South on Highway 6

New Zealand has this absolutely fantastic website called Transfer Car, which is a listing of all the rental cars that need relocating throughout the country. Since the vehicles need to be moved, the companies let you drive them for free. Some even throw in a free tank of gas. I have been aware of the site for most of my time in the country, but since the cars have a maximum amount of days and kilometres you can travel, I was unable to find a relocation that was quite right for what I wanted to do.

I wasn't keen on repeating this particular stretch of the Magic Tour (although it was lovely the first time). As if in answer to my problem, I found a transfer car going from Greymouth to Queenstown. I requested it online, within an hour the company confirmed it, and this morning I picked up my shiny, well-loved Nissan.

My little beauty parked in front of Mt Cook (pre-cloud cover)

Much like the rest of New Zealand, the stretch from Greymouth to Wanaka is gorgeous. However this one has the perks of going along the Southern Alps, which means you spend equal time driving through forest, along the coast, and over and around mountains. There are even some stretches of flat farmland that give you a much needed break from the ridiculously windy roads. Last time, my poor little Magic Bus self could do little else but lay back and fall asleep to keep the nausea away. Today in the drivers seat, I felt like I had expensive front row seats. Thanks to travelling in the off season on the sparsely populated West Coast, I could slow down to take a better look without having another car in sight.

The morning began without a cloud in the sky, and as I drove south from Greymouth, the snowy Southern Alps rose up to greet me. My first stop was at Franz Josef Glacier. I skipped out on going on a glacier hike the first time around, and recently the amount of recession from the glacier has made hiking unsafe and so the walking tours have been cancelled. They do have a heli-hike option where they fly you up onto the top of the glacier, but a lack of funds and a lack of feeling really inspired to do the hike led me to skip the expensive touristy bits. Instead I just drove to the carpark where you can hike up to the glacier front. You can't go on the ice without a guide as tourists have died from going solo. I have a feeling they were of the stupid variety, but still. I walked in for about a half hour and got some great shots of the glacier reflected in a lake, but I wanted to see Fox Glacier too so I didn't bother going all the way up.

From Franz, I continued on to Lake Matheson, which is a lake carved out by the Fox Glacier way back when. The lake is most well known for its ability to create a perfect reflection of Mt Cook, which is the highest peak in New Zealand. I had some lunch by the trail head, and then started the hike. The clouds started to move in at this point and it looked like they were going to cover the mountain. I walked quickly around the lake, hoping to beat the clouds. When I got to the end, I climbed up out of the trees to the viewing platform and... the mountain was completely covered in clouds. I was thoroughly annoyed with myself for wasting time eating lunch when I could have been at the platform before the clouds moved in. After a minute of sulking and looking out at the (still stunning) view, I snapped out of it. I did see Mount Cook without clouds. I ate my lunch outside, staring up at it's snowy peaks. In fact, I was so enthralled with it that the fork almost missed my mouth a few times. It's funny how you can lock on to an idea like that. It's not as if I came all the way to the other side of the world to take that picture. I'm am sorry you can't see my mediocre picture, but you can always google it.

After the rest of the lovely walk, I drove to the Fox Glacier car park. Fox is the 'younger sibling' of Franz, by which I mean Franz is more frequented by tourists. So naturally, I was instantly more impressed with Fox. I'm sure Franz Josef is fantastic when you're on the glacier itself, but driving up the valley to Fox was amazing. It's amazing to think of how the path was carved by ice, especially when thinking of the prairies I live on in Canada and how those were flattened by a glacier larger than I can comprehend. From the Fox car park, there was a half hour walk further up the valley that passed waterfalls and rivers and ended in the spectacular view of the ice. Before I saw the glaciers, I kept telling myself, “whatever, we have glaciers in Canada”. But being there looking up at the ice was still amazing.

After Fox was a relatively boring hour-long drive to the town of Haast. At this point I was getting tired of driving, but I still wanted to spend the night in Wanaka. I had my tinny iPod speaker to keep me company, so I put on some bouncy tunes and kept driving. Soon I came to the Haast Pass which winds through Mt Aspiring National Park. Here you drive along the valley floor surrounded by low, tree covered mountains and high rocky peaks covered in snow. I kind of wish I had recorded myself driving, because when I made it around some corners and yet another amazing alpine peak presented itself, I was whooping and shouting and gasping and generally in awe of mother nature around me. One part of the road in particular was beside a lake that went up to the base of a beautiful mountain with the almost full moon looming just behind. I stopped on the side of the road to take a picture and just kept waiting for someone else to come along so I could point and say, “DO YOU SEE. HOW BEAUTIFUL. THIS IS?” But no one did. A country this beautiful and only 4 million people call it home. To make it even more unbelievable, there are only 1 million on the South Island. And most live in cities.

 This leg of the journey took another hour, but when I left the mountains I was sad to see them go. The feeling didn't last long though, as the twin lakes of Wanaka and Hawei came up in no time. As I drove along the rocky edges of the lakes, the sun was setting and they were lit in the most amazing glow. Compared to road trips on the prairies, .. well actually no, you can't compare it to road trips on the prairies. This drive was endlessly rewarding.

After driving to the far ends of the lakes, I pulled into the town of Wanaka just after nightfall, and secured a bed at one of my favourite hostels. I ended up driving 500km today, and on New Zealand roads, that is definitely a lot. I'm exhausted, but so happy with the way things turned out. The only way the day could have been better was if I had someone to share it with. But I guess that's what you're for, Blog.