Today we were heading away from the West coast with its lakes and fjords and into the mountains over the Hast pass. This is the only way to get from the South West coast to further up North on the west coast, it’s often impassable in the Winter but at the moment it should be fine. One the other side we rejoin the coast and then go inland a short way to the foot of the mountains and the 7 Glaciers.
The mountain road is much talked about, but to be honest it was a lovely drive, its two way road all the way with plenty of room at the sides and lots of lay-bys to stop and admire the views. It 100% better than any of the mountain passes in Cumbria and Scotland and as a result we really enjoyed the drive. Dropping off the pass we had the only bad meal of the journey when we stopped for breakfast at a cafe, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either, and so far all the food we have had eating out has been brilliant.
Despite this the view when rejoining the coast were fabulous, the beaches were long and covered in drift wood washed ashore but not a sign of any rubbish or plastics. We stopped for a while to watch the waves break and a lone surfer enjoying the swell. We also detoured to a small lake to admire the view before heading over to the foot of the mountains and a glacier view point at the nature reserve.
Here we watched the native swamp hens, Masked Lapwings and fantails, all with the backdrop of 7 glaciers pouring out of the mountains.
Then it was back to the car and up into Franz Joseph which is a small town at the foot of the Franz Joseph glacier , where we had booked a cottage for two nights. We had also booked a helicopter flight up to and over the glacier for tomorrow, so we headed to the office to get details where we were informed that the wether didn’t look good for our flight tomorrow so we left with fingers crossed to the local micro brewery for our dinner which was magnificent !
Coming back from our dinner with our cameras in hand we were greeted with 6 Kia birds ( native NZ Parrots) wandering about the grass right outside our house ! At last we had found them, and we spent a good hour as the light faded trying to get as many photographs as possible before it got too dark ! The perfect end to a great day exploring.
The following day was wet and windy and we were told that no helicopters would be flying, gutted we arranged to try the following day before we drove to our next destination and we defiantly crossed everything. Deciding not to waste our day we headed up into the valley behind our house along an old mining track, the path wound through the native wood up to a huge gorge where a small suspension bridge allowed us to cross and admire the glacial run off below. Our return route below was cut off due to a recent landslide caused by the melt coming of the glacier, so we would our way back through the woodland for another great meal at the brewery.
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