Franz Joseph to Queenstown

 Lake Matheson

 Knight's Point

 Part of the Southern Alps

 Thunder Creek Falls

 Lake Hawea

Queenstown Harbour on Lake Wanaka

Tuesday, January 12^th.

Today was another traveling day as we journeyed from Franz Joseph to Queenstown. We left our hotel and drove a half hour to a cafe by Lake Matheson. After breakfast most of us enjoyed an hour hike around the lake through the beautiful rainforst. The lushness of this forest attests to the amount of rain and cloud this region gets. The lake is usually very calm and has a reputation for providing beautiful reflections of the snow capped mountains across the valley. Unfortunately for us they were clouded in today.

The lake is populated by longfin eels that grow to two metres. They have a reserve migratory pattern to salmon as they live in freshwater and migrate to the sea to breed, lay eggs and die. The young eels then swim inland and live their lives in freshwater.

We continued on our journey and stopped at a few rest or viewing areas including Knight's Point where we had an excellent view of the ocean, offshore islands and a beach with sealions on it. We didn't stay long though as we were accosted by sandflies. These are small biting flies like mosquitoes.

En route we had a view of part of the Southern Alps and their snow covered peaks. We also stopped at Thunder Creek Falls where they cascade over the edge in a 28 metre drop to the Haas River.

As we crossed through Haas Pass the area became much drier and the mountains mostly treeless. Max said the area has been experiencing a drought for a few years. Amazing the difference a short distance can make. All the rain gets dropped on the windward side of the mountains and the leeward side gets very little.

We drove around the shores of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, two large beautiful lakes between the town of Wanaka and Queenstown. We descended down off the mountain in a series of eight switchbacks to the town of Queenstown. Max gave us a quick tour of all the tour companies we need to see tomorrow and then drove us to our new hotel, the Peppers. In Max's words it is a 'flash' hotel, classed as a luxury hotel. Jan Eric and I found we had a double bed, so we went to reception and told them that we do like each other, but we don't love each other. They came up and converted it to two twins. We finally got access to the internet as Jan Eric bought a package online. Then we went for a walk around the town to explore. We split up and I wandered around the harbour front and bought a meat pie for dinner which I ate by the harbour. Then I went back to the hotel and updated the blog and caught up on e-mails.