Reluctantly decided to leave Wanaka & head north, towards the glaciers. First stop: Lake Hawea Lookout, just a few km up the SH6, then another lookout looking south, across Lake Wanaka, back towards the town. Next was the Blue Pools forest walk, just north of Makarora, a short walk through forest & across a swing bridge to clear, deep, blue pools where we saw a couple of large rainbow trout, built stone towers, & skimmed stones.

Then the road started to climb, as we entered the Haast pass. A brief stop to view Fantail Falls, just a few meters from the roadside, before a slightly longer walk to Thunder Creek Falls, where we walked along the stony river bank, for a few mins. The road then started to drop down in to the Haast Valley, to follow the river out to sea. At Haast Village we bought a small amount of very expensive petrol ($1.33/L) & cursed ourselves for not filling up in Wanaka @ $1.17! We followed the coast for another 20km, until stopping for lunch at Ship Creek (where's me paddle??), & a short walk on the sand dunes. Next stop, a few km further on, at Knight's Point for a (brief) very windy view of the coastline.

Arrived in Fox Glacier, ~120km further on, at around 5pm, & found a cabin at the Motor Park ($87 + 5 to hire equipment!) - nice sized cabin, clean & functional, ditto the large kitchen / dining area. Drove back to the glacier car park & walked for ~20 mins to the lookout, which is the closest you can get to the face of the glacier, without a guide. Managed to chat to one of the guides of a party coming back for the glacier walk, & got some good info re: possibility of doing a walk tomorrow, with the kids. Drove back into town to find the office, book & pay for the walk ($299). Was told that we had to check in at 8.30am, so we would need to get up & out of the cabin early!

Baked spuds for tea, then packed everything we could & got an early night!