What a Road Trip!

Friday 17th February

A glorious sunny, warm (26°C), day and just a drive from Fox Glacier to The Anau ....... but what a wonderful drive. 

The first section was quick as we travelled through misty forest followed by a few kilometers along the sea shore before turning inland .  Here Highway 6 kicked into gear with beautiful views of both Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea - the water a stunning blue with steep hills rising out of the water.  All the way through this area we were crossing broad, braided rivers on very narrow, single track suspension bridges.  It was a cornucopia of glacial outwash features and moraines.

We then drove over the highest tarmac road in NZ - the Crown Range - again the views of valleys and mountains were superdoopa.  I was asked by two cyclists to take a picture of them both to record the epic ascent.  They spoke broad northern (sorry Dr C, not a scoobee if they were red or white rose) but they are on a round the world bike trip.  They have 6 more weeks in NZ  then fly to USA to cycle across it (as one does) then to Lisbon and cycle home! In kiwi tongue, "awesome".

The final stretch of our 7 hour trip was across farm land to Te Anau.  We actually saw quite a few sheep today as, despite the jokes, their numbers have halved in recent years to be replaced with cattle.  The farming is different here with the animals grazing in high stock densities in small fields, they are then moved to the next field.  It looks odd to us seeing all these fields with the stock crammed into just the occasional one.  There are also alpaca and venison farms.

Te Anau is a lovely lake side, small, town and gateway to the Fiords (no 'j' here).  Our accommodation is vying for top place.  We are in our own one bed cottage in the garden of the B&B owners with views over the lake.  It is a small slice of Utopia...