Franz Josef/Fox Glacier/Haast Pass (1 day)

We started in Greymouth at 10 o'clock. The first stop was at Franz Josef, where we took a two-hour hike to the glacier. Since Noah and I know glaciers from Austria and Italy, we were a bit disappointed because the glacier here was relatively small and could only be seen from a distance. However, the hike was still very beautiful with the waterfalls and rainforest. Half an hour away is the Fox Glacier, which we also visited. We only walked a 20-minute loop there because the Fox Glacier, like the Franz Josef Glacier, was not incredibly spectacular. Then we sat in the car and started to think about where to go next. We decided to drive towards Haast. On the way, we discovered Bruce Bay, incredibly beautiful but also very windy! A bay that seems endless. We stayed there for a few minutes and enjoyed the sun and the wind before continuing south on the highway. There was a lookout point indicated from the highway, so we stopped there. But it only took a minute for my legs to start itching like crazy, I was completely covered in mosquitoes (they look so harmless here, like fruit flies!), so I had a typical Lina meltdown (justified!!! 18 bites!!!) and got back in the car after taking a few pictures. Thankfully, the next indicated lookout point wasn't infested with mosquitoes, so we took a short walk there and climbed a lookout tower. We arrived in Haast around 6:30 pm, a village. In the supermarket, or rather the little corner store, they were already cleaning up, but we were still allowed to quickly pick something for dinner. We got ready for bed in the public toilet because we didn't know yet where we would sleep and what options there were. We confidently passed the last gas station for the next 88km, hoping that the tank would hold and the next gas station would be cheaper. And just like that, we were already on the Haast Pass, but after 15km, there was fortunately a sign with a parking lot where you can spend the night, so we stopped there, reclined the seats as flat as possible, covered the windows with newspaper, and spent our night in the Toyota Yaris, surrounded by mountains and clouds.