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Published: November 10th 2006
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Possum Killer
The West Coast tour provided me with one of the funiest moments of our travels so far - at Laura's expense! We set off from Dunedin after lunch, made a quick stop at the Moeraki boulders so by the time we hit the westward road it was after 4pm. As it would become clear, this was pushing it, especially since we wanted to get as far as Fox Glacier nearly 400 km away.
Laura drove from the boulders following the road that ran alongside the rail trail into familiar territory at Wanaka. I took over the wheel through the winding mountain roads over the Haast Pass reaching the west coast at dusk. Laura agreed (perhaps foolishly) to drive the final section up the west coast road and as darkness fell it soon became apparent that the road was more popular with wildlife than it was with cars. Laura was a little edgy - she didn't want to hit anything but at the same time didn't want to instinctively swerve if something crossed our path, endangering ourselves in the process. On the roadside we saw possums standing, watching our headlights as we flashed past and in the
road, those that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was "Possum Alley" and I was sat next to a "Possum Killer" in waiting....
As I remember it, we were motoring along a straight section and were overtaken by a ute (pickup truck), the first road user we'd seen in a while without fur and a tail. I advised Laura that if we tailed the ute (at a safe distance) it was unlikely anything would run out between him and us. Well, it takes a strong person to admit their fallability but here I go "I was wrong". Coming over a slight rise and a blind dip a friendly possum (probably looking for food for his family) wandered out into the road like he most likely does every night, and safely. He couldn't predict that (a) there was a red '94 Honda Civic Shuttle coming over the crest and (b) it was being driven by a vegetarian. Both factors were surely in his favour but ironically and rather hilariously (although not for Mr Possum and his family of starving baby possums) the veggie showed no mercy and the sickening crunch of bones and possum fur,
Not A Trick!
Honest, Laura was genuinely climbing the ice without any hand protection signalled "Good night, Mr Possum"! I won't lie, although Laura is a possum killer, she didn't take any pleasure from the incident and in fact howled in shock at what had just happened. She did admirably in driving the final stretch to Fox and fortunately, no more possums crossed our path before we arrived in the hostel at 11pm! For the record, NZ is overrun with Possums and road-kill is encouraged as a form of pest control!
Glaciers The next day involved no wildlife murdering whatsoever and the main order of the day was getting up close and personal to a big glacier. The two big ones in the area are named Franz Josef and Fox. Similar tours are available for each but we chose to check out Fox because it's less popular (so quieter) and you can walk on it from the side (rather than the front) so you straightaway see glacial features. We took a half-day glacier hike under the guidance of our "Kiwi Sherpa" - a Nepalese sherpa who divided his time between the Himalayas and glacier guiding in NZ. His expertise was probably a little wasted here - the hike itself is fairly
easy across a well marked trail to avoid any crevasses or other such potential dangers. The only real problem is the height and so for one Ozzie in our party who had a monumetal case of Vertigo, it was a serious challenge. Despite his obvious fears and his rock-hugging antics, he made it with his Old Girl giving him the encouragement he needed "don't be such a wuss!", "hurry up, you silly Galah". You've got to respect the man for his efforts and his choice of other half!
On the glacier the views are spectacular and walking with crampons was a novel experience. We looked deep into crevasses, watched water disappear into plunge holes and listened to the creaks ad crashes of this slowly retreating mass of ice. After we finished we received a certificate for our glacier hiking "achievement". We weren't too fussed with the idea but the Ozzie vowed to frame his and put it on his mantlepiece back home!
The West Coast The West Coast drive gave us what can only be described as our first taste of "shorts weather". The sun was shining, it was hot and the coastline was incredibly beautiful.
The road clings to the coast pretty much the whole way so whenever you look out of the window you see the beach, the surf and the breakers crashing against the rocky outcrops that litter the coastline. One of those sections of interesting rocky outcrops is a serious crowd-puller - "Pancake Rocks" as they are known on account of their flat-layered structure. They are very impressive but maybe a little overly touristy - they have their own car park, cafe and restaurant!
We spent a night and witnessed a famous west coast sunset, in Hokitika or Hokey as it's known to the locals. It's the capital of Greenstone (nephrite jade) and you can carve your own designs in many studios there. We didn't have a day to spare to labour over the carving and headed off fairly early to see Cape Foulwind - named by Captain Cook when he was blown badly off course at the headland - and its resident Fur Seal colony. We finally headed inland again leaving the west coast behind us - a long and formidable drive across Arthur's Pass lay ahead.
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