Blogs from Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

The West Coast After a long drive from Abel Tasman, we arrived in Westport where we had originally planned to spend the day. We realised very quickly that there was actually very little to see or do there....its never a good sign when the girl in the information office has to think for a minute before half-heartedly suggesting a half hour walk. Seeing as it was a bit of a miserable day, we decided to give the walk a miss and head on to Punakaiki and the famous Pancake rocks. Pancake rocks but the Giants Causeway is of cause-way better... The pancake rocks, so called because they look like a stack of pancakes, were pretty impressive but neither of us were wowed quite as much as some of the people who had written in the visitors ... read more

Today we bid a fond fairwell to Queenstown. After a light breakfast, we once again were on the road heading towards the West Coast to Fox Glacier. We drove up over the mountains passing beautiful lakes, rivers, streams, livestock grazing in the fields. The scenery here is amazing. We stopped along the way to take photos and stopped at a wayside restaurant for lunch. After lunch, it didn't seem long at all befoe we arrived at the first sighting of Fox Glacier. It was a 10 minute walk down a path that gave a far off view of the glacier. In the distance we saw a car park which was a lot closer so we set off in that direction. Along the way, there were markers along the road which showed where the glacier had once ... read more

Our first night in the Maui went well though tonight we are going to set the bed up before it gets dark and definitely before any wine! Slept well and woke at 7.30 ready for the "main" event - the Alpine Fault at Hare Mare Creek. This is an iconic place as it was in this creek that Harold Wellman first identified the Alpine Fault - a major displacement of the crust that runs across New Zealand. This was in 1942 - well before plate tectonic theory. We now know that this fault to be a "strike slip" fault with horizontal movement similar to the San Andreas fault. Movement on the fault has been measured up to 700 km horizontally with a vertical movemnt as well. This helped to form the Southern Alps, the sediments of ... read more

Well we went on the Shotover Jet Boat in Queenstown. The jet boat goes at a high speed through the canyons and all I can say is you think you are going to hit the side of the canyon - they then do 360 degree spins it was brilliant. All I can say is how are we going to get to feed our habit of being adrenaline junkies when we get home! Well we have left our little B&B in Queenstown and will miss the company of Michele and Fred and I will especially miss Fred’s legendary breakfasts. We also met a fabulous mum and daughter Kaiko and Erico at the B&B - they have moved off to Auckland where Erico is working and living at the moment. So on the road we went and thought ... read more

Glacier, hikes and glow worms... read more

Wednesday 2nd May At 8.30 sharp we were over in the Fox Glacier Guiding office (just 2 min walk across the road from our campervan) to confirm our booking for the Heli-Hike up to the top of the glacier. They don't finalise your booking until the 'last minute' to ensure that all is well "up there" before your flight. We are quite impressed with the safety preparations and as Mary has never been in a chopper before she is a little apprehensive but also excited. This is not a cheap outing but we may never get the oportunity again, so what the hell! 8.50am and the flight is on. We all (about 15 of us Australian, German, French, Dutch, Canadian, Chinese and even a Kiwi!) then boarded an old (but refurbished retro) bus to run us ... read more