the next day, we drove from Wanaka to Aorkai / Mt. Cook National Park. one the way, the terrain turned more arid and once again reminded us of central and eastern washington state:


some of the Lord of the Rings was filmed in this area. (scenes from Edoras, where the horse people lived)



we stopped at a scenic overlook for one of our first glimpses of Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand:



the road to the park followed the edge of Lake Pukaki for about half an hour. the glaciers in the area finely grind up rock to give the lake the cool opaque turquoise color.


we stopped by the town, which was really just a few lodges, a cafe or two, and the ranger station. we picked up a map from the ranger station and went to the camp ground. the camp ground had toilets, but no showers or electric hookup. we couldn't quite see Mt. Cook from the camp ground, but we could see this:



here's finn stomping around next to the van in the parking lot:

one of the least fun parts of our trip was getting finn to eat and getting enough of a chance to try to enjoy our own food. he was sick for much of the trip which probably led to a lower appetite. but we also gave him as much milk in a sippy cup as he wanted. so pretty much anytime we were driving, he was sucking away at a thing of milk. we now think that he had no appetite because of all the milk he was drinking.

since we got back, we've been trying to get rid of the sippy cup. that means more milk gets spilt on the floor and less into finn. it also means he has had this wonderful appetitie. we don't have to try to cram food down his face anymore since he is so hungry.

anyway, after playing down at the lake, we went back to the camper for some hamburgers. here was the view out the back of the camper. you can sort of see the lake behind the trees:


this was one of the more picturesque camp grounds that we visited. our camper:


that evening, debbie accidently shut finn's fingers in the camper door. we felt particularly bad, because we had both been losing patience with him that evening. (see above about food). he cried quite a bit. we got some ice but the pinky & ring finger swelled up anyway.

he was still acting up when debbie usually got him ready for bed, so i took him for a walk. we saw some bunnies and chased each other down this path:



we also went down to the lake to toss a few more rocks into the water. here we are saying 'cheese' for the camera:


by the time we got back, finn was finally tired enough for a story and bed:

our destination for the evening was the town of Wanaka, at the base of the lake of the same name. we had actually planned to do a hike to Mount Irons when we got there. but with all the walking we had done earlier and the fact that the hike was up a mountain and that it was hot and the hike exposed, we decided to skip it.

instead we went into down town Wanaka to get supplies. i also wanted to stop at a camera shop. i had brought two batteries, but not the charger. back when we were in Christchurch, i bought another battery, and it was still going strong. but i wasn't sure it would make it the rest of the trip. the camera store charged two of my batteries for NZ$10.

while we waited for them to charge, we went to the lake front. we should have changed finn into his swim trunks, as it was pretty warm. instead we walked along the beach and eventually came to a play ground.

they had a brontosaurus slide:


fun for all ages!


and a teeter totter. finn actually kept his hat on for a change:


after the play ground, we got ice cream cones, actually we got waffle cones. we had bought ice cream cones on our day trip to Akoroa. finn was excited about ice cream cones, but waffle cones looked too different! he was brought to tears and refused to try it for some time. somehow we got him to take a taste and everything turned out okay.

we picked up the camera batteries and headed to a campground. it was on an arm of the lake, so we went down to the water to check it out.

finn had a great time tossing stones and poking a stick into the mud:





he would have been happy doing this for hours:


his shorts and diaper did wind up getting wet. and it wasn't a short walk carrying a wet baby back to the camper:

our next stop was a 30 minute hike to the Blue Pools. we had a couple of swinging bridges to cross. we still held on tight even though we were no veteran swinging bridge crossers:

the pools were a pretty neat, aqua green color, like many of the other pools or rivers:




after three water fall hikes and the blue pool hike in the morning, finn conked out for a long nap. we continued driving and made it to the west side of the mountains. the terrain got significantly less lush, but no less impressive. parts of it actually reminded us of eastern washington state where we lived.

the road twisted along the banks of two large man made lakes. Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea were both formed by hydro-electric projects. there were a number of pull offs with views, but didn't seem like there was much in the way of hikes. which was okay since finn was napping.

i think the first photo is Lake Wanaka, and the other three are Lake Hawea. they looked pretty similar:

the next set of falls was directly off the highway. scenic spot signposts always estimated how long a hike would be, and this one said "two minutes." it took us less than that i think (you could see the falls from the parking lot).

these are Fan Tail Falls:


i suppose these are particularly popular falls since they are directly off the highway. it seems that everyone that visits has to build a cairn. you couldn't turn around without tripping over another cairn. some were elaborate and reasonably sound structures. others were just stacks of river rocks. (there were quite a few folks milling about and i had to wait a few moments to take pictures without other tourists in view).



i wondered if spring snow melt washed the cairns over every year.


is it bad luck to use someone's cairn stones as river fodder?


this was a pull-off somewhere along the highway. you can see one of the one lane bridges and the road continuing into the hills. the higher up and farther from the coast we got, the more the terrain changed from rain forest to this sort of view:

by spending the night on the peninsula south of Haast, we were now two days behind on our itinerary. (remember we had eight days to a five day trip). from the Haast area, we turned inland and into the Southern Alps.

the road wound through the hills sometimes steeply. we had to pull over on shoulders often to let speedier traffic go by. we came across a number of short hikes to water falls or other scenic spots.

the first stop was Roaring Billy Falls, which i'm sure would be more impressive during spring melt offs. (as would all of the falls, i suppose). the aqua colored river was actually more impressive than the falls, which can be seen in this shot:


the Roaring Billy Falls walk was only twenty minutes, we didn't stay too long since we knew we had some ground to cover. i'm sure finn tossed a few rocks into the river:


next was Thunder Creek Falls. that might have been a fifteen minute walk. these were a but more impressive:


i did have to do some correction for this photo. in the original the bright background washed out debbie & finn:


more innocent rocks met their watery fate:

the Haast visitor center worker directed us to a camp ground on a peninsula south of the town. it would be a bit of a deviation from the planned trip (we were supposed to turn north east from Haast), but that's why we built in extra days. we actually drove down the peninsula and found the campground, but then had to double back to pick up groceries and fill up the camper's tank. that turned out okay because across the way from the small grocery/gas station was a miniature horse farm. there were three or four little ponies. but only this white one came up to us.

in all seriousness, this could have been the highlight of finn's trip. (helicopters might be a close second). he and debbie fed the little pony some grass and pet his nose. finn could have spent the rest of the afternoon there.





part of the reason we went to the camp ground that was so out of the way was because it was across the street from the Hapuka Estuary reserve. i think finn was hungry and debbie and i were both tired, so we didn't really feel like doing much... but we did the hike anyway. at least we knew it was an easy walk. we did bring a sippy cup full of milk to keep finn happy:


it turned out to be very pretty and well worth the effort:



much of the walk was on boardwalk since it was a marshy area.


that's the ocean in the distance:


we also heard an unusual bird calling during our walk. we learned from a NZ couple that it was likely a Tui. we had done a circular hike, we passed her one way and met her spouse soon after. we found her again at the trailhead, with him following soon after. i'm not completely clear why they got separated but we did hear a bit about the Tui from them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tui_(bird)

somewhere in this shot, there might be a Tui:

next, we continued south along the coast. the scenery continued to remind us of the California coast. here are a few shots from the Knight's Point over look. a guy with binoculars said there were seals sunning themselves on the beach in this shot, but all we could see were dots with the naked eye:




there was a hike on this beach that we skipped since it was hot and it seemed like it would mostly be exposed.

we drove on to the town of Haast. they had a nice visitors center with exhibits. we spent some time going through that and then walked around the building. they some fun water falls and a pond:


i consider it a minor miracle that finn and/or debbie didn't wind up in the water:


we got info about campsites from the park ranger. we also did a short walk through a man made wetland area. it turned out to be a neat little stop.