Day 8 • Queenstown - Franz Josef Glacier

Today we were accompanied by a lot of rain on the 422 kilometers from Queenstown, passing Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawera, Makarora with its Blue Pools, the town of Haast to the Franz Josef Glacier. The plan was actually to visit several viewpoints on the quite long journey today. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. In the first section of the route, we were still able to take some photos. These are from Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawera, and the 'Blue Pools'. In the town of Haast, we stopped at one of the two cafes for a brownie and a latte macchiato. If you ever find a place along the route, it is usually extremely small and there is really a lot of NOTHING there. I wondered if Amazon would deliver there and if so, how long it would take? :-) In general, it is completely different here than in Europe or Asia. Here, you only find nature at the most beautiful places. There are no hotels, food trucks, or souvenir shops here. These are located in real towns. Parking and using the toilets are almost always free. I think the New Zealanders are doing it damn right. When we arrived in the town of Franz Josef this afternoon, it was still quite gray and rainy. But the person at the reception assured us that it will definitely get better. As the evening approached, it actually cleared up and we can look forward to better weather tomorrow for our hike and the subsequent helicopter flight to the glacier. In the afternoon, we will continue to Hokitika.