Drive from Wanaka to Fox Glacier

Yesterday morning we woke up to the first truly rainy day of the whole trip so far. It was fine with us, since it was our "long drive" day from Wanaka to Fox Glacier. I also had my driving debut today as this was our drive over an hour long. It felt a little strange at first to be on the left side of the road and the right side of the car, and was made a bit more challenging with all the twisty roads through Mt. Aspiring National Park and a touch of rain. But I found that after a bit of practice it's all beginning to feel quite natural. About an hour and a half north, we caught our first glimpse of the Tasman Sea near Haast, at Knight's Point lookout:


A little further north at Lake Moeraki, we pulled off the highway (I actually feel kind of funny calling it that!) and ventured down the Monro Beach Track, a walk that heads through rainforest to a beach at the end. We wanted to get to Fox at a reasonable hour, so only walked about 10 minutes down the track - far enough to walk across the bouncy suspension bridge that put me in a fit of giggles:



Just a few hours later, after driving through some beautiful coastline and forest, we arrived in the town of Fox absolutely famished. Luckily, we found the Cook Saddle Cafe and stopped in for some fish and chips in front of the fire. This was the first restaurant so far that called chips "fries" and served "ketchup" instead of tomato (pronounced tomaahhhto) sauce. I think this might be because Fox is a tourist town. After lunch we checked in at Te Weheka Inn where we'll be staying for two nights. By the time was were checked in and settled, it was about 4.30pm, so we hustled out the door to squeeze in a walk before the sun went down. About 6 km down Cook Flat Rd. is Lake Matheson, a beautiful lake nestled in the bush, known for it's perfect reflections of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. We did the loop walk around the lake in about an hour and half, catching some beautiful views and finishing up just as darkness settled in over Fox: