One of the most popular touristic highlights is Milford Sound in the south west of New Zealand. Te Anau seems to be the perfect base for a visit.

The road to Milford Sound leads through a nice fjord landscape. On the spot I book in a boat tour. Sometimes you have to be an ordinary tourist…

Well, it’s not the Geyranger/Norway, but it’s nice anyway. The road towards and backwards was spectacular at least.

On I went to Mt. Cook and here –glaciers are cold- I prefer a motel instead of my tent.

This mountain is quite impressive, even if it shyly tries to hide behind the clouds. The sunset paints the mountain top fire red.

Beeline there are only 70ks between here and Franz-Joseph-Glacier. But there’s no direct connection, so the trip is longer than 300ks.

So I made a stopover in Haast. Greg –you remember him, the local from the ferry- recommended me a restaurant in Jackson Bay, where I could get the best fish & chips in New Zealand. Well, it was a 54ks dead end road and worth every single meter! The food, presented in an old wagon was just delicious.

All in all a wonderful ride today.

Was the sun shining very bright on my visit at the Fox Glacier, the Franz Joseph Glacier was covered in dark rain clouds.
But the next day he was willingly, too, to present his beauty to the visitors.
On both glaciers were countless helicopter in the air, so elderly Vietnamese tourist were in danger to get a flash back on their old traumata. If that, in times of global warming, causing the melting of the glaciers, is the right way of tourism, I doubt it.

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The next stop on the west side is Greymouth. There starts the west route of the Arthur’s Pass, which is much more interesting to ride than from the east side. On the way back I stop at Shantytown, a historic goldmine town.
Last stop at the west coast will be Westport, including a ride to Keramea. You can’t get further north. And again the beloved game – bends, bends, bends… 🙂
A word to the road conditions in New Zealand: Generally the roads are in good conditions and the countless road word sites prove, that one want to keep them in good conditions. The shocking thing is how much gravel is on the streets, especially in the curves. Obviously they throw an extra bucket gravel in the curves. That’s not fair at all…