Day 7: to Fox Glacier

Today we rode a bit over 200 miles to the west coast, which is how the locals refer to it. We rode up long valleys beside two different finger lakes, lake Hawea and Lake Wānaka. The ride along the shores of those lakes and up valleys carved out by glaciers was very beautiful. It was perfect sunny weather and we just rode along and took it all in. Here are a couple of pictures from that ride.

This is a view back towards Queenstown as we climbed up into the hills.

These next two are pictures next to the first lake, Hawea.

After crossing the crest of the mountains and dropping down the western slopes we came to the Pacific Ocean, but on the west coast.

Once at the coast we stopped in the town of Haast for coffee and a break. After our break we rode about another 130 km up the coast to the town of Fox Glacier, where we are spending the night. The town is named for one of the two large glaciers in New Zealand, which can be seen from near the town. The mountains were covered by low clouds so we could not see the glacier. We are hoping we might be able to see them tomorrow if the clouds are gone. This town is also where helicopter rides to the glacier leave from.