But, back to Milford Sounds and we woke up bright and early the next morning (breakfast was served from 6:50 until 7:30) to cruise down to the mouth of the fjord where it was very easy to realise why Cook missed it on both of his journeys by the sound. The entrance is truly hidden from view with a series of overlapping ranges and the rocky waves dissuaded all but the most dedicated seal-hunter from discovering the Sound. When it was discovered, it was quickly named as the most beautiful that New Zealand had to offer and rubbing the sleep from our eyes at 7:30 in the morning, we could easily see why.The rest of the journey was the usual beautiful scenery followed by even more. The clouds had cleared and we managed to see the tops of the surrounding snow-covered mountains that we had missed the night before.
The beautiful day continued during our drive back from Milford Sounds to Queensland where we turned north to follow the coast road to Wanaka where we would stay the night before heading onward.Wanaka
We arrived in Wanaka a little ahead of schedule and managed to check ourselves into the highly rated Wanakabakpaka hostel and went for a wander down to the bay. The weather had been so lovely today that it was very nice to stretch our legs a bit and soak in a little of the local scenery.
As the trip to our next stop (Haas) was only 3 hours long, we decided to spend the morning in Wanaka and rent a couple of bikes and see a bit of the scenery. Or so I thought. Apparently Johan's idea differed a little from mine which I should have picked up when we hired a couple of mountain bikes. It seems that Wanaka is the mountain biking capital of NZ and no trip is complete if you haven't careened down the tracks and attempted death- and gravity-defying feats. Once he realised that that wasn't going to happen with me behind the wheel, we headed for the more gentle path around Lake Wanaka and up one of the rivers flowing out of it. A very lovely trip.After the bike ride we jumped into the car and headed out of town. It was impossible not to stop at Puzzleworld which, as it turned out, had one of the best mazes that I've been to for a while. The beautiful weather also helped.
Haas
We followed the road, stopping from time to time to do a walk or two on our way to Haas. We are both puzzled about why this town exists as it seems to have nothing more than an industry in whitebait and its convenient stop off point on your way to one of the glaciers going for itself. There is nothing else that we could find there. Puzzling...
The next morning we pushed on to the second big pull of this part of the country... the glaciers.
Fox Glacier
Not to be confused with the well known sweets... I had never (knowingly) seen a glacier before - apparently I may have skied on one in the Alps but it's hard to tell with all the snow and ice there - but that experience is completely different from when you encounter one in a forest setting in the early New Zealand summer. The pictures struggle to fully capture the colour and magnitude of this glacier and as we watched with jealously, the hikers on the top of the glacier, we looked forward to our turn tomorrow as we too ascend the Franz Joseph glacier and uncover some of the secrets of this ancient block of ice.
