We woke this morning to glorious sunshine, so Andy headed out for his 10k run fix and took in the picturesque town of Cardrona.

We had stayed at the Cardrona Hotel, one of New Zealand’s oldest and most iconic hotels. It had a cosy charming atmosphere, great service and welcoming beer garden, making the hotel a favourite for both locals and travellers alike. We would definitely recommend staying here if you are ever in the area.

After a coffee we headed the 15k north to Wanaka, a resort town set on the southern end of its namesake lake with views of snowcapped mountains.

It’s the gateway to the Southern Alps’ Mount Aspiring National Park, a wilderness of glaciers, beech forests and alpine lakes. Treble Cone and Cardrona ski resorts are near the park.

We’d heard about the iconic Wanaka tree that sits on the side of the lake and attracts tourists whenever they visit, so decided to check it out for ourselves.

That Wānaka Tree, also known as the ‘That Wānaka Willow’, is the nickname of a tree located at the southern end of Lake Wānaka.

The tree has grown alone in the water and is a popular destination to take Instagram photos.

Whilst our pictures don’t show it, we can confirm that there were a fair number of other people doing the same shot as we were. It’s a beautiful setting there can be no disputing that.

After an enjoyable walk along the lake and a mid-morning coffee and cake stop in town, we decided to pay a visit to Wanaka Lavender farm.

Wanaka Lavender Farm is a wonderful setting and looked even more stunning on this sunny cloudless day. The farm had 20 acres of beautiful lavender fields and display gardens. We got to walk through the flowers, play garden games and relax in this stunning setting breathing in the wonderful lavender smells.

The farm also does a great sideline in honey, which we got to try and also honey ice-cream, which we passed at given it wasn’t even midday!!

The gardens were intricately set out and maximising the visual impact and creating the most beautiful landscape.

Alongside the flowers we also met the friendly resident farm animals including donkeys, alpaca’s, sheep, goats and pigs.

After a very enjoyable hour or so we left the farm and headed back into Wanaka to make the most of the sunshine, with a late lunch on the lake front and a spot of sun bathing.

With a 4hr drive on to Fox Glacier in front of us, we left Wanaka mid afternoon and drove north stopping at Lake Hawea lookout to take in the wonderful views within the Lake District region.

The colours of the lake and surrounding landscape were breathtaking and made us appreciate how lucky we are to get to see this magnificent part of the South Island.

In every direction the scenery was unspoilt and thankfully devoid of housing and roads.

After a couple of hours we stopped at the Roaring Billy Falls, a waterfall in Mount Aspiring National Park.

It is located in the Haast River valley, around 30 km inland from Haast.

The falls are a 30-metre-high cascade on The Roaring Billy stream.

It was incredible to see the cascade and waterfalls almost having the place to ourselves with so few tourists making the drive across to the West Coast. This was in part down to the fact that the coast road is intermittently closed for road repairs having been affected by rock slides since mid-November. Fortunately for us it was re-opening just about the time we crossed the bridge over Haas.

As managed another waterfall stop and walk along the Haas River before pushing on for our nights stop at Fox Glacier, after a further 2hr drive.

At tonight’s motel they kindly provided a nights glow worm tour in the nearby forest bordering the Fox Glacier park. It proved to be a magical experience to see the glow worms. These bioluminescent creatures were absolutely breathtaking and we have our informative guide to thank for showing where they could be found.

Tomorrow it’s glacier day with a visit to the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, which we last visited almost 20yrs ago.