Twizel to Haast- Just when you thought it could not get better!

We had to retrace our steps for about 90 minutes as we are driving to Haast in the West Coast of South Island. We left the Hotel around ten and headed back over the Lindis Pass which was much nicer today as the sun had appeared. We travelled over to Lake Wanaka where we stopped for a quick lunch before heading North again on route 6 to our next destination called Haast, a World heritage Site.

The journey started off by travelling next to Lake Hawea for about 20 miles and then this lake petered out and we rejoined Lake Wanaka for a while. We were surrounded by high mountains covered in trees and with snow on the very tops. We came across a waterfallcalled The Gates of Haast which was very beautiful, this journey ranks as one of the best we have completed. Yes, the mountains are not so dramatic as those leading up to Milford Sound but somehow with all the greenery, lovely perfectly coloured lakes and millions and millions of trees all waving in the sunlight you begin to run out of superlatives to describe the journey. Just Bloody great!!!

After about 4 hours we arrived in Haast to stay the night. Actually there is not much here apart from one Hotel where we are staying and perhaps two or three Motels, two dogs and cat.

We had decided to stay here and booked in advance as the next main town was about a further two hours away and we thought the journey from Twizel to The Glacier Franz Josef would be too long a day and we were right.

We had an early meal of fish and chips at the café in the Hotel, not great, but we have had worse and then drove up the long road to Jackson Bay only to find it was further away than we thought and so we gave up and came back. This place is at the end of the road and basically you cannot go any further South. There is no Mobile/Cell phone coverage here and the Hotel Internet speed (28 minutes to log on,read three emails and replied to two)is well placed amongst the African states. This is a World Heritage Site and one of the few remaining natural areas in the world today. Our part drive down to Jackson bay was like going through a South American rain forest and very remote. The Hotel is fairly basic and expensive for the accommodation but beggars cannot be choosers. The weather forecast for the next few days is pretty good and so we will try to sort out a Scenic Flight in the next day or two.