We awoke to another sunny day, and the wind had calmed down a little bit.  In front of our room on Lake Wanaka, people were even water skiing, so the lake must have been warmer than I had thought.

After breakfast, we checked out of our motel and headed out Highway 6 for Franz Josef.  Our drive would take us past the Wanaka area lakes and through the Haast Pass to the west coast.  From Haast, we continue following Highway 6 up the coast to Franz Josef.

It’s funny how few roads there are here.  Other than the occasional dirt road heading to some local farms, there’s really only one road through the mountains, and one road up the west coast of the island.  As we were leaving Wanaka, we punched the address of our Franz Josef hotel into the GPS, and it showed our next turn is not for 280 kilometres.  It’s very difficult to get lost here!

Here is Lake Hawea outside of Wanaka.

Here are some more photos from the drive.   We actually took 345 photos today, so selecting a sample to post here was a difficult exercise.

Nadine dipped her feet in the river.  I think it was cold!

We stopped for lunch here.

As we moved closer to the coast, the vegetation got more green.

We eventually arrived in Haast and followed the road up the west coast.

After a long day of driving, we arrived in the village of Franz Josef.  We checked into the motel to get settled.  Our room is very nice with a view of the rainforest out the patio door.  We even have a gas fireplace!

Tomorrow, we’ll visit the Franz Josef glacier.

When we awoke this morning, the sunny weather had returned!  It was rather windy, but still a nice bright day.

After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel in Queenstown and packed the truck for a leisurely drive to Wanaka.  It’s not very far, and we don’t have any specific activities planned for today.

We decided to take a small detour to Arrowtown, just outside of Queenstown, to see some fall colours.  There are no trees native to New Zealand that drop their leaves in the fall, but there are a few places where you see trees such as maples and oaks that were introduced from other places around the world.  Arrowtown is one of those places.

While the fall colours simply do not compare to what you would see in Ontario, Arrowtown is a very pretty town in a lovely setting.

After looking around Arrowtown for a while, we decided to head to Wanaka via the Crown Range Road.  The Crown Range Road, which has now been paved and outfitted with guard rails in places, has the distinction of being the highest public highway in New Zealand.  We heard that you often see airplanes flying below you while driving along the road.

Here is the view out the passenger window as we begin the drive up.

Looking back at the road zig-zagging up the hill, I think we’re still only about a third of the way up.

The views are stunning, but…

…There’s still a lot more hill above us!

As we drive higher, the vegetation thins to mainly tussock grasses.

Just a little bit higher, and we can start the drive down the other side.

Driving down the other side, the road winds down through a little river valley.

This road is dangerous enough without having to worry about sheep around every bend!

Once down the mountain, it was a nice drive through Cardrona and into Wanaka.

We arrived in Wanaka in the late afternoon.  Below is the lovely view of Lake Wanaka from our motel room.

Wanaka is a pretty little town of about 5,000 people, and about 25,000 during the busy tourist season.

Today was a day of mixed weather.  Mostly cloudy, but with some sunny breaks, and some occasional light rain.  However, the weather didn’t stop us from our adventures.

We drove up to Glenorchy, which is a little town of about 250 people at the head of Lake Wakatipu at the mouth of the Dart River.  It’s about a 45 minute drive from Queenstown.

The sights along the drive were very similar to those we saw on the way into Queenstown.  However, the drive was not our reason for going to Glenorchy.  Our plan today was to take a jet boat ride up the Dart River into Mt. Aspiring National Park.

There are a number of jet boat operators in the Queenstown area, but we choose Dart River Safaris because they offer the longest ride available.  The total trip was about 3 hours, of which about an hour was a ride through back country roads to visit some remote places where many famous movies were filmed.  The rest of the time was spent racing up and back down the river on an exciting and scenic jet boat ride.

The ride through the country took us through some fabulous scenery, and some very interesting roads.  Even on the main state highways, it’s common for the bridges to be only single lanes.  On the remote roads, it seems to be common for the roads to not have bridges over the rivers at all, and you simply drive through the stream, as shown below.

Once we got on the jet boat, I put my camera away, so I don’t have any photos to show you.  I just didn’t want to risk my new camera equipment on the boat, as the risk of it getting soaked, dropped, bumped or lost was too great.

If you’re ever in New Zealand, this is an activity that is simply not to be missed.  It is worth every penny.  The ride is thrilling as the jet boat speeds up to about 85 km/h along the river, passing within inches of rocks and riverbanks, in as little as 6 inches of water.  Sometimes we scraped bottom, and I’m told they run aground every now and then, as the river is constantly changing as the river rises, falls and shifts course through the valley.  The drivers are very skilled.

And since I couldn’t take my own photos, check out the website of Dart River Safaris to see some photos of what you see along the ride.

Again, if you’re ever in the area, do not miss the jet boat ride, and I thoroughly recommend Dart River Safaris.  The views on the Dart River are stunning, and the ride is simply the longest in the business.

After an exciting day on the river, we then returned to Queenstown for a nice dinner.