North by Westland

Instead of states or provinces, New Zealand has districts. I started out in Fiordland. Today I drove north through Mt Aspiring Park and Haast Pass to the Wild West coast. 

Goodbye Lake Wanaka. 

First mini-hike was the blue pools. 

Look at all those minerals! This is glacier-fed so kind of chilly. 

Next stops: Fantail Falls and Thunder Creek Falls. 

These are on highway 6 so the trails are packed with vans of French and German tourists. 

Time to get off the beaten path. Curly Tree sells one thing and one thing only: whitebait patties cooked to order. Delicious! 

Moana also sent me to my next stop, a new Department of Conservation stop with two walkways at Ship Creek. 

I'll be staying on the beach so I chose the inland path which follows a root beer colored river with trees straight out of the Lorax. 

I loved it. 

I'd hoped to see Mt Cook from Lake Matheson near Fox Glacier, but it eluded me again. Guess I'll have to come back. 

I'm now happily settled at my beach house in Okarito, but I'll save that for tomorrow. (It's already tomorrow here. See you on the other side.) 

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Here's a good map of my journey so far. Landed in Queenstown, drove to Wanaka, and then took Highway 6 over Haast pass north.