Day 25

First things first, drove to the toilet then had sandwiches for breakfast, trapped in the car by sand flies. After collecting a bag of rubbish we forgot, went to Lake Ellery. A local greeted us on arrival, telling us a little about the area, including a legend of a long boot full of gold somewhere in the hills. A tranquil walk lead to a peacefully resting lake nestled in the mountains. 20 minutes down the road was the short Hapukla Estuary Walk. Obtained a fun fact: Outcast Island is the only island on the West Coast and is free of sand flies and mossies, but has NZ’s only population of land based leeches. We drove back to Haast. We played a new guessing game instead of our Pokemon one and tried to guess what type, colour or number plate would have the next car we drove past. Stopping at Haast township, we went in a cafe for lunch. Halfway through when Jack got his chips, Marianne saw a weird looking piece of cheese. She started to panic as she is allergic to mold on food. She seemed OK with minor allergic reaction so we kept driving to Roaring Billy for a pretty short walk.

Marianne started to feel worse so we stopped to the next stop Pleasant Flat. She started to cough and breath loudly. Jack luckily found a nice old lady who had a puffer. Feeling a little better, Marianne ran to the toilets and had to take medicine in a hurry. We tried to do a little bush walk near the camping ground but Marianne couldn’t stop itching herself. There were plenty of sand flies trying to eat us alive but she had a new allergic reaction which gave her red eruptions on her skin. We kept driving and stopped to see the thunder creek falls. Quite impressive but our next stop was better at Fantail Falls where some people were skipping stones to the other side of the river. Jack attempted to knock over a pile of stones that tourists couldn’t stop building everywhere but we had to go back to the car as the rain started to fall heavily. Marianne was a bit better thanks to the medicine and the walk up to Haast pass lookout was pretty epic. We climbed 500 meter in 15 minutes and reached a magnificent view of the snowy mountains around. A nice couple took us in picture and we sat for few minutes to catch our breathe and admire the stunning landscape surrounding us. Heading down we did next Cameron Creek and the blue pools crowded of people. The water still wasn’t turquoise due to the heavy rain since few days, but the walk on swinging bridges was still enjoyable. In our next stop at Makarora, a lost town between mountains, we went to the toilets and did the nature walk. The sun popped out as we walk under a bushy forest. Satisfy we kept on driving the coastal road among plenty of other tourists.

Listening to our good tape of Queen, we did lots of stops (not as much as the Asians!) to admire the coastal view of the mountain chain. Marianne took a bunch of pictures but everywhere was pretty to look at. The sun was with us, right in time for the drive. We passed  Lake Hawea which seemed to be a lovely town above the lake and finally arrived to Wanaka. It was crowded! People were crossing and driving everywhere! Such a chaos after all the time we passed, driving on wild and empty area. For sure everyone were here to stock up on food and fuel like us. We did a quick shopping for dinner, already overwhelmed by the mass around. We drove away near the water under the trees to have dinner. The weather was a bit chilly but still no rain! We had lentils and rice, passion fruit drink and maltesers. Nicely full, the big problem next was to find somewhere to sleep without having to pay an expensive fee or fine… Also we finally had reception! So many messages popping out on Marianne’s phone since the earthquake in Christchurch. It was good to play Pokemon again and get some gyms back! Luckily we found a “maze” away from the town near the lake and could park there for the night, away from the busy town. (big point, no sand flies!)

Entree Written By Marianne