Blogs from Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 9

February 2009 Mimi and Gregg's Trip to the West Coast I had a great time showing my sister, Mimi the great country of New Zealand. We haven't spent much time together in several years, so it was a great opportunity to catch up with each other. We left after work on Tuesday and drove through fog and rain to Flock Hill, a sheep station located about 35 km east of Aurther's Pass. By the time we entered the high country, the clouds broke up and revealed an amazing full moon. We stopped to have a look and heard the most errie sounds. Sheep, herded for shearing, were bleeting, or crying, not sure which. But a 1000 sheep in unisone creates quite a din! We finally made it to Flock Hill. The units were great and the ... read more

Another early rise... we packed up at the hostel and were on our way to Fox Glacier. It was raining for most of the drive, which made it more difficult to see the scenery. We were concerned that our hike up the glacier might be cancelled. Nevertheless, the drive was scenic, though, the road was (as in much of NZ) very curvy and hilly. This was one of the day's that Robert planned and he planned it well. We arrived early enough to grab some food and get checked in for our scheduled hike. The hike was still a go despite the rain. Apparently, in a "rainforest" it rains a lot (light sarcasm)... so the tour company was well prepared for this day's precipitation (as many, if not most, of their hikes are in the rain ... read more

Up and into the village for 9.30am. We had scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast with yogurt - a nice treat! At 9.30am, Mike our guide, called us into the boot room to get ou walking boots, socks and crampons. They explained the walk and H&S thenw e all jumped on the bus. When we got to the carpark we split into two groups. We went with Mike as he seemed alot more enthusistic about everything! We walked over 2 rivers, up the mountain side into the rainforest, along a steep cliff and then down onto the Glacier. They have to walk this way now as the ice has grown so much in width it has blocked the old path running along side it! The views from the rainforest walk are amaxing, you can see all ... read more

We didn't get to bed until really late as we got talking to a young couple from Falmouth ! They seemed so relieved to talk to people who knew where they were from! We packed up, luckly the rain had stopped this morning so we manged to get the tent dried out! We left around 10.30am and drove to the franz Josef Glacier. We went to the visitor car park and walked up to the viewing point, a 20 min return walk. Pretty amazing to see! Then we carried on to the Fox Glacier, 30 mins down the road. We went to the first caravan park but they didn't have tent sites so we only had the choice of one other. It was NZ$17 pp/pn and as it was the only place we had to pay! ... read more

Tuesday, 3rd As I only have the car for a couple of days I figured I'd better make the most of it, so I set off to Franz Josef Glacier some 469km / 8 hours away. Just outside of town I saw to hitchhikers, I wanted to stop and pick them up, but didn't. As I drove away I had the gut feeling that I should go back for them. I turned around and picked them up. It turned out to be a mother and her daughter, Andrea and Johanna Hertwich. They were on their way to Murchison, and it was on my way. They are from Germany and immigrated ten years ago. They live on an organic farm just outside of town and went into wellington do get a passport. We had some interesting conversation ... read more