The first thing to mention is the ‘main road’ here, one lane each way and when you get to a bridge; well there is one lane only for both ways. This is the main roads all they way to Franz Josef, approximately 200 kms. Also, this is a Mountain pass (It’s called the Haast pass) so it’s full of bends, twist and is at some points very STEEP to drive up and down the other side. At many places there are ‘look out’ points, which you have to stop at some and take a look; this is going to sound like a ‘repeating record’ but the scenery is amazing. Around every bend it’s a new view, huge waterfalls coming from top of the mountain down to the roadside, snow-capped Mountains and huge Lakes.
Unfortunately, we caught the weather on one of its ‘rain’ spells; we were told that they have 249 days of rain a year and we can believe it. The area is so Green, broken only by the Glaciers and White caps on the Mountains. We didn’t mind the rain, we had a good hostel; Sky TV, hot Spa and a 10 min’ walk from the Gloworms. After an even walk to the Gloworms, the rain really closed in. So we had a relaxing morning watching a film and doing the long overdue laundry (well Andy did the laundry), we decided not to go on the guided walk to the Franz Josef Glacier due to the rain; but we are returning and doing one then Rain or Shine! We did however drive and walk to the Terminal face, and like we said we WILL be returning at a later date; it’s HUGE and needs to be walked on. The photos were taken from the closest distance without guides, look for yourself; we were ½ mile away ish’. The weather lifted enough to encourage us to go for a walk around Lake Matheson, it’s known as The Reflection Lake and looking at the photo’s you can see why; so peaceful and only about an 1 ½ hr easy hike all the way around it.
