Blogs from Franz Josef, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

After packing up and checking out I drove Tom to the hospital to have his knee braced altered, it was easy as it was on the way to The Remarks! Had another great morning skiing by myself before the guys arrived around 12ish. I managed to spend an hour with them before I decided it would be best for me to get on my way up the West Coast! I returned my equipment and got a venison pie from Fergbaker and hit the road. I headed back out of the valley towards Cronwell before taking anew route out towards the coast. The scenery out this way was again beautiful but in a different way to what I had experienced on Wednesday. This area is called the Lakes for good reason, there are loads of them! They ... read more

George (with commentary by Carla): On Tuesday we go to the airplane museum where there are lots of life-size model planes and some of them are flyable, and one of them is the only one of its kind left in the world. Some of the models are very odd. The drive down from Linkwater to Blenheim took us from fjords, inlets and wooded hills into the big country of fertile plains and vineyards. The New Zealand Royal Air Force has a base at Blenheim as there’s lots of flatness to land planes on. Peter Jackson the film director has also located his WW1 aeroplanes museum here, capitalising on the space available in the same way. It’s called the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre and it focuses on planes and flyers of WW1 both on the Allied and ... read more

Franz Josef is a small town no bigger than Killybegs that has a huge draw card – the beauty of snow-capped peaks looming over the alpine themed landscapes at ground level with a huge glacier hidden between them.Visiting the glacier was always on my bucket list for NZ, I don’t know why apart from I saw other people’s photos and thought it looked special. When we arrived we did a bit of research in the iSite and then at Franz Josef Glacier Guides. The girls we met at the Waitomo Caves mentioned that the glacier is only accessible by helicopter and this proved to be true. A couple of months ago the whole terminal face (where the glacier ends) fell off and it is now unsafe to hike from the bottom up through the glacier. The ... read more

Hi Everyone, Our biggest adventure came next when we arrived in Taupo. This is one of the places to do a sky dive. Our names were down and there was no backing out. Everyone who wanted to do it on our bus was doing it so at least we got to do it with friends. When we got to the centre we were shown a video of what it looked like. i dont think it was a good idea as it scared more people. We eventually got suited up and went up in the plane. We flew to 1500 ft and went for it. just like everyone else had said, it was amazing. that gave us a rush for the rest of the day and we celebrated in the evening with everyone. we had 2 days ... read more

No internet access last night, so here's a basic rundown of our day yesterday: Sunrise walk on Punakaiki Beach Ate lunch and walked around Hokitika Hiked the Mahinapua Walkway and Picnic Point Stopped in an old mining town, Ross, where the biggest gold nugget in the world was found in 1909 Today, we hiked the Franz Josef glacier, which was pretty crazy. We are too pooped to post anything, but will be sure to put up photos soon!... read more