Mar 1

Today we are off to the west coast. After starting into Haast Pass it started to rain and rained all day. Nevertheless we stopped to look at a couple of water falls, one of which had a lot of flat rocks that people had piled up to make markers; we made an inukshuk which was the largest structure in the area. Later we stopped in Haast for fish and chips. While there, our German friends from Wanaka came in and we sat together. They had stopped at the same falls and saw our inukshuk. While we were talking about it the waitresses overheard us, and said that they were from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. During lunch we heard a loud cheer from a group of clients and asked what it was all about. They told us that Canada had just won the gold medal in men's hockey. Then we cheered. After saying goodbye to Christian and Annika, we walked to our car and saw Heather whom we had seen in both Te Anau and Wanaka.

From there we drove until we found a beach that had white polished stones (which Susie brought home), and did some beach combing.

After that it was on to Fox Glacier to walk up to the tongue. All of this was done in the rain so that by the time we checked into accommodations in Frans Josef; we were wet and cold. This was helped immensely by their sauna.