Hokitika and the West Coast of the South Island

The west coast is, I think, one of the most beautiful coastlines I've ever seen and I come from the west coast of northern California. It was a spectacular vista. The best I've ever seen.
After Queenstown we drove north and over to the coast to continue our travels back up to Picton where we catch the ferry to the North Island. We took our time doing this fantastic coastline.You can see the layers of the coastal landscape.This is the Franz Josef Glacier. It is on the central mountains that run up the South Island. We stayed the night near here.Notice the turquoise color of the river water. This is typical of glacial melt. I saw this in Alaska when I was there in 1985.
Hokitika was one of the small towns along the west coast that we liked the best. It seemed to be an artist community and they were having artist sell their crafts on the street. We bought some New Zealand Jade and a blown glass sculpture for our neighbor here in Tucson that was watching our dogs and chickens. There were other towns along the drive but Hokitika was by far the most fun!Midway up the coast we spotted this landslide. It has a plaque that tells of the earthquake that caused it. It happened years before we got there so again, I'm not taking credit for this one either. hehe