Fox Glacier to Wanaka

---

Lots of driving these days. I could write and write and write but would be unable to satisfactorily describe what we did and saw in any reasonable amount of time. To be honest I just want to post a few photos.

I’ve seen glaciers and glacier valleys, but never a glacier quite like Fox. The glacier brings together ice/snow and heat/rain - a glacier in a rainforest.

We tramped in the rain for nearly three hours. Up narrow cliff face trails and down loose gravel/stone paths and finally onto the ice. The ice was hundreds of feet thick and an ever-changing landscape that requires constant trail maintenance. Blue, azure ice….

By the time we made it back to the bus we were soaked through and through. The café at the trail guide lodge became a temporary clothes drying staging area. Yea for hot coffee and chocolate chip cookies.

Our drive took us further south along the coast. Then we moved up the Haast Gorge a compressed landscape similar to the Columbia River gorge beginning at Astoria and extending up to the Dalles.

Arrived in Wanaka a resort town at the south end of a lake that shares the same name. The enterprising Indians (still open despite the holiday season) served us dinner.

---

Photos

Fox Glacier
A rare glacier that terminates in a rainforest.

Blue Ice
The weight of the ice compresses and expels all the air bubbles, creating the deep blue colour.

Back on the road again.
Somewhere on the 6.

Knight's Point
Last view of the west coast and the Tasman Sea. PS: another flu stop:)

Haast River Valley
Reminded me of the Columbia River Gorge. shandflies attacked me here.

Makarora
Flu stop. Some of your received old school 1960's postcards that I found at the gas station here (behind me).