Wow, how different each day is. Yesterday was fantastic, today its cloudy and rainy again. We are heading out this morning, going toward Franz Josef Glacier.
But first we have the big Alpine climb over the pass from Queenstown to Cardrona, which is steep and twisty and sheer drops on every side. Nice enough views though and then it levels out for the run through to Wanaka, which is on the edge of a lake of the same name. We chose not to stop, just take a drive around as we have a fair way to go and the weather is turning dirty.
By the time we reach Makarora there is no visibility, we are driving through a cloud, and we are basically at sea level. Hard to imagine that there are towering mountains all-round, we just can't see them. We stop at the Makarora Country Cafe for a coffee and rest before we take on the Haast Pass. The cafe is decked out in lots of timber panelling and has a huge collection of number-plates decorating the walls, the ceiling, the beams...
Then its back out into the pouring rain and off to the pass. Now, based on nothing more than the name, 'Pass' and the fact that its in the middle the southern alps, we both expected a proper Alpine pass as we had experienced earlier. But no, it only climbs about a 100 metres and is nothing much. Sure the road is narrow enough, lots of one-lane bridges and near u-turns, but it was a bit of an anti-climax. In the middle is this fabulous bridge called the Haast Gates, spanning a raging torrent, and despite he rain, you've just got to stop and get out and have a look.
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| Haast Gate, Haast Pass NZ |
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| Haast Pass NZ |
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| Haast Pass NZ |
Eventually we arrive in Haast itself and we are looking out for the whitebait shop to satisfy our curiosity regarding this New Zealandish curiosity: the whitebait fritter. About the only thing we could find through the grey was the pub with a huge sign declaring that whitebait was available, so in we went. Now, i have to say that there isn't anything much nicer than walking in from the cold and rain into a big friendly comfortable pub with a huge fire burning in the grate. We ordered coffee and the 'whitebait teaser'. The coffee came and went and we waited and waited. Finally I went to enquire only to find that the dipsy girl at the bar hadn't actually posted the order. Not to worry, it came out in a hamburger style in just a few minutes and was, well bland to boring.
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| Outside pub. Haast Pass NZ |
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| Inside pub. Haast Pass NZ |
Disappointed, we left, but as soon as we turned the corner out of town, we found the real Whitebait shop, which is down someones driveway and out the back. We gave the humble whitebait fritter a second chance. This time the cook showed us the fish slurry and poured some out on the hot hot BBQ plate and threw on a slice of bread as well. In a few minutes he put the fritter on the single sided toast, added mint sauce and P&S. We tasted. It had more flavour and seemed a little less like an omelette than the first one, but again, it just didn't turn us on. The big black dog seemed to enjoy the end of my piece...
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| Whitebait Capital of the world. Haast NZ |
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| Finished in the traditional WestCoast style with mint sauce. Haast NZ |
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| This one's for Lauren & Daniel. Whitebait Capital of the world. Haast NZ |
On and on we went, finally coming to the turn off to Fox Glacier, scene of a tragic helicopter accident just last week, in which seven people died. You drive about 5 km up the river bed, park up and then walk 60 minutes to the viewing platform. The glacier is claimed to be 200 m past the viewing platform. Given that we had been on the road 6 1/2 hours and it was raining hard and you couldn't see 100 m in front of you due to the cloud, we decided not to.
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| Theres a whole mountain and glacier up there, somewhere. Fox Glacier NZ |
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| Looking back down the river bed. Fox Glcier NZ |
I was expecting to find some tribute to those that lost their lives in the accident, including the pilot, but except for a single bunch of wild flowers we saw a passing lady place at the turn-off, there was nothing.
Franz Josef is only 25k past Fox, but it took us 40 minutes to get there, the conditions were so poor. We did a drive-by of the Franz Josef glacier carpark before going to our motel, some 5km on the other side of the town of Franz Josef.
We had a look around town at the few trinket shops and checked out the various eateries as possibles for dinner. On our way around we found the Glacier Hot Pools which feature in all the brochures.
At the hot pools we found something much nicer than a fire: an outside private pool for 2 with fabulous bathroom and change room, all set in an unreal rainforest setting. We soaked ourselves for an hour, and after 7 1/2 hours, it was bliss.
To finish the day we went to the Speights inn for dinner, ate too much, again.
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