Fox Glacier

Sunday, February 27, 2000:  Fox Glacier

We crossed the street to The Stable for another big breakfast.  Same faire.  Same portions.  All good.  Some things shouldn’t change.  Isabel and Gordon spent a little more time with us this morning.  We’ll be back, but it’ll be nearly a week.

After packing and cleaning the house (laundered the bedsheets, took out the trash, etc.) and leaving a thank you note, we locked the door and brought the key back to The Stable.

We went to town to get Air New Zealand stickers and picked up our rental car.  We stopped at the bank to change more dollars then headed out to see the rest of the South Island.

First stop Coromet Peak.

Then Arrowtown.

Drove on through Siberia Valley.

While going through Haast Pass, we stopped at Fantail Falls for a photograph.

Passed an explosives store.  Really?

Stopped off the road because we found a view of Mount Cook (we think) just as we were leaving Haast Pass.  Also because we had the top down and the sand flies were getting to Doug’s legs.  He broke down and asked to use my Avon Skin So Soft, since it looked like the sand flies were not after me today.

We reached our destination for today:  Fox Glacier.  I found a promising bed and breakfast listed in my Lonely Planet guide.  We rang the doorbell to enquire if there were a spare room for us tonight.  The answer was no; however, her friend, who lives nearby, just started a bed and breakfast.  She’ll give her a call to see if we could stay there.  Yes, she has a room for tonight.  We were given the directions to Reflection Bed and Breakfast.

Reflection Bed and Breakfast was very much a house with a spare bedroom.  The owners had a young daughter running around.  It looked as though our hostess wanted to stay at home and decided to rent a room.

Since it was a bed and breakfast, Doug and I asked about nearby places to eat.  We had dinner at Cooks Saddle.

On the way back to Reflection B&B, we stopped to visit the “famous Glow Worm Dell”.  For a donation, you can walk through a short, dark cave to see the glow worms.  While I walked through, the glow worms looked suspiciously like strings of LED lights against a blackened rock wall.  I felt duped by a tourist attraction.  When we returned to the B&B, we told our hostess that we stopped at the Glow Worm Dell.  I said that it looked a lot like strings of LED lights.  She became indignant and insisted they were real glow worms.  Doug was afraid she was going to kick us out, so we excused ourselves immediately to our room.