We left Wanaka going North on State Highway 6, threading the mountains between Lake Wānaka and Lake Hāwea which gave more great views of lakes and mountains. Then we headed into Mount Aspiring National Park where we saw steeper mountains and some waterfalls. Finally, we crossed over the mountain range at Haast Pass to reach the West Coast. We stopped at the visitor information center at the mouth of the Haast river to eat our picnic lunch and admire the views.
From there we headed north along the coast towards Glacier Country. We stopped at a couple places to see the beach and take pictures. The forests next to the coast were getting more dense and tropical looking as we headed north. The road continued to be challenging with lots of curves and climbs as we hugged the rugged coast. We crossed many one-lane bridges along the way.
The high valleys of the New Zealand Southern Alps are covered in glaciers, but seeing them up close is not easy as they are hard to access. You pretty much need to take a helicopter if you want to actually walk on the glaciers – something we decided we didn’t need to do (we get enough snow and ice in MN ;-). The first glacier we had the opportunity to glimpse was Fox Glacier. We saw it from a lookout very far away – it was basically a grey/blue blob between two mountain peaks that you can see in the first picture below. We walked a very nice rainforest trail here around Matheson Lake. The lake is known as a mirror lake as it gives an amazing reflection of the mountain range – and New Zealand’s highest peaks: Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. Unfortunately, the lake wasn’t smooth when we were there in the afternoon – and the mountain tops were shrouded in clouds. As we were leaving, a hole in the clouds revealed Mount Tasman briefly for us.
We continued north to our campground in Franz Josef township, which is a cute little town catering to glacier tourists. Our campground was called the Rainforest Retreat, and our site was nestled right in the rainforest. We had ferns, mossy trees and vines all around our camper.
The next day we took a couple hikes at the base of the Franz Josef glacier. The first one was a short walk that ended with a good view of the glacier and its vast moraine (debris field). The glacier itself, however, was still pretty far away up high in the valley. 100 years ago, the glacier actually terminated where we were standing and has been melting ever since. It was pretty stunning to see how far it had shrunk.
We then hiked to a place called Peter’s Pool. It was a small glacier-formed kettle lake that did a nice job reflecting the mountain behind. It was along the way to our next hike called Roberts Point Track. This was our favorite hike of the trip so far. It crossed the wide river below the glacier on a long suspension bridge then followed along the river’s steep slope on a rocky trail through enchanting rainforest. The trail was full of beauty and interest. There were many rocky steps to climb, waterfalls to traverse, swinging bridges to cross, boulders to scramble over and even some amazing wooden floating stairs along one cliff face. The suspension bridges were fun – swaying and bouncing. And one was really long. We made it pretty far on the trail, but had not planned to go all the way to the top as the boulder scrambles at the top could be treacherous. We were very happy with the amount of trail we accomplished and did not want to risk a broken ankle or worse.
After our hike, we grilled some steak, boiled some corn and opened a bottle of local pinot noir to enjoy in our rainforest campground. We had a great time in Franz Josef!
Leave a Reply