Woke up, and the weather was pretty decent, so I figured I’d do a small hike. Didn’t want to do anything too long, as I had a fairly long (close to 5 hours) drive ahead of me. The girl from Holland had vanished (no easy task since she was easily 6’3″), so I figured I’d just do a drive through the nearby Mt. Aspiring National Park. Had a quick drive through, but didn’t see any trails short enough to take. Headed back to Wanaka and made my way through the city towards the west coast of New Zealand. As I did, the weather started to take a turn for the worse, so hiking would probably have been a messy experience.
The drive was fairly uneventful, but once I hit the other side of Lake Wanaka, and that section of Mount Aspiring National Park, the views were outstanding. Unfortunately, it was fairly difficult to stop and take pictures on the narrow roads, and those places where you could stop were clogged with cars, so it wasn’t worth the hassle. Just imagine tree covered mountains with small waterfalls plunging down them, and strong rivers running through the park.
An hour or so into the park, I passed one of New Zealand’s many single lane bridges (each side takes turns crossing), and picked up Sebastian and Marion from France on the other side. They had been hiking for three days and were anxious to clean their clothes and have a warm shower. They wanted to be dropped off in Haast, which was on the way, but after driving through Haast, they decided they’d rather carry on to Franz Josef with me.
Spotted the Tasman sea for the first time (from the New Zealand side, at least), and the French boys asked me if I’d like to have some lunch at a salmon farm on the way to Franz Josef. We stopped at the farm, but the prices were outrageous, so we continued on to Franz.
In Franz I checked in, while the french boys set their tent up in the backyard of a hostel nearby. We went looking for lunch, but again ran into pricing dilemmas everywhere. Very expensive food in New Zealand, and Franz Josef was exceptional. We decided on the grocery store – I grabbed some canned salmon and pasta, and made a meal back at the hostel.
Later I was heading into the city to take some pictures of the cloud covered mountains, when Marion and Sebastian called me over from a local pub. It was happy hour, and they insisted on buying me a beer. I thanked them, but ordered one on my own instead. $4 for a pint, which seems pretty reasonable. They bought me two more, and I figured I’d better stop before I was really done for. I headed back to the hostel, and read a bit, but the beer was making me sleepy. Went to bed after a spell, hoping to be well rested for my glacier climb in the morning.