At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

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After a whirlwind few days in Queenstown, it was time to take it a little easier up the West Coast of the South Island. We were in Glacier country.

2 massive glaciers begin up in the Southern Alps and extend down the range. They used to go all the way to the coast, but now they end a few hundred yards away. It is the only place in the world you will see glaciers in the rain forest (except for 1 place in S America). We chose to walk on Fox Glacier, the other is Franz Josef. It involved an hours hike up the cliffs until we reached the altitude where we could step onto the glacier, about 300m up. Then it was simply a case of putting on cramons and wandering for a couple of hours. Every day the trail changes slightly and the guide has to cut a way through the ice. Surprisingly it was not that cold and the day was a corker (the 2 days either side were miserable and visibility was about 10m). This was one of the days where a top quality SLR camera would have come in handy, all my snaps look like a TV when you can't get reception. Oh well.

After the glacier walk we had an 11 hour coach trip up the cost to Nelson, then onto Picton for the Interislander ferry. Nelson is a wonderful little place, very reminiscent of Market Harborough. Very laid back and very chilled out. It is also home to the jeweller who was commisioned to make the ring for Lord of the Rings. We went to see it on display. It is very shiny. He also has on display the oversized ring he made to go over Sauron's glove. It is very large.

Picton is also very nice. It is not much more than a ferry port, but it has a Subway, so I invested in a Kiwi special footlong Lamb & Mint Sauce. Mmmmm

Over halfway through New Zealand now. It's off to the North Island for the delights of Wellywood, Taopo, Rotarua and Hobbiton. Wonder if we will see any of those pesky hobbits?

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Photos

Fox Glacier
Where the Glacier meets the rainforest