Driving to Te Anau

Except for a brief stop at an eerie looking beach and being caught up being tractors for the beginning of the stretch out of Franz Josef, we made great time to Haast on some of the straightest roads we've seen so far. Unfortunately, 8:30pm was too late to have anything for dinner (despite there being a buffet in clear view) and we settled for Monteith's from the brewery and a bag of chips for dinner. We'd make up for this with a hearty breakfast.

Before heading out of Haast we made up for a lack of dinner with a gigantic breakfast (but still got a move on in order to stay ahead of the tractors as we saw them lining up to roll on to their next destination). We stopped at the Blue Pools and while I lacked the cojones to jump off one of the bridges, I did dive in off the rocks for a (very) brief swim. Somehow this felt colder than doing penguin plunges in CT throw the ice and the only real winner was this experience was the host of sandflies that sucked me dry of blood. Carrying on from the Blue Pools we stopped at two waterfalls for a bit of hiking/bouldering and then passed through Queenstown (stopping only for a quick pizza and to book the kayak excursion) before carrying on to Te Anau.

Franz Josef to Te Anau photos

What can I say except Thunder Creek was too thunderous and we didn't make it across to the falls (technically, this was the Haast River that kept us from crossing but that doesn't provide silly alliteration). It probably wouldn't be so bad if your ankles didn't go numb while trying to plot a course causing you to take two steps back to thaw before trying again.

Fantail Falls, however, is a cool waterfall and offered some bouldering fun. You can actually climb quite a bit higher than is visible from the base of the falls while staying on the rock (no cheating and running through the woods!). Along the way you're rewarded with some truly serene collecting pools.

Thunder Creek and Fantail Falls photos