The road to Wanaka...

Yesterday we drove south to Wanaka. It was a journey of cold weather and lots of rain, coupled with some more of those twisty mountain roads in places.

We had just left Hokitika here and it wasn't raining....but not for long though...

 Our journey took us over and alongside many rivers. These river beds are very wide with huge amounts of pebbles and gravel exposed at the sides. You can just imagine what these rivers are like in spring when the ice and snow in the mountains melt... the rivers look very shallow and the water was so clear!

As we headed south the landscape changed and we drove through countryside that was thickly wooded. 

The first stop we made was to see the Franz Josef Glacier. The rain was heavier by now and we decided to just walk to the lookout and take photos and a video from there. DH and I took turns to use our cameras while the other one held the umbrella over the camera. Last time we were at this glacier, some rain got into our camera...it iced up (it was early July) and did irreparable damage so we were very careful this time. The photos use the zoom but are not good quality. Let's just say that they show the 'essence' of the place! lol

That's the glacier in the middle of the photo, flowing down the valley

 We then drove to another lookout farther along and took some more photos. Again we are a long way away.

The glacier is in that misty part of the photo toward the middle. There are some streams in this photo too.

 After this we drove on to where the Fox Glacier is. We took a walk on the tracks to a lookout but again the weather was quite appalling. I left my camera in the car! There are organised tours where you can walk on the glacier as well as helicopter rides which will take you above the glacier for a great view and will land apparently so you can walk on it a little way too. But we had to be content with just looking at it from a distance.

Here's another bridge crossing...this river was very wide like most of them were...

 Many of the bridges were one lane like this one...

Our mid afternoon stop was at Haast...lovely scenery around here too! We had coffee at a place called 'Hard Antler Bar'...I can't think how it got that name! lol

We finally arrived in Wanaka as darkness had fallen. We have rented a house in a resort for the next 4 days. DsD1 and her partner were waiting for us as they are sharing the house with us.

DsD1 and Dan

It was lovely walking into a lovely warm house. Then we all headed down the road for a big get together of wedding guests at the local alehouse where we had a scrumptious meal and got to meet some of Karl's relatives and friends.