Today we drove 170 miles from Wanaka to Franz Josef Glacier. This may not sound like much but the road compares well with some of the tougher stretches of CA 1 otherwise know as PCH. Other comparisons might include the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We were constantly changing altitude and twisting through the coastal mountains.  It was gorgeous but tiring driving, especially with 28 one lane bridges just a foot wider than the coach. The “right of way” is declared on signs on the approach to each bridge.

The twisting and turning was so severe that near the end of the day I noticed something protruding from a “locked” compartment.  It was one of our chairs and I watched it fall to the road.  I managed to retrieve that one, but another is some place back on the road.

We stopped at Blue Pools and walked on about 15 minutes to see the magnificent glacial melt water pools

We were looking forward to taking a helicopter flight over Fox Glacier.  When we got there we were told the clouds were a problem and they weren’t flying.  I said we were continuing on to Franz Josef and he said they might be flying out of there.  He called and put our names on the list and we drove another 30 minutes and found that they had a flight going up in 30 minutes.