From Glacier Country down to Haast and on to my most favourite place!

The drive from the Glacier Country down to Haast has some stunning coastal scenery as the road winds it way around towards Haast. There are a few places along the way to take some happy snaps and there's a particular place along the coastline of Haast where piles of white stones caught our eye. 

We pulled over to have a look and found that travellers from all over the world had been leaving their names, the date and where they were from written on the stones. Of course we felt obliged to add ours to the pile.

It's not a particularly long section of coastline, but it's certainly beautiful and we enjoyed spending almost an hour reading some of the messages on the stones and going down to the beach to leave some little piles of cairns.  Even the driftwood was a rich beautiful rusty red colour.  

Following the road some more and we came across more farmland, plus one place that had an honesty box with fresh farm eggs in the Makarora area.  Naturally, we couldn't leave those by the side of the road, so left some money for a carton of their delicious eggs.  

The farmland is so green and I never get tired of those views. A little further along and you cross another of those beautiful crystal clear blue rivers before you come to Thunder Creek Falls. The falls are a pleasant short walk from the car park area and the falls were living up to their name the day we were there.

Around the same area as the falls, is the turn off to the Blue Pools of Haast, however, they are still on my to do list so will have to look at those on a future visit.

A little south of Makarora on the right, you will see your first glimpse of Lake Wanaka, the 4th largest lake in New Zealand. Within a very short space of time on the left, you will see the top end of Lake Hawea.  The road then pretty much follows the lake around to the township of Hawea.  

From there you go through Albert Town which is the Clutha and Hawea Rivers meet. Albert Town had until recently been more of a farming settlement, however, population growth in the area has also seen Albert Town grow a little more.

Albert Town is just a 10 minute drive from my favourite place.. Wanaka!