first.
Ahh, the Misty Mountains of Lord Of The Rings fame.
You aren't allowed too near the glaciers, due to numerous dangers such as falling ice, falling rock, flash floods caused by falling ice and rock, etc.
So you can see the glacier, but can't get close to it without going on a guided tour. These tours usually happen on the Fox glacier - Franz Josef isn't particularly accessible.
Like most of earth's glaciers, this one has retreated a long way - it filled this valley at the time of European discovery.
Sarah tried to charm the cute, two-dimensional Kiwi ranger into letting us past the signs, but he was immobile and flatly denied us. :-)
Ice tsunamis and break-dancing through falling rocks - very dangerous stuff.
Next was the Fox glacier, where Sarah again worked her charms on the ranger, who wouldn't budge from writing his condition report.
You could get a lot closer to the Fox glacier; up to a left-hand viewpoint overlooking it. (Franz Josef's equivalent overlook trail had been recently closed due to a landslide.)
A "no stopping" policy for pedestrians - that was a first for us. But I can see why.
I tried pleading with the ranger to let us pass this time, but he wasn't having any of it. A couple of people died not long ago because they went past the end of the trail and were crushed under a wall of ice that fell off the toe of the glacier.
The Fox was decent, though its charms were otherwise dulled by a large claw loader and work crew shoring up some of the slopes adjacent to the glacier.
But that didn't stop the glacier walkers from, well, walking on the glacier. Fortunately we Canadians can walk on snow and ice practically whenever we want, so we skipped the tour.
Again, the whole valley was covered in ice not all that long ago. Not so anymore.
Only about a year ago, this slide buried a bunch of vehicles in the former Fox Glacier parking lot. As you can see, they have since moved the parking lot down a bit and have routed the road around the slide area.
Continuing south, we stopped at the Knights Point Lookout long enough to snap some photos before the sand flies drove us onward.
Next we hit a classic whitebait harvesting river. Whitebait is a seasonal delicacy in this region - it is the very early, immature form of several native fish. They are so young that they are transparent, and all look more or less the same. They are caught in nets at the river mouth.
I'm not kidding it's a delicacy - hardly fire sale prices!
The classic way to eat whitebait is in a pattie made with only a bit of beaten egg.
Just a minute or two on a low-temperature barby.
A piece of white bread and you're done! It's probably one of the mildest fish flavours you'll experience. Tasty. Locals (and me) prefer it with just a dab of mint sauce.
Handheld whitebait nets. This river mouth was surrounded by a small enclave of fishing shacks, which fill up with fishermen during whitebait season.
And then we stopped for the night at a nicely-equipped camper park in Haast, the end of our west coast journey. There's really nothing there except the Hard Antler Pub, which of course we had to check out.
Yes, it's a hunting/fishing joint, with a heavy presence of locals. I can think of countless tiny towns in BC that would go to great lengths to have a pub like this.
Lots and lots of antlers on the rafters (and everywhere else), along with thick, heavy wood-slab tables and a nice patio out the back. You could do a lot worse.
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