THE PATH FORWARD

My notes for this day of the trip are just the words “Drive. Stop. Hike” repeated a few times. We left the glacial area of Franz Josef early in the morning. By the end of the day we’d walked along a boardwalk on the beach, skipped rocks at Lake Hawea and strolled through a rainforest. The area around Haast was just one amazing walk after another. Eventually we had to keep going to make it to our destination in Wanaka. New Zealand’s care and maintenance of these wonderful spaces is inspiring. Clear bio-control to protective native species, well marked signs and rather accurate time estimates;  a beautiful view of what our trail systems could be. New Zealand, 2019