Day 5: Monday 2nd December
We awoke to sunshine on the mountains and the setting seemed even more idyllic than the night before. More photos were taken of the views and I also took a photo of the cute little primary school a few yards down the road which has only 9 pupils from 6 to 14 years. It takes pupils from all along the valley.
Makarora was truly a lovely place to stop and it was a pity we couldn’t stay longer. Although one of our cheapest accommodations it turned out to be one of my favourites 10/10.
Today was to be 3 hours driving but with plenty of stops on the way. Our first stop was only 8 km along the road, The Blue Pools. We had a nice half hour walk through the rainforest to see these. The rainforests were quite magical in themselves, with large ferns and a variety of trees covered in velvety green moss.
We then stopped at Fantail Falls and Thunder Creek Falls.
Driving on past the edge of Haast we next stopped at Ship’s Creek and had a dune walk managing to avoid most of the sand flies having sprayed ourselves before getting out of the car. It started to rain just as we returned to the car so we sat in the car for our picnic lunch. The rain continued and was heavy at times so we didn’t stop again until we arrived at our destination, 10 Cottages in Franz Josef at approximately 3.30 pm. The rain continued all afternoon and evening and was torrential with strong winds losing our reception on the TV. At about 7.30 we decided to seize the opportunity, wrap up and get some more provisions at the supermarket, top up with petrol and buy some postcards while we saw some. Then to have a meal at Aunt Mary’s just on the corner of our road. They were no distance but we had to drive as the weather was so bad. We got soaked just going to the car. Tip 2: It would be a good idea to pack a pair of waterproof trousers when coming to New Zealand, there is a reason the country is so green! By the time we got in the restaurant our trousers were soaked. And if that wasn’t bad enough…..The restaurant said it was some special regional holiday and the prices were 20% extra. I think they should have been discounted by that amount for everyone struggling to get there in that rain! I think our view of Franz Josef was somewhat marred by the weather. We had taken this route to hopefully see the glaciers. Our helicopter flight and landing on the glacier the next morning was obviously cancelled. Mind you, I have heard they are actually cancelled more often than they run, due to the weather. On a positive note it saved us £220 ($440 NZ) for the 20 minute flight and landing. Booked through Bookme.com, we did receive a fairly speedy refund.
While travelling that day on Highway 6 we were amazed how little traffic there was. We drove about 5 miles to start with until one car passed us in the opposite direction and all day we only had two cars in front of us until nearly at Fox Glacier. The road was completely clear in front and behind us all the way.