Sandflies irritated us as we packed the car and left Haast. We ran out of time yesterday so returned to Fox Glacier to walk to the terminal face. We couldn't get closer to the ice than 100 metres but it was a massive improvement on Franz Josef glacier.
We followed the glacier walk with a visit to Lake Matheson, which is renowned for its reflective qualities and features in most New Zealand calendars for the month of December with the Southern Alps in the background being reflected in its waters. Well, the weather was not an improvement on yesterday and the lakes waters were far from still and mirror like, the Alps could not be seen for cloud. We completed the circuit walk regardless which made a pleasant walk but on returning to the car the weather had closed in and began to spit light showers. Ian took a decision to drive to Gillespies Beach, 20 kilometres from Fox Glacier along a gravel road. He had learned that there was a fur seal colony there. Pity it was a 3 hour walk from the car park by the beach! We declined the walk. Instead we clambered back in to the car and headed to Monro Beach where Ian had learned penguins nest. It was a good 1.5 hours return walk but the thought of seeing penguins won our vote and we set off. We made good time and reached our destination in 25 minutes, having slipped in the creek at the start of the walk...
There weren't any penguins but there were a couple of seagulls feeding from some dead fish lying on the beach. Sandflies were following us around and we were becoming quite aggitated by them. We soon returned to the car and drove on the Wanaka, our accommodation for the night. The cloud thickened over the Alps and the sky was grey with rainclouds. As we drove south over the Haast Pass the sky began to clear over the west and the first glimpse of the snow-capped mountain peaks we saw was as we reached Lake Wanaka and adjacent Lake Haurea. There were stunning views of the mountain ranges over the lakes.
A brief stop at Ship Creek caused us many an annoyed hour as Ian opened the car door to a zillion sandflies that swarmed inside the car. He hadn't realised what he had done and left the car door open to them allowing access for more of the little critters. Me, sitting inside the car, could have killed him. We spent the next 2 hours trying to force them out from the car by shoving the air conditioning on full blast with the windows open. I had to hold our towels out of the window to rid them of sandflies while Ian drove at 100 km/h, splatting the biting blighters as he drove! Eventually we saw the funny side of it, especially as I punished him for his stupidity by forcing him to eat up all of the revolting tasteless hard gums!
Wanaka strikes me as a very nice town with plenty of shops and restaurants to keep you entertained. It has beautiful mountain landscapes surrounding its lake and is small enough to be homely and is situated within accessible distance from Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Te Anau and Queenstown. It is very appealing indeed.
We opted for a cheap Chinese takeaway and ate from polystyrene plates with plastic forks in our room in front of the television. We have a showing of Shakespeare in Love to accompany our feast. An advertisement appeared just a moment ago announcing that there are three things you mustn't forget this Christmastime. The first, suncream... It's not often you hear that!
Todays journey took us 456 kilometres from Haast to Wanaka.