A Post Card Day

Monday November 14, 2011
We made an executive decision to leave Glacier Country last night & head for Wanaka. We headed south on the main highway State Rd. 6 all 2 lanes of it. We finally saw Fox Glacier in the sun.
Today was a tease. The sun was out, like it should have been yesterday, everything sparkled & stood out like a post card. The road to Haast was amazing with all the curves, fields of sheep or cattle, stands of wind blown trees leaning inland, sea shore & beaches that easily rival Big Sur. All along the road were cyclists.

We stopped at Bruce's Bay where there is a crashing surf, wide beach, lots of drift wood & flat smooth white rocks approximately 6 to 10 inches across that were all over the beach. People write messages on them & leave them along side the road. There are literally hundreds of them. It sort of reminds you of a stone(d) grave yard. We stopped at the Salmon Farm Cafe for lunch. They raise salmon in large pens fed by a creek. There is a large pool surrounding the pens that holds HUGE rainbow trout. We're talking 36 inches long. We had salmon sashimi, salmon chowder & a Smoked salmon Doorstop Toasted sandwich (thick buttered toast, large chunks of smoked salmon, tomatoes & onion) for lunch. Vic let Tracy drive so he could relax (yea, right).

We stopped at Knight's Point which had spectacular beaches, crashing waves & deep blue water seen from way up high on cliffs. When we got to Haast the road turned inland. We stopped at the iSite & there was a combination Espresso & Whitebait food trucking the parking lot. Now thats a food combination you don't see very often!

We entered Mt. Aspiring National Park. The guide books say it is spectacular with water falls, mountains & post card scenes. They understate its true beauty. It is about 100KM long, but you can not make good time as you have to stop every 400 meters to take a picture. We stopped at Roaring Billy Falls, Fantail Falls & at every other bend in the road to snap shots. We passed by Trickle Falls No. 1 & 2 which were actually torrents of flowing water. All day long it was ooh that & aah that. After passing thru the park we drove alongside the very large & beautiful Lake Wanaka & Lake Hawea. Snow covered mountains ringed the lakes. There weren't any boats, very few cars-just spectacular scenery.
We finally made it to Wanaka, found a room & promptly went to eat & drink. No problem. We stopped at the Wanaka Wine shop to chat about the wines of NZ & then made our way to Relishes for dinner. Tracy had blue cod marinated in miso paste with str fried soba noodles topped with a carrot/ginger sweet & sour relish. She paired it with a '08 Bellbird (Blend consisting of Riesling, Pinot Gris). It was an amazing dish. Vic had the grilled lamb shoulder with cardemon paired with a '10 Brookfields Sundried malbec Hawkes Bay. All and all a great dinner to end a great day.