Glaciers, Haast Pass, Wanaka

Monday morning we had a big drive ahead of us and headed out of the Hotel Hari Hari before 7am. We were on the road and headed for the glaciers where we planned to make a quick stop to see them and then onwards and upwards over the Haast pass to Wanaka where we would be spending the next 3 nights at a gorgeous B&B. We got down to the glaciers sometime between 8 and 9 am had decided to visit Fox Glaciers, not Franz Joseph, as a random man at the Hotel Hari Hari told us he liked it better, although he had no idea what kind of criteria one should use to decide such a thing as what is a better glacier. Anyways, after a beautiful drive down the short road to the car park there was a sign telling us the walk would be about 1 hour return so we thought, “Let’s go for it!” 

It's amazing how lush it is and we're only a few kilometers from the glacier. It's like rainforest here and solid ice just down the road.

There are those snow capped mountains again.

From the car park you cannot see the glacier but as you round a corner only maybe 30 meters into the hike the top of the glacier comes into view and it is awesome! See here:

The hike up passes through a valley carved out by a once much, much, much larger glacier. There is a stream running through from the glacial melt with steep hills/cliffs on both sides coved in waterfalls, green vegetation, and also loose areas prone to rock slide. There are actually 2 places of the hike that are so dangerous you are not allowed to stop moving and must continue hiking. (I’m guessing this is because if you are already moving you are more likely to be able to get out of the way of a rock slide vs. if you are standing there still, but I can’t confirm this theory.) Here's a video I took on the hike, and a few photos below.

One rock slide area.

One of many, many, many waterfalls.

And again.

After a hike of probably 1.5 -2 kms mostly up hill we reached the viewing point of the glacier. For someone who has never seen the glacier before, like me, I thought it was really pretty cool. It wasn’t huge, but it something I’ve never seen before and we were only about 200 meters from it. You can take trips up and hike on the glacier but they are very time consuming and quite expensive so we didn’t do that. We were all quite happy with hike and it only took up about an hour of day which was good since we had a big day of driving. Here's a video I took at the glacier viewing area. And some photos here:

The bottom of Fox Glacier.

Upclose.

Some old people in front of the glacier. Oh wait, those are my parents.

My father and I.

My parents by another rock slide area on the way down. I wouldn't want to get caught there!

Glacier Road.

Some cliffs in the glaciers valley opposite the walking track.

The glacier on our way out.

After seeing the glacier we continued south down the west coast eventually crossing over the Southern Alps via the Haast Pass, alongside Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea finally ending at our B&B in Wanaka, Wanaka Haven, a most beautiful haven indeed. Here’s a video I took on the first day of the grounds of theB&B. And a few photos of the view form out living room/dining room and bedrooms as well, see below. The B&B is a purpose built B&B and had 5 bedrooms but we were alone Monday and Tuesday night so we had the entire beautiful place to ourselves. 

The mountains.

And again.

And again. I don't think I could ever get sick of that view!

After settling into the B&B I don’t remember what we did followed by dinner in town at Relishes Café were we had a fabulous American waitress. After that it was an early night for us after the long day of driving.

Tuesday morning we woke up early to do a hike we had previously decided on, the Rob Roy Glacier hike. Although we got up early and were ready to go, out host, Anime (not sure how you spell it but it’s short for Anna Marie and rhymes with “enemy”) warned us of bad weather on the mountains so we skipped that walk and did a river walk near our B&B, part of the Upper Clutha River Track. After our hike we went back, relaxed for a few minutes, and then headed down towards Cromwell, a nearby town, to visit a few vineyards. Cromwell is in the Central Otago region, that is well known for it’s Pinot Noirs here in NZ, and I’m sure around the world. We visited 2 vineyards, Akarua and Mt. Difficulty. When we were staying with Chris and Raewyn a week ago in the Bay of Islands they served us a delicious dessert wine from Akarua that inspired our visit and subsequent purchase of another bottle of that as well as Pinot Noir. After Akarua we went to Mt. Difficulty to try a few more wines and have a nice dinner overlooking the vineyard. Because drinking and driving laws are so strict here and I was driving I couldn’t really have any more so we went back to the B&B. We also had massages and facials booked for the afternoon so we had places to be. My father had a nice deep tissue massage here at the B&B while my mother and I headed into town for our treatments at a local salon. This was no Spalon Montage but I was very happy nonetheless. After all this we decided to have a chill night in. I watched The Hobbit with my father and we enjoyed some takeaway Thai food. Food was good, movie was not. I am currently reading The Hobbit for the second time this year and the movie is nothing like the book, and I am NOT Impressed. Did Peter Jackson ever even read the novel? I am not happy and will not be seeing the other 2 parts of The Hobbit. That said, I look forward to finished the book.

So this brings us up to this morning, and I finally will be caught up on my blog, thank god! This morning we did another short hike here in town, the Mt. Iron Loop Walk. Advertised as 1.5 hour loop we completed it in just over an hour. We had to make good time as I had to rush off to get Elizabeth at the airport. There was a hitchhiker on the side of the road I tried to pick up, but he was going a different direction, but I though him and I together would have made a fabulous welcome committee for Elizabeth. After driving to get her in Queenstown, and being stopped by a random man who wanted to sell me a taillight cover for my vehicle that he just happens to have at home and that is for sale, we headed back towards Wanaka for a nice lunch. We ended up going for Thai again, at the same place as last night, as Elizabeth is vegan and Asian places usually have little trouble preparing vegan food as they tend to use very little dairy in their dishes.

On our way to the Thai place we drove by Puzzling World. Puzzling World first came on our family’s radar on Monday when my father was trying to use it as a bargaining chip in a discussion on what we should do. He kept insisting we go there but I couldn’t believe he was being serious and I really didn’t want to go there but I figures he might be kidding so I called his bluff and said “Fine, let’s go.” I looked up prices, times, etc… and when I’d finally got it all figured out he said he really didn’t want to go there. I have been insisting every since in an attept to punish him for using a fake activity in a discussion about what to actually do but we haven’t made it yet. Today, however, when Elizabeth and I drove by on our way to lunch she saw the place and got so excited it was obvious we had to go. Apparently, or at least accord to Elizabeth, it is on the list of the top 101 things to do in NZ. Anyways, because of her excitement, her being our guest, and my father trying to use Puzzling World to get his way, I knew we had to go, so after lunch we went straight home, got my parents, and were on our way to Puzzling World. We spent about 2 hours there this afternoon between the illusions room and maze. After leaving we picked up Indian takeaways, which we fabulous, and then came back, had dinner, and planned our next few days, or at least came up with options.

Okay, I’m happy to be caught up on the blog now. For what’s to come, tomorrow we are to be us very early and out of here by 7am. We are driving down to Te Anau to catch the bus to our overnight experience on Doubtful Sound. We will be kayaking with the resident dolphin pod, seeing seals, penguins, and other fabulous wildlife, and enjoying the sights of one of the more remote areas of NZ. Friday we get back around lunch time and depending on how we feel, the weather, and what we find to do we will either spend another night in Fiordland or head back up towards Queenstown before spending Saturday night in Lake Tekapo where the world’s largest dark sky reserve is located.

That’s all for tonight. Don’t expect another update for a few days as internet will not be available tomorrow, or maybe Saturday.