To get to the west coast of the south island, there is only one road - State Highway 6. It runs from the bottom of the south island through Queenstown and Wanaka then dives over the Haast Pass (the lowest of the three road crossings of the Southern Alps). It then runs up the west coast to Greymouth, from where the rest of the island can be accessed via the other two mountain passes and the coast roads around the top of the south island.
The drive from Wanaka to Fox Glacier Village took about five hours but was spectacular, not least because of the huge amount of rain that started coming down about half an hour after starting out, and continuing for pretty much the rest of the day. The Haast Pass itself was uneventful - marked only by a layby and a sign at the summit, but the drive down to the coast at Haast Village from there really reminded us that we were in 'Lord of the Rings' country, with great views of super-clear rivers and waterfalls all around.
The road from Haast up to Fox Glacier Village ran close to the sea for most of the way, and in one place a bit too close - the weather had whipped up the Tasman Sea so much that debris in the form of gravel, rocks, and even bits of trees - were getting washed up onto the road as we drove through. A truck with an excavator bucket was doing its best to clear the worst of it but it was clearly an ongoing issue. We took that stretch of road pretty slowly!
Finally we arrived at Fox Glacier village and were glad that we had booked ahead for a night in one of the nicest hostels we've stayed in on this trip - especially as it was still chucking down with rain (not good weather for camping!), and pretty much everywhere in town was booked solid. We even got to watch one of our favourite films - Stripes starring Bill Murray - in the TV room.
Robin
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