Shy glaciers and blue pools.

We woke to a misting rain and grey skies in Hokitika, filling our car at a Challenge! petrol station - before negotiating our way south along State Highway 6 (no longer the Great Coast road, and not yet the Glacier Highway - so indecisive). Said negotiation made all the more trickier by a winding, wet surface (liberally scattered by used-to-be-possums), lined by an impenetrable undergrowth of cabbage trees, flax and tree ferns.

It appears that a fair chunk of the west coast of the South Island is intent on just washing into the Tasman (there were some decent storms last year). There were enormous land-slips at fairly regular intervals, a couple of traffic cones a handy pointer that the kerb was now a gaping chasm into the river below. This became fairly interesting as we moved up into the mountains - with boulders the size of graders perched precariously above us on fairly steep scree.

We grabbed some coffee at the township of Franz Joseph, but turned up our nose at the walk to its glacial face in preference for the Fox Glacier version. Our recollections of the Fox Glacier included a car park handily located at the start of the moraine (glacially-deposited debris dotted with brilliant blue pools) walk that lead right up to the face. Fast forward a decade - the road to the car park, and indeed the moraine walk itself, was gone entirely. 

The make-shift car park on the side of the road was jammed full of campervans, and the walk was now an estimated 2 hours return, instead of 20-30 minutes. 

These guys would have slightly gone
over the parking lines - if there were lines.

A little foolishly, we proceeded (despite some fairly hearty protestations by the teen members of our group). 

Insert pained groans here.

The "Glacier Viewpoint" unfortunately allowed me to put my telephoto lens to good use. Fox Glacier still looks lovely - it's just a little further away now.

I pushed on to the Riverwalk Viewpoint which provided essentially the same view. It appears that Fox Glacier has packed up and retreated to the mountaintop.

With Fitbits off the charts once again, we leapt back into the mighty X-Trail and resumed our journey south along the Glacier Road. New Zealand's affinity with single lane bridges on major roadways continued - some so long that they required their own passing lanes (you just can't see to the other end to give way).

We hadn't experienced sandflies at all while in NZ - which was about to change. Just before State Highway 6 threw a left across Haast Pass, we stopped at Knights Point lookout (as we did nearing 10 years prior). Turns out that the sandflies are still there - and have possibly expanded their operations.

Knights Point

We were past Haast Pass (try saying that three times quickly) township before we knew it - but travelled through the Pass for the next couple of hours.

We took a look at Thunder Creek Falls (which remained as thundery as ever) but gave Fantails Falls a miss and pressed on to the Blue Pools - which is the main attraction to be honest.

That's right - a 5 minute walk.

Thunder Creek Falls

The Blue Pools were quite a way off the track (not a patch on Fox Glacier or Cape Foulwind though), and we could hear the mountain stream before we could see them. They were glorious -  despite the numbers of tourists taking a look. There was a respectful hush - until a few nutty German lads started leaping from the cliff face - fortunately clearing the rocks below.

We skirted the enormous Lake Wanaka, before cresting some hills and setting eyes on the gorgeous Lake Hawea. Tourists were swerving off the road left and right just to take a picture upon seeing it.

Lake Hawea

A slightly closer view of Lake Hawea.

We passed through the outskirts of Wanaka and pressed on to Queenstown, taking the Crown Range Road (despite my reservations about yet more hills). Once we passed through Cardrona - the hillsides became absolutely littered with lupins. Jen was reasonably pleased about this. A crest of an enormous mountain and a series of hairpins down the side of that very mountain (which I enjoyed a little too much to be honest) later, we found ourselves on the outskirts of Queenstown and then to our accommodation for the next couple of nights. In retrospect - the Crown Range Road wasn't a bad way into town.