Hello again,

After our day of glacier walking we set off down the west coast for Wanaka.On the way we stopped at Lake Matheson (known as mirror lake) and made the hour walk round it (with spectacular views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman).We then drove down to the bottom of the west coast to a small fishing hamlet called Jackson Bay.Here we shared fish and chips at the only eatery for miles, called the craypot - apparently famous for their whitebait sarnies but I don't think that's either of our cup of tea!

Jackson Bay was really nice - the 50km drive off the main road seems to keep most of the tourists away so it made a nice change from driving down the backpacker highway!After we left Jackson Bay we drove up through a town called Haast and headed inland through the Haast Pass, driving past many a waterfall etc etc.

Last night we were planning on eating in but seeing as our pasta and pesto combo somehow tasted of sambucca (aniseed) we ended up going out for a curry - good decision, curry was amazing and made a nice change from pasta with….; rice with…..; potatoes with…..!

Today we made the most of our first lie-in for at least a week and ventured out to a walking track about 50km out of Wanaka.It was supposed to be one of the best walks in the region and the weather looked good, so we set off up what turned out to be a very long and bumpy gravel road to the start of the track.The walk is about 10km, so technically counted towards training for the 18km one we're planning on doing in a week or so!We started off walking through farmland and then trekked uphill (very uphill) through forest, following the river along the Matukituki Valley.After around an hour and a half of walking, we reached the viewpoint, which looks out (or rather up) to the Rob Roy Glacier, one of around 100 (!) in the Mount Aspiring National Park, of which Wanaka is a part.

The scenery on the walk was incredible, as we basically followed the valley up, that the glacier had previously (probably during the ice-age) carved out in the hills.You probably don't get a very good idea of the scale of the mountains from the photos but we reckon that the shortest of the cliff faces around us at the lookout must have been at least 500m (as the viewpoint is 1500m above sea level and Mt Roy is about 2700m ish).

After a well deserved rest we headed back down and another long bumpy trip in the car later we were back in Wanaka.Tonight's plans include mash, baked beans and a whole lot of boxed wine!Off to Queenstown tomorrow, hoping the weather holds out!

Love Katie and Martin