The plan had been to stay for two nights in Franz but once we had seen the glacier, with no cafes to do, we decided to move on. Ruby and I were up before the rest and into town for an early morning coffee and juice...more girly time...then the great packing machine and on the road for the longest day yet.
Surprising as it may seem the coast was cloudy and drizzly. I had seen a cafe at Lake Matheson in my research and we thought we would check out a bit of slick style to balance out the character cafes we had visited to date. The Lake Matheson Cafe is purpose built and architecturally designed, it caters to international and national travellers and is probably the most touristy cafe we have visited so far. That said it is in a fantastic location and the coffee was good, the food also. Part of NZ cafe culture is the tourist destination as tourism is one of our major earners and employers.
We had realised that the day was going to be a long one as we were going the distance to Queenstown. It became longer and longer as the photo stops increased in direct relationship to the beauty around. This stretch of road is probably my favourite in the whole of New Zealand. If the sandflies could be brought to heel, between Haast township and Haast Pass would be my home of choice.
Memories of the Contiki days surfaced as we were going through Makarora and as the petrol gauge was nearing empty we stopped at one of the only independent stations in New Zealand. It also happened to be a cafe, bar, souvenir shop and camping ground. With all of those things attached to a cafe in the middle of nowhere we had no choice but to do it for the book. Don't expect lavish fare, but solid good country food is present, along with a friendly face and number plates from around the world.
Thank goodness for good friends. We got a call from Andy who had willingly offered us queenstown accomodation. He let us know that there was a chicken in the oven and we could babysit as he and the lovely Kirsty were out for the evening. We arrived to family chaos like our own and immediatly felt right at home. Ruby and Gabs talked late into the night after abandoning a tent mission for the bedroom. Mika was finally able to sleep in the car after much nagging and Ethan decided to leave the tent for a less windy night. Matthew and I ended up in the gorgeous above garage loft that Kirsty and Andy have made into a haven and all was well in the world.
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