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Published: December 12th 2005
Near the Haast Pass
This is the street sign for the shop we stopped at after the Haast Pass.The evening before I left Hokitika I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to go next. I went to the information center downtown and I looked through all of the tourist brochures and I talked to the ladies at the counter, but I wasn’t sure I liked what I was hearing. It seemed to be unanimous with everyone I talked to that Franz Josef was the best match for what I was looking for - I wanted to do a lot of hiking, I wanted to be in a fun town in a scenic area and I didn’t want to feel the need to spend a lot of money. I had originally decided against visiting the glacier towns, because, after all, I had spent the last nine months practically living on a glacier. The other places I was interested in visiting, mainly Haast, I was told would not be that enjoyable without a car, which seemed to be the norm for the West Coast - There have been so many places that I have wanted to go on the West Coast that I had to skip for lack of transportation. In the end, as I mentioned in the last blog, I
Green Water Plants
Most of the standing water along the trail through the rainforest had these plants growing on its surface. decided to take a chance with Franz Josef. The drive down the coast was beautiful and we pulled in to town around ten o’clock in the morning. I spent a few hours walking around the town, which was small and very touristy, but nice and then I hit the trails.
The first hiking trail I was on should have been an all day hike up to the glacier, but, unfortunately, a large portion of the trail was closed due to landslides and it could only be followed as far as the Callery Gorge Bridge. The path, though heavily developed, went through dense rainforest and crossed over several small streams. There were large beach trees, giant palms and tall tree ferns making up the canopy of the forest, the ground was covered with dense vegetation and everything in between was filled with a tangle of vines hanging from the trees. The songs of the forest birds filled the air with an amazing, symphonic melody and the occasional sound of rushing water added its compliments. In fact, the only unpleasant things about the trail were the warning signs referring to the poison that had been placed for the possums, which are
A Walk Through the Jungle
This is what most of the trail looked like going to the Callery Gorge. an introduced plaque to the ecology of New Zealand, and the constant ‘thud’ of the helicopters transporting the heli-hikers to and from their ice-bound adventures on the upper glacier. I passed someone that I had met earlier on the ride from Hokitika who confirmed that the trail ended at the other side of the bridge, but said that the hike was still worth the effort and that the gorge was beautiful. I continued on, passing larger streams filled with giant boulders and moss covered walkways carved from the hillside. Finally, I heard the soft roar of rushing water and I came around a bend and found the bridge. The Callery Gorge had sheer walls about forty feet across and about as deep with thick rainforest growth at the top of each wall. The river flowed through the canyon quickly and its milky-gray color confirmed that the source of the water was the glacier itself. The bridge was a sturdy cable bridge that spanned the gorge in a place near its end where the river widened and slowed and the sheer walls fell away and met the coastal plane below. Standing on the bridge looking up river, I could see the
The Callery Gorge Bridge
The trail ended at the far side of this bridge due to landslides, but the hike was great. canyon turn sharply and disappear, hiding the path of the river and exciting the explorer in me - I would love to ride a raft down the river through the canyon into the unknown (to me at least!), but that will have to wait. I stayed on the bridge for a while and then I returned down the path. Before I got back to town I found a trail that forked off of the path I was on and led to a tunnel system from the gold mining days - The Tatare Gorge Tunnels. I decided to take the trail to the tunnels and it was a nice walk. There were lots of small, blue and yellow wildflowers along the trail and the occasional break in the trees revealed a nice view of the canyon below. The sky had been overcast all day and by the time I got to the tunnel the ominous clouds had let loose a torrential downpour, which made my decision to explore the tunnel easy. The trail was fairly well developed and a stairway led down into the tunnel, which told me that there would not likely be any big hazards inside, so in I
A River of Milk
The river that passed through the impressive Callery Gorge was full of silt from the glacier giving it its milky color. went. The entrance was framed by ferns and the bottom of the tunnel had a few inches of standing water. The passage was just tall enough and wide enough to allow me to pass without bending over or turning sideways and water was dripping everywhere. In fact, it was hopeless to rely on the tunnel to keep me dry and out of the rain, because it was almost as bad inside. I pulled out my headlamp and started heading down the small, dark passage. The tunnel was roughly level and it had a slight curve to it so that I lost sight of the entrance after several hundred feet. There was a strong breeze coming down the tunnel from the direction I was headed and, while my imagination told me it was the breath of a sleeping dragon, I knew it only meant that the tunnel was open on the other end and that the air was not likely to be poisonous. I continued deeper into the mountain. I had been walking down the dark, damp tunnel for nearly twenty minutes, my inadequate headlamp barely lighting the way, and I had not yet seen any other passageways, but I was
The Jungle Canopy
This is what the canopy of the rainforest looked like in the mountains surrounding Franz Josef. starting to think about turning around when I saw light ahead. When I got to the light I saw that the tunnel came out of the rock and entered a wooden, sluice-like construction that bridged a large gap in the cliff face and then entered the rock again on the other side. Part of the sluice was covered with a low roof, which was supposed to shield anyone walking through the tunnel from the small waterfall that poured down the cliff face and crashed onto the sluice, before cascading to the river in the canyon below. The rain was still falling, so I continued under the waterfall and back into the tunnel on the other side. The tunnel forked there and both passages ended shortly after, one of them with a door and a warning sign (which of course meant that the really cool stuff was on the other side!) I sat in the tunnel for a few minutes listening to the roar of the waterfall hitting the tin roof and whistling a tune (the tunnel had great acoustics), while I waited for the rain to stop. Another group of hikers came along and they said it had stopped raining
Under the Canopy
Below the canopy was a tangle of vines and ferns. (the waterfall was still going strong and I couldn't hear the rain), so I continued back towards town. To spice up the journey back through the long tunnel, I decided to go back with the light turned off (I got the idea from a book I was reading at the time that had some people lost underground in the Andes without a light). As I stumbled along in the dark, I had to fight the strong urge to turn on the light. I knew that at the speed I was walking (a snail passed me) there were no hazards in the tunnel that could give me any more than a slight bump on the head, but the feeling of trying to find my way in the dark was hard to adjust to. I started noticing the little blue lights that told me the tunnel was filled with glow worms and, while they weren’t present in great enough numbers to light my way, they did show me the roof of the tunnel, which made the going a little easier and eased my mind a bit. Finally, after about twenty minutes in the dark, I came around a bend in the tunnel
The Door of the Mountain
This is the fern covered entrance to the small gold mining tunnel I went through. and saw a distant light - It was the doorway back to the forest and the sunlight above. I made it out of the tunnel without any problems and put away the light that I had ready in my hand - I managed to do the whole tunnel without turning it on and I enjoyed the experience. The rest of the day went quickly without any big happenings.
