Naomi VanDoren

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NZ Day 6 - Lake Wanaka & Hawea

Today was filled with driving. We drove from Fox Glacier where we stayed last night at the Fox Glacier Lodge Campground (a nice and very clean little place. One of my favorites) all the way down to Wanaka. Unfortunately, because of the weather, we weren't able to see Fox Glacier. We drove down to the parking lot in the rain and with the downpour it wasn't worth walking the trail in the low visibility.

Thankfully as the morning wore on the rainclouds dispersed and we enjoyed bright blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

There is an endless amount of things to see here. Along the side of our drive through more mountainous areas today were dozens of waterfalls peeking through the dense rain forested mountainsides. We stopped at one and walked up the riverbed where people had left cairns.

As you would expect we did encounter sheep here. At the top of Lake Hawea we pulled off down a small dirt road and through several fields to get to the lake's beach. There was a camping area here but we were interested in getting down the road a little farther.

Since we have limited time to see all of the things we want to see on this trip it's been a challenge to make sure we have rest days and to not get burned out. At the end of today was one of those rest days. We pulled in early to our campsite, cooked dinner and I sketched by the lake before sunset.


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