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Published: September 22nd 2008
Day 539 (18.09.08)
From Haast we drove northwards to Fox Glacier where we'd made the walk to the terminal face on our last visit. We'd noticed that there was also a road to a glacier viewpoint so we drove up there. From the end of the road there are a few walks you can do so we walked down to the viewpoint for a great view of the glacier snaking it's way down the valley from it's large snow collection area up on the mountains. We continued along the river to a swingbridge and then turned back to the van. Along the way back we could hear a lot of birdsong and spotted a couple of Tuis, native birds with two small white puffs under the chin (we'll try to get a picture for you sometime!) and a native pigeon.
Whilst we were in the area we wanted to revisit Lake Matheson to try and catch it on a good day but today wasn't that day. It was fairly good weather but there were low clouds over the mountains so we drive on past. A few km further on down a winding gravel road is Gillespies Beach an area
Gillespies beach walk
Old gold mining machinerythat was previously used for gold dredging.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) has loads of basic campsites across the country that you can stay in for a nominal fee. All have some form of toilet, some have more facilites and the slots go on a first come first served basis but they're great places to camp if you're on a budget and especially at this time of year when there's no competition for a pitch. Gillespie's Beach has a DOC campsite and though we'd originally planned to move on we were starting to get used to taking things slowly and decided it would be a great place to stay for the night.
We walked along the back of the dunes to a site of a 1932 gold dredge where you can still see many remnants of it's past use - really cool to poke around. We continued on along the beach and across Gillespies Lagoon where Mark couldn't resist skimming a few of the perfect skimming stones he'd discovered on the beach. This great walk terminated at an old miners tunnel with a view out to sea at the end. We returned to the campsite along the beach
which is littered with huge pieces of driftwood.
The rest of the afternoon was spent reading on the beach and playing games until the sun began to go down. We sat on the beach with a glass of wine watching as the sun fell below the horizon and trying to decided which way to look - at the sea reflecting the orange hues of the sky in the surf or at the moutnains behind us with the snow stained pink by the colours of the sunset - the tough decisions of a traveller!
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