We drove about 1 hour before we hit the mountains. They were really cool. The clouds were low and I know we were missing some serious scenery, but it was totally Lord of the Rings-ish. You'll see in the photos we stopped to take pictures of these amazing rocks. They were so out of place and Huge! It was a hiking area and many backpackers were heading up to take a closer look. They were amazing. We then came to a town called Arthur's Pass and ate some lunch. There were only two places to stop, but we picked the right place because we saw the local birds called Kea. They were like huge parrots. They would have sent Betty to her grave. They were huge and jumped right on your table and would steal your food faster than you could shoo them away. One lady had like a tub of butter on her table and one of them snatched it, opened it and had a butter filled beak before she could get it back from him. Then there was a baby in the back of a car and the mom had ran inside to buy something. We heard her screaming "go away, go away" and there was a giant Kea trying to get in her window that was rolled down. A lady eating at a table shooed the bird away and stayed with her til the mom came out. (who leaves their kid alone in a car now days?) No doubt this poor little girl is traumatized forever.
After lunch we traveled on and decided to take the scenic route to go by a lake. Little did we know it was over 10 miles of a one lane rock road with NO ONE in site and was straight up unnerving. We were both glad to see civilization again! -- The mountains on the West side of Arthur's Pass were not as exciting. They were huge, but covered in trees unlike the East side that was grassy and spotted with sheep. After hitting the West Coast and getting a glimpse of the Tasman Sea, we worked our way down to our B&B. It is dreamy. The owners are so nice. I asked where I could do some laundry and she said she'd do it for me because if I went to the laundry mat then I'd have to sit there and waste precious site seeing time. After thanking her 1000 times, I gave her a small load of necessities and we took off to visit the town. Guy picked out a penguin made of blown glass for me and then we headed for the beach. I rolled my pants up and looked like a dork, but hey, no one knew me. (forgive me Lynn). The black sand beaches were covered with gorgeous rocks and piles of driftwood that was recently brought in by a big storm. One of the ladies in the glass shop said the beaches are not always black sand. Weird. But there were 2 men shoveling the sand into a contraption and sifting it for gold. They had retrieved about a half an ounce the day before. (I didn't see any gold....) Anyway, my mom's two favorite things in the world (ok maybe not the world) are beautiful rocks and driftwood. Guy and I had our pockets full of rocks and I carefully chose a cool piece of driftwood for mom that would easily pack. I called her immediately to tell her of our find. :) I wish she was here with me. We'd still be down there.
Back to our B&B. We have the cottage that is out in the garden area of the B&B. It is so awesome...Guy thinks Dad should build one just like it down by his lake, but I'm not sure there would be many vacationers going thru Elkville on a regular basis. :) We got ready for dinner and went to a place called Stumpers and had our best meal of the trip. I had the venison steak and guy had the local blue cod. When mine came out it was slices of perfectly cooked (pink in the middle) slices stacked over hot beets and baby potatoes. It had a wine reduction sauce that was so good you slathered every bite in it. I wish I had my camera at dinner. The presentation was spectacular. It tasted even better. I was about to explode but of course ordered dessert to go and we came back to our little cottage and ate it on the porch. What a great day.
Guy is concerned we have a bit too much planned for tomorrow, so he went inside to talk with Brian about the timing. Brian says we can do it even tho we are looking at about a 10 hour day. From here we are going to Fox Glacier and it will take 1 1/2 hours to walk to it and back. Then there are some waterfalls he said we need to stop and see. We are going to get up early (not a problem for me) and be on the road by 8. It stays light until almost 9, so we should be in good shape and at our next location (a lodge on Lake Wanaka) by 6-7pm.
I know I'm missing some details of the day, but it is so hard to think of everything as I type. Just like taking pictures today...if I stopped at every cool spot to take a picture we would still be on the road. So you pull over when you can and if not just look and take mental pictures. Many of the photos today need some work, but I had to just stick them up for now as is. :) Nite!