Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea almost overlap, side by side, and there is narrow stretch of land between the two and this strip is so narrow that they're close to joining up. I am amazed at how many lakes there are down here - I had no idea there was so much water in this part of the country.
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These are two different lakes beleive it or not. Below is Lake Wanaka
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
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These are two different lakes beleive it or not. Below is Lake Wanaka
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
and this is Lake Hawea
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
This is what you get with a new photographer – more arty shots. Make the most of it, they’ll be ending once Mark goes to Sydney after Christmas!
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
We stopped off at a few waterfalls, this one was the Fantail Falls and I headed across to make the photos a bit more interesting.
I’m not sure if it worked but a few tourists on the other side of the river were not impressed with someone doing cartwheels and ruining the view! I nearly crippled myself doing those cartwheels. I threw myself into it with a bit too much energy and my legs went further in the air than I had anticipated. Ouch.
The river wasn’t deep but it was fast flowing and really cold and I thought twice about going across with my pack (with laptop and camera in it) on my back.
Next stop was Haast Gate, a river that is channelled between some craggy cliffs and some massive boulders. The result was a ferocious mass of water that was pummelling the rocks smooth. It might look like Mecano but the metal contraption is actually the road bridge
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
Of course Mark headed down for a close-up look at the rushing water and he gives the boulders some scale.
More waterfalls on the way and these were a short walk into the bush
then we came across Mt Macfarlane… we’d been waiting for it to appear!
On the other side of the river was Marks Range so all in all, a great place to stop.
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
When we got to the West Coast, we stopped in Haast for a coffee
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
and spotted a lady taking her pet fawn for a walk
Then we really hit the wild wild west coast
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
and we couldn’t resist stopping. The sea is a big draw card for Mark and I
and we decided to throw some wood around but I got it all wrong
then we had it
but Mark didn’t really need my help at all!
We’re not too sure how many patrons this church had. It seemed well looked after so we guess there are a few but in a country that has more golf courses than churches we couldn’t be too sure!
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
We made it to Fox Glacier and found it a bit dirty but impressive nonetheless. As is often the case, photos just don’t show the scale unfortunately but no-one was going near the glacier terminal. Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers are only about 23km down the road from one another and both end only meters above sea level.
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
The glacier looks a lot closer than it is and all paths to it were closed as there had been some rock slides
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
and looking at the size of the rocks that came down, you wouldn’t want to be under them! We crossed the rock fall (quickly but I did stop to take the photo) and made our way to safer parts.
Euan didn’t follow Mark and I down this rocky valley onto the riverbed and probably just as well as it was a bit unstable. I went for a skate down the rocks and luckily Mark was in the way on solid ground and stopped me.
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
Euan met up with us on the riverbed a bit further away from the glacier and we had a few beers that we cooled in the river.
While we were waiting for the beer to cool we looked for stones, played in the freezing water till our hands went numb and squiged our fingers through the super-fine silt, remnants of the rocks that the glacier had gouged its way over. We found a rock that looked just like a tooth!
and when we remembered the beer it was almost too cold to drink!
There were pools of water that were so incredibly blue and clear and you might be able to see how scarred the cliffs in the background were. Huge horizontal gouges out of the rock face. Glaciers are a scary force.
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
This is what you get with a new photographer – more arty shots. Make the most of it, they’ll be ending once Mark goes to Sydney after Christmas!
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
We stopped off at a few waterfalls, this one was the Fantail Falls and I headed across to make the photos a bit more interesting.
I’m not sure if it worked but a few tourists on the other side of the river were not impressed with someone doing cartwheels and ruining the view! I nearly crippled myself doing those cartwheels. I threw myself into it with a bit too much energy and my legs went further in the air than I had anticipated. Ouch.
The river wasn’t deep but it was fast flowing and really cold and I thought twice about going across with my pack (with laptop and camera in it) on my back.
Next stop was Haast Gate, a river that is channelled between some craggy cliffs and some massive boulders. The result was a ferocious mass of water that was pummelling the rocks smooth. It might look like Mecano but the metal contraption is actually the road bridge
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
Of course Mark headed down for a close-up look at the rushing water and he gives the boulders some scale.
More waterfalls on the way and these were a short walk into the bush
then we came across Mt Macfarlane… we’d been waiting for it to appear!
On the other side of the river was Marks Range so all in all, a great place to stop.
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
When we got to the West Coast, we stopped in Haast for a coffee
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
and spotted a lady taking her pet fawn for a walk
Then we really hit the wild wild west coast
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
and we couldn’t resist stopping. The sea is a big draw card for Mark and I
and we decided to throw some wood around but I got it all wrong
then we had it
but Mark didn’t really need my help at all!
We’re not too sure how many patrons this church had. It seemed well looked after so we guess there are a few but in a country that has more golf courses than churches we couldn’t be too sure!
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
We made it to Fox Glacier and found it a bit dirty but impressive nonetheless. As is often the case, photos just don’t show the scale unfortunately but no-one was going near the glacier terminal. Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers are only about 23km down the road from one another and both end only meters above sea level.
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
The glacier looks a lot closer than it is and all paths to it were closed as there had been some rock slides
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
and looking at the size of the rocks that came down, you wouldn’t want to be under them! We crossed the rock fall (quickly but I did stop to take the photo) and made our way to safer parts.
Euan didn’t follow Mark and I down this rocky valley onto the riverbed and probably just as well as it was a bit unstable. I went for a skate down the rocks and luckily Mark was in the way on solid ground and stopped me.
(Photo: Mark Cooper)
Euan met up with us on the riverbed a bit further away from the glacier and we had a few beers that we cooled in the river.
While we were waiting for the beer to cool we looked for stones, played in the freezing water till our hands went numb and squiged our fingers through the super-fine silt, remnants of the rocks that the glacier had gouged its way over. We found a rock that looked just like a tooth!
and when we remembered the beer it was almost too cold to drink!
There were pools of water that were so incredibly blue and clear and you might be able to see how scarred the cliffs in the background were. Huge horizontal gouges out of the rock face. Glaciers are a scary force.
Mark spotted something that we’d walked over on the way up and said “hey, isn’t that ice?”. He was right, it was. A massive chunk of ice that the glacier had left behind and was covered in gravel.
It was drizzling and cold but we were so intrigued with the ice that we stayed there for a while
before making our way back to the car
On the way Mark went into caveman mode and decided to see if he could break the ice. Yeah right! Euan stood there giving commentary along the lines of “man make fire” and, believe it or not, started to jump around a bit thumping his chest while Mark was busy beating the c*ap out of this mammoth piece of ice. I kid you not. I felt quite out of place.
Mark and I went into 4WD to get up the hill
and at the top, in the car park was another one of those vans!
We were bound for the town of Franz Joseph where we were staying the night and hoping to get up one of the two glaciers the next day.
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