Today we said a fond farewell to beautiful ‘Glacier Country’ and continued our journey south. After stopping for petrol in Fox Village (as there is no more fuel stops for 120 kms) we hit the open road, our next stop at Lake Moeraki was 80 kms later.
After parking up by Lake Moeraki we started the 45 minute hike to Monro Beach, where there was supposed to be a nesting group of Fjordland crested penguins that take residence here from June to December every year.
We read all the signs and were thoroughly prepared to see them…but we searched in vain. Their was no sign of any life, apart from the friendly fantails that followed Ben around waiting for their photo to be taken!
After lunch we travelled down to Jackson Bay, which was the end point for the road along the south west coast! Jackson Bay is a small fishing village nestled on the coast, which apparently has a colony of nesting Fjordland crested penguins (yeah right!)…we again searched but did not see these shy creatures.
We retraced our drive back to Haast Junction where we had hoped to get a camp site for the night, however on arrival we found it was closed. So, as the skies had cleared and we still had 2 hours of daylight left we decided to drive through the Haast Pass tonight.
The road hugged the banks of the Haast River right into the heart of the Southern Alps, taking us across an array of one lane bridges and up steep bluffs (cliffs). It was truly a stunning drive, especially with the sun’s golden glow on the snow capped peaks (below top is Mt Macfarlane at 2057m).
Our plan B was to stop halfway along the Haast pass road at a village called Makarora, perfectly situated in a scenic river valley, with nothing around except the majestic alps. On arrival we found that we were the only guests at this small village (population 65), so we parked close to the facilities and made ourselves at home!
After dinner we turned all the lights off and stood outside taking in the Milky Way, and a couple of planets…the below picture was an attempt at capturing our views, the peak in the distance is Mt Broome.
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