Traversing to the Tasman Sea

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  Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, September 16, 2008

It is Tuesday here and actually Paul's birthday back home. We get on the computer and skype and few folks back home. It is good to hear their voices.
After breakfast we head out to start our trek up the West coast of the South Island and are targeting Haast as our destination. Haast is 2 ½ hours from Queenstown. We stop several times along the way for waterfall pictures There are so many impressive ones. The first one is Thunder Creeks falls, a 30 minute walk from the road. It is beautiful.
Then we stop at the Fantail Falls and only Paul gets out to walk the 2 minute walk and get some pictures. We stop along the road as well to take pictures and eventually come to Roaring Billy Falls. It is quite amazing and the beautiful river that runs between us and the falls is surrounded by a huge rock dry river bed. Spectacular.

Waterfalls are everywhere

We arrive in Haast, eat lunch at a roadside diner and decide to not stay, but continue on to Fox Glacier and stay the night there. It is another 2 ½ hour drive and so we keep on trucking down the road, me knitting when the road is straight - we have traveled over several mountains - and we listen to music on the Ipod.
We arrive in Fox Glacier, find a room and settle in to stretch our legs...it has been a long day in the car. At 6 o'clock,, Paul realizes we have a really good chance for a terrific sunset so we load up and head 30 minutes toward a beach only to get there...and the sunset has disappeared. The interesting thing here is that if you look West, there is the Tasman Sea and the churning water and you turn East and there are the snowcapped mountains. So beautiful. So we didn't get our sunset pictures, but still finding this great little beach was worth the trip.
We decided to opt for cheeses, crackers and chocolate from the grocery store for dinner. Only as we pulled up, she was closing her doors. I asked are you closing, she said if you know what you want, come on and I will wait. You've got to love New Zealand!
It has been a great day...great scenery and great music.
There are dozens of single lane bridges here. You come upon them and find a sign telling you that you have priority or the opposing traffic has it. You wait and then cross once the bridge clears. The honor system seems to work pretty well.

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And everywhere else too	Sometimes getting to them is a challenge	But it is usually worth it	It can get rocky
Or narrow	But it is worth it	For what you see

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