Retirement Trip ......Cut short part 4

The Franz Joseph Glacier - the photographs are in no particular order.  The drive from the overnight lake campsite gave us tantilising glimpses of the glacier and we were excited to be able to see it from quite a distant away. We stopped in town and went to the tourist information office for a coffee and to pick up a walks map.  You can basically do a self guided walk to the final viewing platform, which is a safe distance from the end of the glacier. Its quite shocking how the glacier has receded over time but still a spectacular view.  The walk takes about 2 hours round trip and is reasonably easy going, a few ups and downs but mainly across the glacier floor

We planned to go to the Fox Glacier the following day so got a campsite in preparation.  This was a through the clouds view on the way back from dinner, by the time we went to bed it had really clouded up and the forecast was for rain

This was some really good apple cider, we may have had several of these!!

As expected the rain came during the night and we woke to pouring rain and sullen skies.  We decided to give the glacier a miss and spent the day in and out of rain but an enjoyable scenic drive through sub tropical vegetation and craggy rocks through to bracken covered hillsides and LOTS of lakes.  We called into a salmon farm along the route, where we purchased the first of many samples of smoked salmon, and we ate a fair amount of it over the weeks, so good.

We ended the day in Wanaka a pretty lakeside town.  Good restaurants and a yarn shop, of course it would have been rude not to have bought something wouldn't it? 

So all this time our fridge was still giving us problems, the smell every time you opened it was awful and I had cleaned it out three times.  Various emails bounced back and forth to the camper on the road team and it was decided we would take the van back into the depot in Queenstown, so that where I'll leave it for today. Catch you later

Retirement Trip ..... cut short part three

Hokitika, a small town famous for its glass and jade.  Much was in evidence in the shops and galleries.  We watched an interesting glass blowing demonstration in one gallery, not my kind of thing but clever nevertheless.

What interested us more was the sheer amount of driftwood along the beach, and the clever use of it.  See below some of the amazing artwork created

From Hokitika we drove out to the Hokitika Gorge about 33km away.  We were blown away by the views and I even managed to walk the swing bridge without too much panic.  The water wasn't quite the turquoise of the photos in the above link due to excessive 'glacial flour' but still pretty spectacular nonetheless

We decided that we would try to drive to Lake Keniare but soon realised that the road was unsuitable for a camper van!!  

Our overnight stop was our first night on a basic campsite at Lake Mahinapua - a peaceful spot with just very basic facilities.  But the perfect view to enjoy a gin and tonic and watch the sun go down

I'll leave you there today.  Next stop Franz Joseph Glacier