Well everything went to plan! We drove into Wanaka to shower and have breakfast then whilst Yvonne went to the hairdresser to have her locks shorn Glenn fuelled and serviced the van and collected the new camera from the post office. By 1230 we were all done and on our way out of town. At least Wanaka was a great place to spend more time.
After retracing the road from yesterday (and the day before!) we made further progress along the Haast Pass highway. Our first stop was the blue pools. Not really pools but the confluence of a stream with a river. Both very blue, granted, and where the stream ran through a narrow neck it formed a basin that a few crazy kiwis were jumping into from the suspension bridge some 10m above. The water must have been very cold because they were getting out of it as soon as possible. Also present there were the dreaded sand flies and Glenn was bitten many times, although the bites don’t seem to affect him.
Next up was Fantail Falls. It is a beautiful spot but, to be honest, we are getting a little waterfalled out now. Yvonne was more enamoured with the dozens of stone piles that had been left by visitors, however, as the stones along the river edge were very flat, she learned to skim stones from an old pro.
At the head of the pass we climbed up to a lookout point and enjoyed the first bit of bright weather of the day - well we are heading into the famously very wet west side of the south island. Looking across the valley we could see the headwaters of the Haast and Makarora rivers the flow down either side of the pass down to Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean respectively. Actually, the Makarora starting here flows through to outlet at the Pacific at the point where we saw our first lot of seals on the South East Coast.
The west of the pass is much more rugged and the road twists and turns hugging the contours of the valley and crossing numerous creeks, with amusing names, (e.g. Dead Horse, Boggy, Imp Grotto, Crikey, Bishop's Folly and Frolic Brook) that run down into the river. This road is a relatively new achievement being completed only in the 60’s after much hard work and only sealed in 1995. Apparently it costs a lot of money to keep it open now but without it the south western tip of civilisation is very isolated and where would the tourists go!
One more waterfall to go and it’s a biggy measuring 28m high. Roaring Thunder is another misnomer as, although high, it's more a graceful trickle. Maybe on a rainy day its complexion changes.
A short way further on we found a roadside pull off and spent the night on the banks of the, by now very wide, Haast river watching the sandflies landing on the window and glad we were tucked up in our van with no need to venture outside. Some youngsters arrived later in a smaller van and promptly performed the sandfly charleston as they cooked outside desperately trying to keep the flies away.
Throughout the day Glenn was busy learning some of the features on the new camera with copious clicking and squeals of delight. Meanwhile Yvonne discovered the old camera seemed to be ok now…
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| Yvonne sporting her new look. |
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| One of the locals jumping from the bridge to the Blue Pool |
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| The viewpoint at the Haast Pass lookout |
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| The piles of stones at Fantail Falls |
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| The rapids at the gates of Haast |
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| Roaring Thunder falls - hardly roaring. |
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| Our campsite on the Haast road. |
Boootiful hair Yvonne! do you never rest?
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