Day 14 Thursday, Sep. 09 -- Arrowtown to Wanaka to Fox Glacier

Synopsis

We spent most of the day driving southwest towards the West Coast of the Southern Island. We stopped briefly at Wanaka (another beautiful lakeside mountain town dubbed as the next Queenstown). We took a slight diversion to see Mount Aspiring National Park, which was shrouded by low clouds. We continued on by a couple of sizable mountain lakes, ending up on the West Coast near the foot of Fox Glacier for the night.

Detailed Journal

This morning we were up around 7am and refreshed the campervan water supplies before heading to Arrowtown for a nice full breakfast to counter last night’s bottle of wine. We went to Café Mundo, based on the description in one of our guidebooks. We were there at 830 (and apparently beat the rush by about 15 minutes). After breakfast, we walked the streets of Arrowtown and checked out the local shops, picking up our souvenir sheepskin.

After Arrowtown, we took Cordrona Road to Wanaka. After a brief stop at the Visitor’s Center in Wanaka, we decided to take the scenic road through Mt. Aspiring National Park. We stopped at the designated viewing locations of Mt. Aspiring for some quick snapshots, but cloud cover prevented full view of the awesome peak. We admired several tall waterfalls along the route. We drove out past Treble Cone ski field until we reach a creek that ran through the road marked “4-wheel drive recommended”. We both thought we could make it, but given that the cloud cover was pretty thick, the risk outweighed the benefit this time. We turned around and headed back for Wanaka, stopping briefly to view the area where the scene depicting the Fellowship’s journey south from Rivendale in the Lord of the Rings took place.

We stopped again in Wanaka to call ahead to a campervan hook-up site in Fox Glacier and to do a little shopping (we weren’t sure what time we would get into Fox Glacier). We then headed towards Fox Glacier, stopping whenever possible to admire some beautiful scenery and Thunder Creek Falls. As evening approached, the winding road revealed several possums, which at the time we thought were stouts, an animal that was brought into NZ to control the rabbit population, but apparently has a strong affinity Kiwi’s, the national bird, and the Royal Albatross – both are endangered birds.

We arrived at the campsite (Fox Glacier Lodge), did some laundry, ate cheese-filled tortellini with marinara sauce, did some journaling, showered and downloaded some pictures before retiring to bed. Tonight’s wine was a 2003 Villa Maria Chardonnay, East Coast, New Zealand Wine. It had quite a kick. We both thought it was slightly below average as a chardonnay goes.

Pictures

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