Wednesday 06 February

North of Wanaka, on the shore of Lake Wanaka. It's another DoC site, not the one which we were originally aiming for. We looked at a couple of others on the way and they were of the car-park variety again, the second one was better than the first, but rather windy. The actual campsite isn't amazing but the location is lovely, we have just been for an early evening stroll around the lake shore and it is very beautiful.
It was cold last night, even with the sleeping bags we brought with us as additional covers. It was a very clear night, I got out for a wee and the sky was ablaze with myriads of stars. Unfortunately it was too cold to hang around for long to admire them. We were away early this morning and drove to the Franz Joseph Glacier Park where we left the car and walked for about three quarters of an hour to within 500 metres of the foot of the glacier. We were so lucky, the early morning sun glistened on the snow and we only saw six other people until we started the walk back, we were about half an hour ahead of the hordes. I have to be honest and say that it didn't really look any different to snow-filled crevasses I have seen in Switzerland, particularly on the occasion we drove over the St Gothard Pass in a December in a small window when it was open. It is the knowledge that underneath that covering of snow is packed ice, millions of years old, scouring it's way through the landscape. I'll need go check this out next time I have an internet connection, but I think I remember reading that the Southern Alps here in NZ are the fastest growing mountain chain in the world. They are being pushed upwards at a rate of  one to two centimetres a year. It was a great experience and I'm very glad we went.
So we are now on the next stage of our journey's tomorrow we carry on to Glenorchy, in the area where much of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit was filmed. We've decided to bypass Queens town for the moment. It reads as if it is in a beautiful setting but more about bungy-jumping and white water rafting than things which would interest us.
I was hoping we would leave the sandflies behind when we left the West Coast, but the little beasties are just as bad here.