After the paddling at Milford Sound we jumped back in the van and drove on to Wanaka. In fact to move on from Milford Sound we effectively had to trace our route back about 300km because there is only one way out - back the way you came. We made it into Wanaka at about 8:00pm and found a nice motor park just out of Wanaka on the road to Mount Aspiring. It even had a spa and sauna! We took advantage of these facilities and then went out for a meal in Wanaka. Whilst not exactly a throbbing metropolis, Wanaka is billed as 'Queenstown without the hype' and it does have a nice atmosphere (and a lake which seems to be mandatory for any town in this area). We ate in a place called Relishes Cafe and I have to say that it was the best meal I have had for a long time (which came as a bit of a shock given that I had been warned about the quality of dining in New Zealand).
In the morning, we had a look around Wanaka (which didn't take very long). Karen had another raised eyebrow moment because I was excited about finding our camper van twin parked next to us when we returned to the car park (absolutely identical van with just the last digit of the registration incremented). We then moved on towards Franz Josef Glacier. We stopped at Makarora (pop. 40) for lunch in another twilight zone cafe. Whilst we were eating, a light aircraft steamed right past one of the cafe windows and took off. Strange. We moved off as quickly as possible and drove through Haast (named after the discoverer of Franz Josef, Julius Von Haast - he got the 'Von' for naming the glacier after the Emperor of Austria Mr Josef himself) and on to Fox Glacier. We stopped to take a peek at Fox Glacier (smaller than Franz Josef), but it started to bucket down so we ran back to the van and drove on to Franz Josef.
Once in Franz Josef we found a really nice little motor park, called Forest Park, which was about a block from the middle of town but set in a little mini rainforest - very nice. We went into the town for dinner and had another excellent meal at a place called Beeches. They really do some great venison here.