28 degrees, sunny
Today we continued making our way southwards towards the Glaciers (Franz Josef and Fox) and Mount Cook. We had decided to miss the Glaciers as we had been told that they have receded quite a bit and you can’t get onto them unless you fly up in a helicopter which was far too expensive. Also the only bit you can see when you hike to the edge (about 750m away from the edge) is the terminal moraine which is just a load of stones and messy ice being pushed by the glacier, so not a particularly attractive sight.
However, we stopped to look at a stunningly blue river running alongside the road
and met up with an English couple who said we should go the Lake Matheson at Fox Glacier as there was a lovely view of the mountains and glacier. So we did! The 10 minute walk they said turned out to be a 1.5 hour circular walk but the views were beautiful although the lake wasn’t quite still enough to get a perfect reflection photograph.
Camped at Lake Paringa, another DOC site on a peaceful lake. Spent a nice evening chatting to some Australians spending 5 ½ months in NZ and an English couple from Cornwall doing the south island in 10 days. One extreme to the other