We awoke to see frost on the grass outside our van and we learnt later that the temperature had gone down to -4* here. However the upside was that it was another glorious sunny day for our drive over the mountains to the west coast. At first we drove along the side of Lake Hawea and crossed over to drive alongside Lake Wanaka at a tiny isthmus called The Neck. From there we had more views of snow tipped mountains and also back to Wanaka. At the head of the lake we entered the Mount Aspiring National Park whereupon the road became the Haas Highway,one of the most diverse roads in the country and only built in the mid 1960's. The road passes through temperate rain forest,some isolated sheep and cattle stations,sheer cliffs with the road hand hewn into them and rivers and waterfalls all around. The highlight is the Blue Pools. A raised path takes you through the rain forest and over 2 very wobbly suspension bridges to look down on azure blue pools where trout can be seen trying to reach their spawning ground at this time of the year. The water is crystal clear and we could see the fish having a very hard time making very little headway,poor things. Next was Fantail falls where we saw 2 hikers having to wade through the ice cold river to get to their destination,a hut 4 hours up a mountain. The road then became very narrow as we climbed up to the top of the pass whereupon we crossed the river at The Gates of Haast on a single track bridge and now the water from the mountains was flowing in the opposite direction but still just as fierce. The valley opened up now and we had a short walk through some more rain forest to view Thunder Creek Falls. We drove on down to the sea to find some fuel and provisions as they are hard to come by hereabouts before booking into our campsite.