I'm thrilled to say the weather has improved significantly since we left the west coast. We drove from Haast over the Haast Pass to Wanaka, stopping off en route at various beauty spots for photos or to be assailed by my nememis - sandflies.
I was ready for them this time though - covering myself in DEET - but they still managed to somehow find their way into the one spot without repellent and as a result I have a line of bites under my ankle strap on my sandals - evil little buggers!
The water here is incredibly blue, being glacier-fed, and so when the sun comes out the rivers and streams look absolutely spectacular. We're curently staying in a fantastic hostel in Wanaka, overlooking Lake Wanaka itself, where Bob bravely swam in the icy waters this afternoon for some reason. The hostel's in a great location and we've had to force ourselves to move on tomorrow with so much else to see.
We went on the most brilliant trip today - having been quite careful financially over the last week or so we decided to splurge on a trip that incorporated both a helicopter ride and jet boating and, for once, we had the perfect day for it weather-wise - cloudless blue sky and sunshine. The helicopter ride was fantastic - we skimmed the mountain tops and flew through a crevasse in a glacier, cresting the top of the mountain to see streams pouring over the side of the hill creating rainbows as the sun caught them. It was one of the best (and scariest) things I've ever done.
The pilot dropped us off in the Siberia Valley for 3 hours for us to walk through the forest and along the river. We were then picked up by a jet boat for a 20 minute hair-raising ride back to Makarora, where we started. After 360 degree turns which soaked us I looked bedraggled and Bob just looked like a slaphead, so no photos post the ride...
It's on to Queenstown tomorrow then south-west to the fjordland of Milford Sound.
