After leaving Albert Town, we headed to the West Coast. Plan A had been to spend a night at Lake Hawea, but after losing the dogs, I decided it was time to leave rabbit country.
Before long, the countryside morphed into the wonderful West Coast - wild and remote. The trees had changed from deciduous to native. Our first stop was at Boundary Creek, off SH6.
Boundary Creek Campsite is located on the shores of Lake Wanaka. There's lots of sheltered spots to camp, flush toilets, fresh water, and dogs are allowed.
Although, we hadn't planned on staying overnight, we spent some time exploring.
There are so many things I love about the South Island, and one of them, is how quickly the landscape can change. Half an hour ago, in all directions, there were the stunning colours of autumn (and rabbits!) and now, 30 minutes further on, all around was every shade of green.
Another change was the temperature! It had dropped and rain wasn't far away.
The shore line was smothered in coloured rocks, they'd be the perfect colour for skinks to camouflage amongst.
A sturdily built driftwood hut, had the perfect view, looking down the lake. And all around was driftwood and not a single rabbit in sight!
Once the dogs had sniffed everything, and stretched their legs, we continued on to Haast.
'Haast Pass-Makaroa Road' has several short walks to waterfalls, but we only stopped at Fantail Falls. DOC has provided lots of room to park and the walk to the waterfall, only took a couple of minutes. Fantail Falls (a 23 metre waterfall), is fed by Fantail Creek and falls in the Haast River. There's an information board, which explains the area's history and how the road was made.
When the Haast highway was being constructed a Pelton water wheel was placed at the bottom of Fantail Falls to generate energy for driving compressors to power some of the road making machinery. The concrete foundation of the water wheel can still be found at Fantail Falls.
Haast was our destination. I booked in at the 'Haast River Motels and Holiday Park' for a night. It was forecast to rain the next day and being on the West Coast, I thought it might be a good idea to charge up the batteries incase I had a few days of wet weather. Plus, I needed to do some washing. This would be the first time I plugged into power since leaving Nelson.
With an arm load of washing I headed to the laundry. Once I'd turned the machine on, I walked back to the bus. As I turned the corner, I saw we had visitors. Not the human variety, nor any of the rabbit family ... but chickens! Super friendly, inquisitive chooks.
They were extra neighbourly because the guy camping beside us was feeding them. He gave me a container of pellets, so I could feed them too. Not that they needed any encouraging, they were happy to saunter around the bus tantalising the dogs. And needless to say, Oakly didn't get much sleep again that night! Haha
Such a beautiful drive.
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