West Coast Catch-up with Old Friends

Sunday 26 January

Heading on down the West Coast to the glaciers… it was still damp and grey as we left Lake Manipua, though there were hints of sunlight through the clouds.

Our first stop was Ross, to empty the grey water and take on more fresh water. It was an odd little town with a big focus on the Gold Rush which made the town's name back in the day. I think we will come back to explore some of the historical aspects of the area and we need to spend a blokey evening at the Historic Empire Hotel which was a very funky place. Up on the ceiling were loads of assorted currency notes that customers twang up there in some complicated fashion that I did not really grasp! Over the road was a long building with a big garage out back containing about 20 retro motorbikes that you could go check out for $10. A few doors down, the owner collected US car registration plates, had a tribute to John Wayne on the porch and a huge native American bust in the front window - bizarre!

The gorgeous Lake Ilanthe (Matahi) was a welcome reprieve from the weird quirkiness of Ross - we were fortunate to spot a beautiful rare white heron perched on the floating barrier around the weed free cordon - he seemed to be fishing or prehaps catching insects on top of the water. i was hoping to get some good shots on my Canon long lens, but as Louis kindly whizzed back to the car to grab it for me, a couple of cars pulled in and one guy ran and bombed off the wharf which sent the heron swooping away gracefully across the lake.

We skipped through Hari Hari - whose main claim to fame appears to be that the first aviator to cross the Tasman from Sydney to New Zealand landed there, upside down in a marsh in 1931! Our next stop was Whataroa, where we went to enquire about the White Herons tour - unfortunately at $180 per person it was well out of our budget. But we did meet this lovely cyclist in her fab pink top and admired the tractor tyre Christmas tree - i wonder if they will take it down by Candlemas in a week or so?

The scenery was spectacular in places and the weather was in turns sunny & clear then misty & wet. Four seasons in one day 🎶

We joined the throngs in Franz Josef for lunch and for a wander down the main drag - looking at more tourist adventures that we will need a lottery win for! Lunch at the Snake Bite was pretty good, but not as good as the ridiculously oversize baked goods in the cabinet - especially the Lamingtons which were about 10cm squared!

The last section of the journey to Fox Glacier had a few unexpectedly steep bits to negotiate, and the weather got progressively wetter and mistier, clearly a regular occurrence round here judging by the prevalence of ferns and mosses along the roadside.

Arriving at Fox Glacier Top Ten we had a few issues with getting a decent site (spoiler alert - it was ok but nothing special - the park is mostly set up for small campervans rather than big caravans) then did a bunch of laundry before heading along the road about 700m to meet up with Diana & Richard who are old friends from Byfleet days.

It was a lovely evening of catch up over a big cheese platter - with a few interludes for admiring their view (when the clouds rose a bit) and spotting bird life!