roadtrip!

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a beautiful drive down to tuatapere...

day one: drove along the SH6 from westport to Haast
left at 10:45 am...arrived 19:00pm

jeff drove the entire way as i am still learning how to drive standard....(so far i can start from stop without stalling 50% of the time)...

the first 100km of this drive is very beautiful and windy. lots of limesone cliffs and tropical palms along the west coast. the communities along this coast were established in the gold then coal -mining days. now they are largely tourism based.
we stopped in punakaiki at the pancake rocks and blowholes...

had lunch at a little cafe in greymouth...and then we headed south towards the glaciers.
we took a short break to walk around franz josef glacier and then we continued onto the Fox glacier region. we heard that there is a stunning walk around Lake Matheson, so we stopped again. apparently you can see mount cook from the reflection of the lake... it was a bit too cloudy and windy when we were there...but at least we got some exercise....and a delicious meal afterwards at a little restaurant by the lake.

then we drove on...our goal was to stop for the night in haast. we ended up finding a campground at Paringa lake, just before haast...so we camped out there. the sandflies were horrible! but we did have a gorgeous full moon reflecting off of the lake.

next morning, we continued on the Haast Pass, through Mt Aspiring National Park. Beautiful snow-capped mountains! We stopped at a little beach in the park to eat a picnic breakfast. Then we continued on towards Queensland. The scenery in this region was stunning. Many different types of mountains...As we got closer to Queensland, we entered the Otago region. It is quite dry here....similar to the Okanagan in BC. Lots of orchards and vineyards. We stopped at the Gibbston Vineyards/Cheesery and Restaurant for a delicious wine-testing and lunch. Jeff discovered that he doesn't mind a Pinot Gris. He also re-confirmed that he is not a fan of the NZ Green-lipped mussels. (I love both!)
Then we continued on south past Queenstown. Near Lumsden, we turned off the SH6 and headed southwest, towards Tuatapere. Lots of farms and sheep here!

We are settling into our home in Tuatapere (population 750). It is apparently the "sausage capital" of NZ... and apparently also has the latest sunset in the country. We are right by the southern tip of Fiordland National Park.

Our "home" is actually attached to the tiny hospital. (The clinic rooms are right beside our kitchen and bathroom..) Should be interesting....

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Photos

Lake Matheson
we were at "reflection island"....mount cook is hiding in the clouds

Lake Paringa
near Haast