After visiting the Franz Josef Glacier on Thursday, we checked out the Fox Glacier on Friday. Unfortunately, the glacier has shrunk significantly in recent decades, so now only a small part is visible, making it not as impressive as the Franz Josef Glacier. However, it is definitely worth a visit and the surrounding area is beautiful.
After visiting the Fox Glacier, we drove past Lake Matheson, which is also a popular tourist destination. Under ideal conditions, you can take amazing photos with the mountains' snowy peaks reflecting in the lake's water. Unfortunately, that was not the case for us. Lake Matheson appeared to be just an ordinary lake, albeit still beautiful with the mountains in the background.
We stayed overnight at a somewhat remote campsite. The slightly adventurous drive there, along a long, winding gravel road, is definitely worth it due to its location right on the beach and surrounded by mountains.In the morning, we took a leisurely walk along the beach to a lagoon, which I found much more beautiful than Lake Matheson the day before (that may have been partly due to the better weather, warm and (almost) sunny blue sky). In the afternoon, we cooked our lunch by a river before arriving at the next campsite in the evening, which was located by a lake. From the lakeside campsite, we continued south yesterday towards our destination, Haast, a small town on the West Coast. Along the way, we planned to take a break at the beach. When we walked down to the sea, I wondered why there were so many people standing and taking photos of the water, which looked like any ordinary sea. Until I suddenly spotted a fin in the water! And then another one, and another. There were dolphins swimming right by the shore. It was a fantastic surprise for us. While we had heard that dolphins could be spotted on the beaches, we never expected to see them in that moment. It's truly amazing to watch them play in the water, and I am really looking forward to swimming with the dolphins, which is already booked for next month.😍 After seeing the dolphins, we arrived in Haast in the evening, a night earlier than planned. Once again, we are working here for a few days in exchange for free accommodation, this time helping out at a holiday park. Unfortunately, we couldn't ask the owners (a very nice couple) if we could arrive earlier because we had no network connection for almost 2 days. There is simply no coverage in this part of the West Coast as there is not much civilization. However, we were lucky enough to spend the night in our tent at the campsite.Today, we moved into our room with a private bathroom and a small kitchenette, where we can stay until Friday. It feels like real luxury after a week of camping. What we are most excited about is that we are now safe from sandflies. These little pests, which look harmless (they resemble fruit flies but are slightly bigger), suck blood like mosquitoes and leave itchy bites. However, sandflies bite instead of sting. Here on the West Coast, you are not safe from them while camping, so we are happy for this break.Here at the holiday park, we help with maintaining the facility or cleaning. Today was our first day, and we trimmed the bushes that serve as dividers between the camping spots. Let's see what we will be doing for the next few days, but so far, we are enjoying it here a lot.
