Day 24

The rain was still falling heavily as we woke up near the highway. As the weather seemed to clear up a little after we got ready in Sue, we drove to the Fox Glacier to have porridge and be protected from the wind. Not many people were there yet to do the walk and we kept moving quickly before the next wave of rain. The walk was enjoyable, we were following a group of guides and environmental workers. The last bit was quite steep and gave us a good sweat! We made our way down to see a better lookout which showed us a view of all the glaciers top. After a quick snack, we went back to Lake Mathew to do the loop walk. The path was pretty crowded by diverse tourists. Sadly the lake wasn’t still and the mountains were lost in clouds. The rain caught us as we went back in town to got a full tank of fuel. I started to drive down the south, we got stuck in traffic while workers were repairing another single land bridge. Finally we pulled over at Bruce Bay to make some lunch near a very wavy sea. Our next stop under the rain was at the Salmon farm to use the toilets. Due to the rain, Jack couldn’t fart and open the windows to ventilate… We stopped at a lookout above the sea but everything was foggy as usual. We kept driving along the coast (and i got quite tired from usual stomach problems caused by constipation).

Jack pulled over at ship creek. There were lots of huge and bizarre cars going to “The Extragna” festival in Greymouth. We had a nice walk in the swamp where big crates for cheddar cheese were left to look at. We climbed the small tower to have a view of the beach. Then we did the other walk near the sea. We jumped back in the car to arrive at Haast and visit its information center. Haast seemed to be just a little junction to go to the Fox Glacier or to Queenstown. We did the tiny track around the center, saw some little eels, and then bought ice cream from a petrol station. The road was surprisingly strait down the south. However it was all bumpy because of the swamp area we were in. Nothing noticeable was on out way (apart from the huge mountains by our side) since we left the glaciers, we lost most of our neighboring camper vans and the way felt empty (lucky we had Queens but still no reception!). Arriving at Jackson Bay, only a few vans were there with us. It was still early, I used a lot the toilets, we walked on the pier and then did a nice walk going to the beach. Sand flies were everywhere so we went back quickly to the car. After lots of killing, the car was safer and we decided to stay in that desert town to sleep “legally”. We managed to cook our daily pasta and went to bed pretty early.

Entree Written By Marianne