We left Queenstown Saturday morning, and stopped in at the local Countdown grocery store to restock our supplies, then headed to the next campsite. Yanmei picked it out, it was a low cost, unpowered camp on the shore of Lake Hawea. We got there quite early and although it was slightly difficult to get to (7km down a dirt road off the highway) there were already quite a few people there. We still found a nice spot with a good view and some shade from trees, but a far walk to the toilets. The shade is important because the sun can make the van really hot.
We barbecued some lamb sausages and some New Zealand salmon and had a nice lakeside lunch. We hadn’t really considered that it was Saturday during the summer. As the afternoon wore on more and more people showed up and eventually a couple of groups pitched tents behind us, blocking us in, the camp was packed.
Finally something I’ve been waiting for since I got to New Zealand happened: a clear night. My first look at the southern hemisphere stars and constellations. It was great, and the fact that we’re were in an unpowered camp away from any cities helped too. It felt like there were more bright stars than the northern hemisphere. Turns out the three brightest stars are only visible from the south: Alpha Centauri, Sirius and Canopus. 👍🏻
The next morning one group behind us packed up, and we were able to squeeze out by about 9am. Then we took a lovely drive through a mountain pass to the west coast of New Zealand. Along the way we stopped a bit at the Blue Pool, which are glacier melt fed. Not that special, but a nice little walk to break up the drive.
After that we continued to the coast and the Tasman Sea, then to the town of Fox Glacier, which is near the glacier, but not on the glacier. This was a powered campsite since we needed to recharge our batteries. Not that great. The weather started to go overcast and rainy again.
Tasman Sea from Knight’s Point lookout.
David