lucky with the weather on our West Coast part of our New Zealand trip, as it has been rainy about half the time. This day, we were super lucky to have a dry beginning of the day, so we woke up early, skipped breakfast, and decided to start the day with by trail running the Fox Glacier South Side Walk.

The previous day we had checked out the Franz Josef glacier from the most accessible lookout, and while it was nice, it wasn't so.... impressive. Due to global warming, and the time of the year, it has become.... small. And was very far away. So we weren't so stoked about this one, but luckily we were happily surprised.

We still had to get to the view though, and luckily for me the Fox Glacier South Side trail was perfect trail run for someone that hadn't run in a long time (foot and knee injuries). It was a gentle sloping climb along the Fox River, with a few smaller hikes that jetted off the sides here and there.

While the river views were great, the trail was often in the temperate rain forest of New Zealand, and in this morning it was misty, mysterious, green, and wild.

As we ran up, we started to get views of the glacier. As always, the photographs don't do it justice - it felt much larger than the photos show.

Since it was a relatively short run, we got to the end and had an awesome view of the glacier, mountains, and river. Much better and secluded than the previous day's view.

On the run back, we decided to check out one of the short walks that come out of the main trail: Moraine Walk. A 

, as I found out while writing this, is a material left behind by a glacier, usually soil or rock. Embarrassingly, since I didn't know the word during the hike, I only glanced at the massive rocks and changing sediment on the hike, and instead focused my photos on the absurdly magical, misted, and wild feeling of the rainforest.

The walk did mark where the glacier terminus every now and then, the sign in the photo saying "Glacier Terminus 1750 AD". The higher you went, the later the decade and century, but it got nowhere near as high as where the glacier ends today.... sad, really.

After finishing the hike (and losing each other for a bit, Joana was much faster than me), we kept our road trip going, leaving this part of glacier country and driving south towards Haast. On the way we stopped for breakfast/brunch at South Westland Salmon Farm. Why there? Cause I saw it on the map and it felt right!

The farm (and cafe/deli), was right off the highway, nestled through the forest. The cafe was directly above the farm, and you could see the large salmon and 

eels in the water below - super cool. I had gotten to know NZ eels the day before at the National Kiwi center (and fed them too), so it was awesome to see them not in a tank. Massive things.

We shared salmon + toast and a salmon chowder with slices of cheese scones. Was great to have after an active morning!

We had big plans to do a few other hikes, but unfortunately we got completely rained out.  We were most sad about missing out on Haast, which is at the foot of Mt. Aspiring National Park, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, we got to check out the stupendous visitor's center, that was situated straight on a creek of the Haast River and had informative displays about the region. 

Out of a fear of the roads south closing due to flooding, we headed off to Wanaka. The drive was gorgeous in the rain, so I can only imagine what the mountains and lakes must look like on a beautiful day. Unfortunately, the rain kept going so we ended up doing one of our classic solutions: chill at a brewery. We went to Ground Up Brewing, where I'm writing this post now. Highly recommend the Acid Raindrops, a peach and vanilla sour.

Fox Glacier Village, salmon farm noms, and rainy day beers