Hightailed it out of Haast – believe me there is nothing there but a couple of camp sites.  There must be loads of people breaking there before they go to Wanaka or Fox/Franz Joseph Glaciers.  Unlike other camp sites no permanent residents here.  Anyway so on the road to Fox glacier and it’s a lovely day.  First stop was Ship Creek where you could climb an observation tower and … observe.  I looked at Paul who looked at me, who wouldn’t, bit of a beach – actually a long beach with lots of trees and a bit of a manky looking cave.  Spit at the creek entrance and Paul up a tower.

Named ship wreck creek fairly recently when part of the wooden hull of the clipper Schomberg beached at the mouth of the creek.  The Schomberg went down off the southern Victorian coast of Australia so the hull drifted the thousand odd miles across the Tasman Sea to NZ.  Certainly a few logs here.

Very smooth pebbles

The heave and sigh of the sea.

Paul gingerly looking into the manky cave.

Some 10km further along the road stopped at Knights Point Lookout.  Great views of the coast north and south.  The obelisk commemorates the official opening of the Paringa-Haast section of the road in 1965, linking the regions of Westland with Otago via the Haast Pass.  The actual meeting of the two teams was 2.5 miles from this spot – but I guess not as pretty.

Stopped again at Bruce Bay for photos of more trees on the beach.

Not rain but steam coming off the road.  And over another single road bridge.  I can see why drowning used to be a major cause of death here.  It’s bridge after bridge after bridge.

The edge of the rain forest in places is fronted by tree ferns, here where the verges are mown back.  In rain forest proper you see the ferns poking out amongst the trees.