2025 New Zealand: January 3rd - Alpine Junction to Hokitiki

 

We woke up to cloudy skies and a hint of rain. As we put the luggage into the car it started drizzling on us but the roads were still dry. By the time we drove past Lake Hawea, it had started raining in earnest, though we could still step out of the car to take a picture or two. By the time we got to the Lake Wanaka Lookout, the wind was so strong that being out of the car was unpleasant.

Past Lake Wanaka, the road went uphill towards Haast Pass, but strangely enough the rain actually stopped. Past Haast Pass, we stopped Fantail Falls and Thunder Creek Falls, both falls being interesting to look at, but ran out of patience and skipped Roaring Billy Falls as we drove at full speed towards the West Coast. Once on the West Coast we stopped at Ship Creek to stare at the Tasman sea once more. There were walks but we started getting bitten by sandflies and decided to bail out and keep driving.

The big attractions on the West Coast are the Fox Glacier and the Frans Josef Glacier. However, the roads/trails to both glaciers were closed and the only option was taking a helicopter assisted hike. That was expensive and we’d already touched glacial ice on this trip (and walked on the Athabasca Glacier in 2023), so we altered our plans to take the Lake Matheson Walk instead.

Arriving at the town of Fox Glacier, we refilled with gas and then went to the Lake Matheson Cafe for lunch. The walk was of course disappointing. All the pictures you see of Lake Matheson are taken in the early morning or evening when the wind dies down. In the afternoon during a storm with the wind blowing the lake has no reflections to speak of. It was just a much needed excuse to stretch our legs.

After the walk, we drove to the Fox Glacier lookout for a grand view of the Fox Glacier. Xiaoqin and I were impressed but the kids weren’t. It started raining as we left the lookout, and in fact, just before the Waikukupa River, the rain came down in sheets, driving visibility down to less than 30 feet and forcing me to slow down despite the windshield wipers going off at maximum speed. It was a short thunder burst, however, and after that harrowing section things went back to normal. We drove past the Frans Josef glacier, once again eschewing all those ads for helicopter tours on a day when it didn’t look like helicopters were going to leave the landing pads.

Arriving at Hokitika at 4:30pm, we checked into a very strange hotel where the reception was a bar. They showed us our two rooms, which were tiny with no AC, with shared bathrooms. The place was cheap and we paid cash. We walked out to dinner at the Hokitika Club, which looked like a bar with a dinner attached to it off to one side. We sat down and ordered the food, which came in generous portions but weren’t anything special to my taste.

By the time we were done, it was 6pm, which was still enough time to drive to the Hokitika Gorge for an after dinner walk. The drive there took 40 minutes, getting us there at a time when the parking lot was pretty empty. We started the walk and it felt nice and deserted though there were still a few other walkers about. The color of the gorge water was remarkable, being blue due to the glacial flour in the water.

The walk was normally a loop but the bridge on one side was broken so it was an out and back. The water looked inviting but it was in fact quite cold being recent glacial melt. We opted not to swim and hiked back to the parking lot where a Buff Weka was walking around looking for leftover hiking food. We visited the other side of the broken bridge and then went back to the hotel to shower and go to bed.