On Friday, January 2nd, we left the farm and headed west. Originally we were planing on driving directly from the farm to Haast, a 600km drive, first west and then south down the west coast. But after a few days of driving on New Zealand roads, we realized that 600km here was a lot farther than 600km on the Autobahn! The roads are winding and narrow and there are quite a few one lane bridges that slow you down. I rearranged our plans a bit so we left the farm one day earlier and had an overnight stop in Hokitika, at about the halfway point, to break up the drive and give us time to stop along the way.

Arthur’s Pass National Park was about halfway between the farm and Hokitika. We stopped there for a 4km walk through the forest with waterfalls, lush forest and views of the mountains and river of turquoise water. It was a great way to break up the drive!

From there we drove the rest of the way to Hokitika, enjoying some amazing landscapes along the way. We loved our little motel in Hokitika but were not very impressed with the town. There isn’t much happening there! But there is a beautiful beach where we caught a pretty sunset after a very long wait for dinner.

The next morning, Steffen and I got up early and headed to the grocery store to grab some food for the next few days. Our accommodation in Haast has a kitchen and had warned us that there was only a couple of restaurants and a small convenience store in the village, so we should stock up before arriving. Then we headed out on the road with the hopes of seeing both the Franz Josef Glacier and the Fox Glacier, which are unique because they descend into temperate rainforests. We arrived at Franz Josef village a little before noon and a woman in the visitor centre gave us some tips on where to go for both glaciers which was very helpful.

First we drove to the parking lot for the Franz Josef Glacier and walked maybe 15 minutes to the viewing point. We got very lucky and the clouds had parted, so we were able to view the glacier. But it is so sad to see how small to has gotten and at a much quicker rate than scientists had anticipated every 15 years ago. If you zoom in on the photo with the progression photos below, you can see that they estimated that in 2100 the glacier would be the size it actually is today (plaque was made in 2010). It is scary and prompted a lot of important discussions with the girls. As we returned from the second viewpoint (where we couldn’t actually see the glacier because the clouds had come in), it started pouring. They aren’t kidding about it being a rainforest! We were soaked!

From there we drove about 20 minutes to the village of Fox Glacier where we dried off and had some lunch. I was hoping we would then take the hike to the viewpoint closest to the glacier but the family rebelled. So we drove to another viewpoint that the woman at the visitor centre had recommended, and we actually got a petty good view. It was very far away but the clouds lifted and you could spot it. Which made me happy. (It look like a giant waterfall where the two mountains form a V, way in the distance.) We spent some time relaxing there and went on a little walk through a nearby forest and listened to all the different birds.

Then we got back in the car for our lest leg to Haast. That stretch of the highway was particularly winding and remote! But so beautiful. We stopped a few times at lookout points before arriving at our motel around 5:30pm, glad that we had broken up the drive into two days. The motel is great and, as advertised, remote. We have a view of…sheep! 🙂 You are never far from sheep when in New Zealand. There is also a little slice of the Tasman Sea that we can see which is about a 5 minute walk away.

And with that, I’m pretty much caught up here!