Wanaka to Glaciers

 From Wanaka we drove through the Mount Aspiring National Park via some nice windy roads again and more beautiful views. We stopped at the waterfalls known as ‘ Roaring Billy’. Haast Beach which was very isolated and felt like middle of nowhere was a nice beach but full of sand flys. We stopped overnight in a quiet and basic campsite in Okaroa, which turned out to be a good call. The girls didn’t argue (too much) for a change and entertained themselves on a basic swing and a big pile of sand. Until this most parks we have been to have had great play parks, go-karts, trampoline etc. to keep them busy… actually here they had nothing else than a swing and they played much nicer, which was bonus for us! We could relax and have some peace and quiet … which we appreciate more when you are with them 24/7.

From here we drove to the Glaciers. On way there we saw many more beautiful places one such place was Bruce Bay. The long beach was full of driftwoods. Other travellers had written their names and messages on white pebbles and then placed them on the roadside along the beach, there were quite a few… The Hunt’s Adventures left their own there too!

We did the walk to the Fox Glacier which was an hour round trip. The girls did really well again, considering the path was pretty much uphill all the way to the glacier and a very rough uneven rocky path. There were several stepping stones over the small streams.

It was amazing to see how much the Glacier has receded over the years, even six years ago you could have just parked on the carpark and walked round the corner to the glacier…now it’s a half an hour walk to see it! Glad we did see them as who knows how long they will be there for, which is a real shame. The glaciers are rapidly moving, flowing down to sea level and are very reactive to changes in the local weather conditions. The high annual rain and snowfall means that about 30m of snow falls on the top of them every year. This is pushing the ice down the valleys up to 10 times faster than in most valley glaciers.

We found a great top10 campsite near the Fox Glacier town, where the girls could again argue about go-karts, trampolines and playgrounds… end of our relaxing holiday ;) In the evening we drove down to a lookout point to see sunset against the Fox Glacier but got eaten by mosquitos again!