Queenstown to Fox River, South Island

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21st February we left Manapouri, crossed the Eyre Mountains and went to Queenstown, spending two days there. It's a popular place, like a ski village, full of young people wanting adrenalin--fuelled experiences. We wanted to drive up beside Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy, and visit Arrowtown, an old mining town. All the old houses were now shops and it could have been tacky, but it wasn't. The museum was quite good too. The whole country is geared to tourism, but the souvenirs are all tasteful, well made, reasonably priced and sold by genuinely charming people.
The Airbnb where we stayed overlooked the lake with mountains in the background, and we found a fabulous place to eat in a microbrewery by Arthur's Point, where a single track bridge crossed the river where rafting is done.
Leaving Queenstown we snaked up the Crown Mountains, stopping regularly to take pictures of the breathtaking views of the lake behind us.
We drove on to Fox Glacier on the West Coast, where the normal prevailing winds from the west, which bring rain, were from the east, so the rain fell on the eastern side of the Southern Alps, and left us with sunny clear weather for our helicopter ride and walk on the glacier. (23rd and 24th).
We had heard five days earlier that there had been an avalanche an hour north of us, and the road was blocked, but by now enough of the blockage had been cleared to allow traffic through for 5 minutes in each direction on the hour. If this blockage had been still impassable, we would have had to do a long detour; there are only three roads going north / south, only two in some places.
But again our luck was in, we only had to queue for 15 minutes or so, before the road opened and we drove past the bulldozers and huge pile of mud that had been brought down by the slip. Apparently the rainfall hadn't been more than usual, but it had followed an unusually dry period, which had made the terrain unstable.
Several hours drive later up the coast, past creeks and rivers, taking water from the Southern Alps, and we arrived at our Bach (beach hut) north of Greymouth, by Fox River) 25th and 26th). Here, all we do is visit Pancake Rocks, walk along Truman’s Walk through the rainforest to the lookout on the beach, and chill on the verandah of the bach, with the roar of the surf 15 yards away, and the sun sinking into the sea.

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