30th Dec - Lake Ohau to North of Haast

We got up late as the weather was not great early in the morning. We drove from Lake Ohau through the mountains to Wanaka. The weather cleared by then and the town was buzzing with people on holiday in the sun by the lake. A real little tourist place.

We both needed to catch up with diaries and internet stuff and so we went to the library for a few hours and then continued on up the coast. It was a shame really that we spent time inside when the weather was nice outside as it then turned on our journey up the coast and was very windy and started to rain. I should have realised by now that in the changeable nature of NZ weather to always be outside seeing areas when the weather is good!

We headed on together towards Haast, stopping off to have a coffee and cake by the lakes on the way and take pictures etc. I wanted to get back on the bike for a bit and meet up with Adrian and Jenny (from Dunelin) and to bike with them up the West coast. They had said that they would get to Haast campsite tonight. Unfortunately there was no mobile signal and I could not find out exactly where they were and if they had even managed to get as far as Haast as Adrian has a bad knee. Unfortunately, when we got to Haast I could not find then and they were not staying in any of the other campsite on the way to Haast. Therefore, me and Christoph decided to continue on together for longer.
We found a great little place to stop between Haast and Fox Glacier. Christoph has an amazing ability to find little tracks down to either the sea or to a river so that there is somewhere to have a swim in the morning and get water. There was a fire all ready to light at the end of the little track and a way down to the river. We had a lovely evening chatting by the fire, eating instant noodles and drinking wine (it was supposed to be the bottle that was for new years eve).