Again the weather gods have shone down on us as we pack up and prepare to head away from Fox Glacier for places further south.
We hadnt used a lot of petrol after the last fill in Hokitika so the Fox Glacier price for petrol at NPD at $2.45 per litre didnt bite into the credit card too much. And with the petrol station being privately owned there were no Gold Card discount.
As with most days of travel, the early part of the drive saw little traffic as the location where that traffic would have started from for the day was a good 75km plus away from where we started and as long as they left at a similar time to us it would take a while before we passed each other. And this far south on the coast there are few townships or even locals living close to the highway with a need to travel to town.
However, all of a sudden there were two cyclists ahead of us going in our direction and we assume they had started out at Fox Glacier as they would have had to be up very early if they
had started the day in Franz Josef some 30km north of Fox Glacier and a serious hill road to get through. A quick look at the map didnt show any township until Haast some 120km ahead so we guessed there must be some on the side of the highway before Haast as they would be doing some to reach that far in a day given that daylight saving is well and truly past. They didnt have although they did look fit enough to make a good pace.
With the lack of traffic it gave us more time to concentrate on not running over the many possums that must have got startled in the night and met their ultimate fate. There were so many it was impossible to keep count.
The road followed a wide open valley that twisted and turned which meant there were virtually no hills in the progress of the highway. The few hardy farmers that lived along the highway had modest homes and it was hard to see them earning a big from the cattle they raised.
include a short diversion down to Hunts Beach which looked similar to others we have been to on the Coast with a stony beach and crashing waves along the straight coastline.
Fireplace in the cafe with a hot fire giving out good warmth to the patrons of the cafe as the sun hadnt yet reached around the corner of the hill to warm the building up. Even the salmon in their tank were swimming round and round rapidly to keep warm!
As we left 3 and an unknown bike make drew up besides in the car park and were set on reversing their bikes into the car park leaving us little room to reverse and turn around. Eventually they realised that a car is a bit bigger to manoeuvre than a motor bike and left us room to get on our way.
The highway rejoined the coast at Bruce Bay where a substantial boulder stop bank about 3 metres tall had been installed beyond the car park. It seems like the highway must have been
The highway then turned back inland and was a bit more undulating and we passed by two recreational lakes of Paringa and Moeraki.
We were now approaching Knights Point where there is a monument to of Highway 6 in November 1965.Up until this date there was an section of landscape without a road towards Haast about 30km away that meant you couldnt do circumference of the South Island.
From the lookout there are grand views of the coastline north as well as south and out to the Tasman Sea.
Previous stops here have always been spoilt to some degree by tour buses in the car park left with their motors running while the tourists wandered about getting their photos.
Today though it was peaceful with just 3 other cars which left before we did and anyone else arrive leaving us alone in a place we remembered as busy and cluttered in the past.
Just after we pulled out back onto the highway we were passed by the and the mystery model bike, although I should add
that Gretchen did pull over for them as she could tell they were enjoying themselves and making a feast of the hilly section of road with some good turns that we were travelling through.
