Greymouth to Fox Glacier

Early start from Greymouth on our way to Fox glacier with the news of an earthquake off the coast of Wellington....a little concerned...but relieved when no damage reported...

A long and mountainous drive with tight curvy roads...some bends had us slow to 15km/hr...Many at 45km/hr ...slow going but such beautiful scenery around EVERY bend...it’s ridiculous.

Land of long white cloud was fast becoming the land of the low grey cloud.... we had booked a helicopter flight to the top of Fox Glacier to hike the ice and ice caves and generally take in the sights.

We arrived a bit early and took a drive to a viewing point of the glacier. I believe this is only half of what you can normally see.

Alas due to unusually low cloud our afternoon flight was cancelled and we rebooked for the first flight the following morning. They needed to know that not only could they get us on the glacier but also would be able to land and get us off again 2.5 hrs later.

We did the next best thing and took a walk around Lake Matheson. It is known as the perfect place to see Mt Tasman and Mt Cook which also reflect into the lake. As you see by “our” photograph there was no reflecting going on this day.

Here is a postcard suggesting what we should have seen.

We enjoyed the 1.5 hr walk before heading off to our B&B (homestay) for an easy night of sitting on the veranda drinking New Zealand red wine and a light dinner of cheese, biscuits etc.

Alas it was to be no helicopter flight and glacier hike for us... The cloud had actually got worse overnight and it was cancelled again in the morning. We were OK with that as safety was our priority.

So we started on our way through Hasst, Hasst Pass, Wanaka to Queenstown.

Though these 2 photos look similar, they are actually of 2 different lakes.
The country side was just stunning...rugged beauty...step mountains...very very step mountains...so hard to describe or even photograph...just doesn’t do it justice at all.