YHA Wanaka is really quite swish, in our double room with an
ensuite, and an amazing view. A long drive awaited, so we jumped in the car and
were on our way to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef glacier. On route, we stopped at
waterfalls and a beach. Unfortunately, after feeding the sandfly population,
I’ve had as much as I can take of my swollen hand, so we quickly got back in
the car when the sandfly swarmed us. The
drive was fantastic through the Mount Aspiring national park.
Lunch at a lovely lake, and Ali and I dared each other to
eat more of the incredibly sharp plums. We finally got to Fox Glacier and
walked to the terminal of the glacier. We couldn’t stop on one part of the
glacier view walk because of rock fall. We could only stand 100m from the
glacier. We then walked around a mirror lake, sadly cloud cover meant we
couldn’t see the mountains in the reflection, but we did see a takahe in the
grassland.
Onto Franz Josef glacier, up sentinel rock for a great view
to the glacier. That wasn’t enough so we went on the forest walk, that wasn’t
enough, so we walked right to the terminus of the glacier! Much bigger than Fox
Glacier and thankfully, the cloud lifted so we could see the full extent of the
glacier. Walking to the glacier, we crossed rivers, walked through old river
beds, through where the ice used to be. It was a great walk. IT’s amazing to
think that every day the glacier is retracting.
We drove on to Okarito and our accommodation, in a 3 bedroom
house. The house was left open, we let ourselves in, and watched a gorgeous
sunset.
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