West Coast | The South Island of New Zealand December 2015

Around Hokitika
a township in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. To the north is the Paparoa National Park and the Pancake Rocks.

Around Wanaka
a popular ski and summer resort town in the Otago region. To the north are the Franz Josef Glacier and the Fox Glacier in Westland Tai Poutini National Park.

Off to Queenstown
beautiful countryside and passes through the townships of Cromwell and Arrowtown before arriving at our major destination.

West Coast (According to Wikipedia)

The West Coast (Māori: Te Tai Poutini) is a region of New Zealand on the west coast of the South Island, one of the more remote and most sparsely populated areas of the country.
The region reaches from Kahurangi Point in the north to Awarua Point in the south, a distance of 600 km. To the west is the Tasman Sea (which like the Southern Ocean can be very rough, with four-metre swells common), and to the east are the Southern Alps. Much of the land is rugged, with a coastal plain where much of the population resides.
The land is very scenic, with wild coastlines, mountains and a very high proportion of native bush, much of it native temperate rain forest. It is the only part of New Zealand where significant tracts of lowland forest remain: elsewhere, for instance on the Canterbury Plains and in the Firth of Thames, they have been almost completely destroyed for settlement and agriculture. Scenic areas include the Haast Pass, Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki and the Heaphy Track.
The region has a very high rainfall due to the prevailing northwesterly wind pattern and the location of the Southern Alps, which give rise to heavy orographic precipitation. The rain shadow effect is responsible for the relatively arid climate of the Canterbury Plains on the other side of the Southern Alps.