Jackson Bay

The glacier at Franz-Josef made us curious to get a nice view of the Southern Alps. So we checked our guide book and found that a nearby bay provides a spectacular view. The bay is not on the main road, so we had to take a big detour to get to it. But we were eager and didn't hesitate the drive.

The little village is called Jackson Bay. It hosts a couple of houses, one seafood restaurant called "The Cray Pot" and a little wharf which allows you to overlook the sea with the Southern Alps rising at the horizon. It's really a beautiful view.

When we were walking on the wharf to get a better view, there was one other spectacular thing we discovered. A giant jellyfish:

We have never seen a jellyfish that big. Its centre was shimmering in pink colours. Its tentacles were home to a small swarm of fishes, probably living in symbiosis with their host.
At one point its tentacles got entangled with one of the wharf's pillars. It took the jellyfish a couple of minutes to get away. It pulled so hard that some of its tentacles tore right off. We made two short videos. In the first you can see the fish living with it.