Fox Glacier & Haast enroute to Wanaka

Well it has been a another great day as the weather has been holding off for us and the sun keeps trying to peek through at us. The locals in Franz Joseph tell us that the rain just stopped yesterday and had been raining for about a week and a half. When we got up this morning we could actually see the snow capped mountains and listen to all the helicopters making runs to the Glaciers.

Left - View of Franz Joseph   Right - Putting Dianna into the picture.

We headed down the road after breakfast towards Fox Glacier about 39 km away. This is another fantasic Glacier but due to the heavy rains the hiking trails into it were closed to guided tours only so all we could do was to get up close to the bottom of the glacier to take a few photos.

Left - Fox Glacier   Right Roaring Billy Falls

It is very rural drive all the way from Nelson down to Wanaka, with not much other than farms and parks. You have to make sure that your fuel tank is full as there can be long stretches between fill ups. The Parks are long road ways of Tropical forest and they have shaved the trees up high enough to all transports to go through withour problem. Most roads are narrow but well maintained and easy to travel on if you take your time. Dianna and I both noted that of all the towns we have been in on the south island Franz Joseph was the busiest of all the towns as the tour buses were in there on a regular basis.

We reached the end of the valley and had Lake Wanaka show up in front of us. This is a ski area and has lots of lodges , hotels and places to stay for ski trips. Well we are in Wanaka at the moment and are going to take it easy tonight and get up and do a hike in the morning before heading out to Arrowtown and on to Queenstown to see Melissa.  Have a great day.