We got sidetracked in the Kawarau Gorge and checked out the Chinaman's Village in the old goldfields amongst some rain showers and ended up getting into Wanaka late.
Next morning saw us heading off into bands of thick fog and past a moody Lake Hawea before crossing The Neck to a grand view of peaks with fresh snow caps over Lake Wanaka.
The sun kept shining through the Haast Pass where we visited the salmon at Blue Pools and Fantail Falls.
Near Fantail Falls, it was with a slight sense of loss that we looked across the serene shallow waters of the Haast River to the start of the Brewster Hut track.
This was a great contrast to the raging torrent and thick low clouds we saw there 2 years before.
If we had kept to the original plan, we would have been descending down in bright sunshine at that time.
After lunch at Haast we did a short walk at Ship Creek. This is an area of coastal lakes and dunes.
The west coast is littered with driftwood and it was a delightful walk along the beach and back through forest.
- Driftwood at Ship Creek
- View south over lagoons and beach at Ship Creek
We were pushing hard with an eye on the clock as we had booked ahead for a chopper flight onto Franz Joseph with some extended glacier walking.
Making it with minutes to spare, we were advised that the cloud had dropped too low, so the flight was cancelled.
Rejigging our plans, we did the walk to the face of the Franz Josef Glacier only to find that the main snout was blocked by a large rock.
The 2 big glaciers here vary a lot year by year, and we had happened on it much bigger only 2 years before.
We were staying at Fox, but based on the previous time there, I thought we might be able to sneek in a scenic flight before sunset.
Having got the go ahead, we had a long wait for the pilot to turn up, but all was good as the cloud continued to lift the longer we waited.
It ended up being a sunset flight and the cloud had cleared a lot giving some amazing views over the mountain tops as well as over the glaciers.
The pilot took us north to the small Middleton Glacier where we landed for a brief stroll at 1900m high before flying back over both glaciers.
The sun was setting as we landed.
- Mounts Tasman and Cook from the Middleton Icefield