Driving the Haast Pass
Driving southwest from Fox towards Queenstown was easily the most beautiful day I've ever passed in a car. It was raining the morning we left, so we started the day with dramatic downpours that yielded thundering waterfalls on the roads and surrounding mountainsides.
We made a pit stop at one of the more chaotic cascades, Roaring Billy:
The pass took us from the western coast of the South Island do the eastern side of the South Alps, the mountain that houses the various glaciers and hot springs we've been visiting.
Crossing to the eastern side, the climate instantly became arid and dry; it felt like we had been transported the American Southwest! We were loving glacier country, but after days dodging storm clouds, we were looking forward to forecasts full of sunshine and a serious reduction in sandflies.
