From Queenstown, we took a quick but windy ride out to the historic pub in Glenorchy and back (200 k), just for the nice road experience. They served a great looking home made Pizza there.

We rode with a grey sky via Arrowtown and Crown Range to Wanaka with a stop in sunshine at Cardrona Hotel for a handle (pint) local Cardrona beer. Great old pub. Wanaka was a ritzy and popular alpine tourist area by the Wanaka Lake. Towards Haast, the drizzling rain added another fantastic dimension. The mountain sides along the beautiful road to Haast came alive in streams and falls that made us feel we rode through waterfalls. I realised what Max (Invercagill) tried to say about Milford being spectacular when it rained. Very pretty.

The Fox glacier roads had muddy gravel from the rain, which was too much, so we headed for Franz Joseph glacier instead where it was dry and sunny and we took the glacier tour. It was a five hour hike (bus and special guides) with spiked mountaineer shoes. It was a hard exercise, much fun and etched memories of something like an Ayers Rock made of Ice trying to squeeze its way down between mountain tops. We squeezed ourselves through tall cracks in the ice, what a feeling.

Back to the scenic roads until dark and then a B&B for the night. Nice and homey.

The rest of the west coast had seal colony lookouts, pancake rocks etc. on our way to Hokitika, Greymouth, Westport and then up to Karamea, back to Westport and across the southern island to Blenheim, bypassing the town of Nelson this time.

The 3.5 hour crossing on the ferry (Blue Bridge) late on the 4th Feb was in full storm, with most passengers in a very "passive" mode.

 

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