glaciers meet rainforests

Leaving Lake Wanaka to the Westcoast over Haast Pass, we were expecting it to be another "highway to hell" like our unspecatular journey to Milford!! Fortunately not! :-)

It was amazing ...as always.... scenic route and it was just us and the road. We actually saw sheeps running around without fence and they were standing right next to the road. Sooo cute!!  
Haast Pass winds right through a lush rainforest - its fresh smell is incredible - and right through to the Tasman Sea. As backdrop are the snow covered mountains... awesome! After three hours driving we are actual in the middle of nowhere... Haast is a little town... no, five houses and two lodges and one supermarket.... pretty much happening here! It's more or less a base for the people going to the glaciers. 

That's what we are going to do tomorrow. If the weather is clear we'll go for a half day hike on the Franz Josef glacier... with ice axes and stuff... that sounds real fun. 

Oh, still no photos to upload since the PCs are sooo slow, it would take ages.... shortly, when we reach civilisation... that's be in about 500 km up the coast... there might be a real internet cafe again.... maybe, but with the kiwis... you never know!  ;-)

let´s conquer the west coast

After spending the night in uneventful Queenstown ... we went on to a small town right next to it, called Arrowtown. It was sooo pretty, it had one Main Street and looked like out of a Western movie, with little stores instead of the salons. Really pretty. 

Then we went on .... driving all alone on the winding roads to Lake Wanaka. Also, really beautiful and laid back town.

There we hiked up Mt Iron in what felt like 30 degrees C. Why is the route up the mountain allways in the sun and the way back hidden in the shadow? Up that Mountain we had the most breathtaking 360 degree view over Lake Wanaka and the whole area.... amazing. The widness of the country is amazing.... there doesn' t seem to be a border at all!