This morning we woke to low cloud cover, so gave up the idea of seeing the glacier again. We were supposed to visit Fox Glacier today, so we’re glad we moved it to yesterday. We saved the lower elevation hikes and activities for today. We headed out on the Tatare Tunnels Walk, starting along an…

In Franz Josef, we are tucked up against the mountains but also close to the ocean, so weather tends to be quite variable depending on the time of day. We are finding mornings to be mostly clear with clouds rolling in by early afternoon. We got up early this morning and made the drive to…

The noise from helicopter tours is incessant in this town. The Thing to do is heli-hike on the glacier so there are helicopters flying around all day. It is ridiculously expensive for a very short amount of time. And since we have already done a glacier hike in Argentina, we are less than enthusiastic. Instead,…

Our three days in Wanaka have flown by! We left the lake this morning on our way to Franz Josef. We realized we didn’t take an actual photo of Mount Iron yesterday and since we were driving right by, here it is: First we drove up “The Neck” a skinny isthmus between Lake Wanaka and…

Today we hiked the Mount Iron Track, about 5km up to the top of a rocky knoll just outside of Wanaka. Mount Iron is called a roche moutonnee, a rock formation created by the passing of a glacier. The hill is said to resemble and old french style wig that was smoothed with sheep fat…

We set out on Lake Wanaka today with Wanaka Cruises to Mou Waho Island, one of 4 islands in the lake. Mou Waho island has been cleared of introduced pests & predators (rats, stoats and possums) creating a reserve with diverse birdlife. The flightless Buff Weka has been ‘extinct’ on the mainland since 1920 but…

Lake Wanaka is ‘famous’ for the willow tree growing in the lake. It’s a popular spot for photographers! We tramped the Diamond Lake/Rocky Mountain Track today. A tough but lovely 6km mostly uphill! After hiking, we made a quick stop at the grocery store in town for dinner fixings. With relatively good timing, we made…

We said a sad goodbye to our rainforest lodge this morning and headed inland to Wanaka passing through Mount Aspiring National Park. We stopped at Ship Creek to walk the Dune Lake Track, a nice loop that starts in the forest and ends at the beach. Wilson Creek Chasm is somewhere between 800m and 1.5km…

Our lodge owns a secret penguin breeding area that is closely guarded from the public. Protection of these birds includes keeping the area free of dogs, rats and stoats to limit predation. Due to the mild human caretaking this rookery has grown from 30 breeding pairs to over 100 in the last 30 years. Meanwhile…

We completed the drive through Arthur’s Pass today, heading to the west coast with plans to stop several times. Our first surprise stop was about 1km down the road. The Bealey River Bridge was having some work done and closed to traffic for about half an hour. There are tons of one-lane bridges out here…