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

We're doing well - this is our second blog in two days. It's all very well dashing about NZ doing amazing things, but at some point one has to organise domestic stuff and, as Harry says, "domestic stuff is too hard for men". The motel at Wanaka was blessed with a laundry and, as luck would have it, it was a gloriously sunny day so we did our 4th big wash of the trip (just to rassure you that we're keeping ourselves tidy). Whilst watching me hanging out the washing, Harry saw a Tiger Moth flying overhead towards the local airport and he decided it was incumbent upon him to organise manly pursuits. So off we went in search of the Tiger Moth. We had an inkling that if we followed the signs to the airport ... read more

Or "In Zid" as the locals would say, including my dear Paul. My internet time is about to run out - and has been a bit limited since we've been here - so this shall be brief. We arrived in Christchurch a few days ago, and had fun hanging out with Paul's friend Sarina, husband Aaron, and a-DOR-A-BLE 22-month old daughter Maia. She was lovely - so so cute and funny, and we enjoyed chasing her around. Christchurch is nice enough, although we'd been there before so not a great deal new to see. Last night we stayed in Greymouth, and are now in Fox Glacier, where we're up early tomorrow for a glacier walk. Should be fun! We've rented a car and have been enjoying driving around, as it's a very scenic part of the ... read more

This weekend, unfortunately Sara and O'Brien had work to do so Lola's girls were separated and Anne and I decided to go with a different group of girls (Greer, Jess, Laura and Jen) to do the Copland Track. We headed out on Thursday afternoon for the long 6 hour drive to glacier land along the west coast. Just as we were driving out of Dunedin we spotted some hitch hikers and thought it would be funny to pick them up and just as we passed them we realized that they were two of our friends, Grey and Mark. So we turned around and gave them a ride for a little bit. The rest of the time it was just Anne and I, but the drive along the west coast was so incredible that it made ... read more

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 ... read more

After leaving Punakaiki we bombed on to Glacier country. On the West Coast of New Zealand there are two huge glaciers: Franz Joseph and Fox. Compared to other glaciers in the world these ones really motor, they can move upto six metres a day which is a collosal amount in glacier terms (so i've heard), indeed there have been days when the Cookmeister would struggle to move 6 metres in a day! The drive from Punakaiki was absolutely amazing for scenery (just like everywhere in New Zealand we've seen). It seems that Aslan is on the move because we saw hundreds of sheep walking along the side of a mountain away from the icy hills towards the green ones! I managed to make Dan believe that there are more sheep in New Zeland than people in ... read more

Having spent most of yesterday afternoon in bed, and most of this morning in the bathroom perhaps accepting Helen's offer of a lift to Fox Glacier was a little foolish, but I wanted to see at least some of it before moving on. After arriving in the small township of Fox, and having gotten the twanging of Banjos out of my ears I hitched down to lake Matheson with the local skydiving operators pickup. I did a 1 1/2 hour stroll around the lake, before heading back into town. Lake Matheson is famous for appearing on many a NZ postcard with Mount Cook reflected perfectly in its mirror like waters. However today was not a postcard day, and while the view was terrific my photo clearly showed a reflection of clouds - and no Mt Cook ... read more