March 19 Monday
We have been very fortunate with our weather. Rain on travel days and sunny on excursion days. Monday, our departure day from Fox Glacier, was no exception. Fox Glacier was socked in with heavy grey skies and there would be no heli flights or lake reflections.
We had a nice drive to Wanaka with several hours of heavy rain. But we still stopped at several recommended sites to hike. That’s why we brought raincoats.
Ship Creek is a pullout park on the Tasman Sea with a dune walk, information plaques and a lookout tower. The sea was rough and beach filled with big driftwood, entire trees.
We stopped at Roaring Billy Falls for a wet walk through a forest to view a roaring falls across the river.
Haast Pass is supposed to be a glorious drive but in the rain it wasn’t.
We did stop at the famous Curly Tree shack for a whitebait patty. Little fish that are hardly big enough for bait mixed with eggs fried on a griddle and served on white bread. Not worth $10.
Last stop was for a hike to the Blue Pools. Fun hike in the rain across a swing bridge. Pools were roaring but were not blue today.
As we neared Wanaka the skies started clearing. By the time we got to Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawee the sun was out and views were glorious.
Wanaka is well laid out with miles of open park space around the lake, plenty of restaurants and shops.
Along the waterfront is a sidewalk lined with tiles for maybe a half mile. It’s called the Millennium Walkway project and each tile represents a year in history through 2000 listing significant events in NZ and world wide as well as community milestones like getting electricity and a supermarket. Very interesting walking through 2000 years. You see how young NZ really is.
