Day 22 - Wednesday 27th June - Lake Wanaka to Fox Glacier

Today, the weather has been beautiful for us...clear blue skies and sun. Although this does make things a little bit cold in the shade.

We started the day at The National Transport and Toy Museum based in Wanaka (Wanna-cah). There were several large buildings and they were stuffed to the brim and overflowing with toys (everything you can ever remember existing plus more!) and over 700 vintage cars, motorbikes, planes, boats, lawnmowers, fire-engines, trucks, digger, tractors, cranes, etc etc! Luke spent a looooong time looking at the Star Wars and Lego toys...saying "I've got this, I've got that, I always wanted that...", I hope he doesn't get ideas of setting up his own museum with his best man Mr Tonksy...who would have equally loved the museum, along with my dad for the Morris Minors and my brother for the planes, in fact probably any man or boy would love it.

The Morris Minors including a weird yellow furry one!

Luke with a tank

Can you see how closely packed into the buildings the cars and planes were!!!

Afterwards we got lunch in Wanaka and sat on a bench overlooking the stunning lake and feeding the birds our crumbs.

Lake Wanaka

The afternoon was filled with the long drive to Fox Glacier (not the mint!!!).  The drive was through the mountains and the scenery was spectacular! We saw a few big waterfalls, crossed many a bridge, through a gorge, over a snowy mountain pass, called Haast Pass (the only road to the West Coast). 

Lake Hawea

The snowy Haast Pass

Fantail Falls - named after the fantail bird

Eerie mist on the moutains over Haast Pass

Another huge waterfall

Same waterfall as above

The beautiful moutains and a river mouth

We briefly stopped half way in a village called Haast where we saw a rather amusing signpost at the Information Centre.

Any guesses as to what this road sign means?

We continued onwards, racing the sunset to get to Fox Glacier before it became dark. Part of the drive was along the West Coast and we could see the sea and the sunset over it, along with the pink mountains on the other side. The journey was well timed to see the beautiful sunset.

The West Coast

Nearly driving on the beach on the West Coast

Another river mouth as the sun begins to set

The moutains as we near Fox Glacier

A fancy bridge

The sunset over a river mouth

The late afternoon mountains

The pink mountain peaks as the sun was setting