The Southern Alps

For the past few days we've been traveling along the west coast of the south island which has cooler weather than we've seen recently.  The mountains are breath-taking and are known as the Southern Alps including Mt. Cook.

We explored "the Mario Andretti of glaciers--Franz Josef Glacier ".  After steadily advancing down the valley since 1982 at the astonishing rate of about 17 feet per week,  it reversed course in 2003 and is now in slow retreat.