We left Queenstown around 10:30 am and finally arrived in Franz Josef Glacier at 5:30 pm, so it was a long journey, with lots of stops on the way to break it up. However, it was probably the most spectacular drives of the whole trip. Look at the photo above and you will see the hairpin road climbing up the hill side; this is the start of the Cardrona Range Road which takes you through the Cardrona Valley.
We drove through Wanaka (an activity town full of kayaks and bikes) and along the beautiful Lake Hawae, then across back to the banks of Lake Wanaka. We drove through forests of curly trees and passed crying rockfaces (water falls coming out randomly from the cliff face), but the nature of the roads meant we could not pull over to take any photos. We stopped in the middle of nowhere for a coffee break at a place which turned out to be a salmon farm.
After the mountains, we arrived at Haast on the west coast then followed the coast up to Fox Glacier. We could see the glacier in the distance but weren’t prepared for the one-hour hike to get there, so got back in the car.
When we finally arrived in Franz Josef Glacier, we could barely see the tops of the mountains, but hoped that our adventure planned for tomorrow would go ahead.