Day 7: Wanaka to Franz Josef Glacier to Ross

We left Wanaka with happy hearts. We loved staying in that town. The drive was beautiful as all our drives have been. We were on the west coast and for a while drove parallel to the Tasman Sea.

Breakfast before we left

More of these one lane bridges. This one was very long!

We knew that the drive from Wanaka to Franz Josef Glacier was going to be long. We actually weren't quite sure we were going to see the glacier because we didn't know how we were going to feel about the long drive at the end of our trip. The kids were actually doing remarkable in the campervan, they loved watching their shows on their tablets, so we decided to make the drive.

We stopped for lunch on the beach to break the 4 hour drive up. 

The lunch spot was a great find.

Next stop was the Franz Josef Glacier. This glacier is super unique because it is the closest

a diagram to explain how the glacier is formed

Here we are walking out of the glacier hike thinking about how this is one of our last hikes in New Zealand. I was feeling a bunch of emotions at once... feeling sad because our trip is coming to and end, feeling grateful that we were able to go on this trip of a lifetime and feeling excited that we were able to see everything on our bucket list for the South Island!!

We drove an hour past Franz Josef Glacier (in order to prep for the drive to Christchurch) and found an awesome Holiday park in Ross. It was right on the ocean!!! They had some units you could rent for the night to sleep and they were made out of shipping containers. It was so creative. The bathrooms and community kitchen were also made out of shipping containers.
The beach stretched for miles in each direction and we had it to ourselves

Derek LOVED throwing rocks into the ocean!

Rylie found this really cool play fort made out of drift wood. 

She LOVED playing in the fort. She found a cool stick too!

After dinner we rushed out to see the sunset. It was a perfect ending to our trip. We spent some time reflecting on our week adventure and we each took a rock and threw it into the ocean thanking God for something having to do with our trip. It was special time for our family.

Here are some random pictures of the campervan.