I set out bright and early the next morning for an all day hike up to Alex's Knob, which is the summit of a rainforest-covered mountain facing the glacier. The guidebook said the walk should take about eight hours and in the end I was right on pace with that, which is strange because I'm usually quicker than what the guide book says. To get to the trailhead I had to walk down the road several kilometers, crossing over the river on a long bridge and following the milky, rushing water towards the glacier. The first part of the trail was on a developed path, but the trail to Alex's Knob turned off of the developed trail and headed through dense rainforest on a narrow footpath. The trail ascended the mountain
The Sluice
This is a picture of the sluice like structure that went between the two tunnels. It is hard to see the waterfall in this picture. via several steep switchbacks. Occasionally there would be areas where all of the trees were gone due to recent landslides and the views of the surrounding mountains and the distant coast was impressive. At several places along the trail large trees had fallen across the path and, instead of cutting the trees away, the inventive trail crews tunneled through them leaving the tree in place and minimizing the impact of the trail on the forest which is part of one of the largest World Biosphere Reserves. The trail was my idea of a perfect trail - I didn't have to hack my way through the jungle, but the path was not manicured and paved and in places some minor scrambling was necessary to keep going. As I slowly ascended I didn't notice many changes in the terrain that let me know I was nearing the summit, but I did start the day hiking well below the helicopters, then I was at the same level as them and then I was well above them. At one point I came to a large landslide that had taken the trail with it, but the trail crew (or lots of hikers) had made a
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Finally, after stumbling my way through the tunnel in the dark I found the way out. small, exposed path through the slide area and over a tree where it rejoined the existing trail. After several hours of hiking I came to a large clearing through the trees on what I thought was the summit, but, looking through the clearing, I could see great views of the glacier and the mountains in the distance and, off to my right, I could see the steep forest covered slopes of the mountain I was on, ascending into the clouds - I was on the first of many false summits that I encountered on this hike! I was disappointed that I was not at the summit and I was running low on water, but I continued towards the top. I passed a few groups of hikers, all of whom had turned around before reaching the top, and I shared some of my dwindling water supply with one of them who had forgotten to bring hers and didn't realize it until she was several hours down the trail and very thirsty. I toiled on and eventually I was in the clouds. The forest disappeared as I neared the summit and grass and small, scrubby bushes covered the ground. The path was
Franz Josef
The small town of Franz Josef is surrounded by amazing alpine scenery and dense rainforest. It is probably one of the few places in the world where the glacier is surrounded by jungle. now steeper and more rugged (and the views were not all that good due to the clouds), but there was a slight, damp breeze which made the hiking a lot more comfortable. Finally, I was standing on the summit looking down on the glacier that was mostly hidden by clouds several thousand feet below me. The decent went quickly and other than running out of water near the bottom (I didn't bring enough either) I had no major issues. That evening I made reservations for a shuttle over the Haast Pass to the lake town of Wanaka for the following day and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.
The ride to Wanaka went through Haast and over the beautifully rugged Haast pass, which, in contrast to the Lewis Pass, was one of the most scenic mountain passes I have been on (only the remote passes in the Andes and the Himalayas were better, but I was on foot for those). Before we got to Haast Pass we stopped at a salmon farm for lunch and a nice coastal overlook on the cliffs over the Tasman Sea. When we went through Haast I was happy that I listened to
Alex's Knob Trail
The Alex's Knob trail was an all day hike on an undeveloped trail through dense rainforest to the top of one of the mountains above the glacier. the ladies in the information center - I would not have seen very much from there without a car and, despite the area's beauty, I would not have enjoyed myself as much as I did in Franz Josef. We stopped at a small roadside market after the pass and then continued into Wanaka where I got a bed at Holly's Backpackers, which was a very comfortable hostel that was recommended to me.
Wanaka is a beautiful little town on the edge of Lake Wanaka. The surrounding mountains, the lake and the wide open spaces make the area very popular with adventure tourists, but I was there to relax and to break up the otherwise long trip to Te Anau. I decided to spend one day and two nights in Wanaka, but I ended up spending two days and three nights due to a mix-up on the date. I had scheduled my shuttle for what I thought was the following day, but it was two days away - I waited for the shuttle for an hour after it was supposed to be there before I figured it out, which gave the crowd at the hostel (and myself) a good laugh.
The Tree Tunnel
Several large trees blocked the trail to Alex's Knob and instead of cutting the trees apart, they went through them. Approaching A Puzzling World, I could see I was in for a fun time. It is a place dedicated to puzzles, illusions and games. There was a giant 'Leaning Tower of Wanaka', which is a clock tower that is balanced on one corner of its slab and has a clock that runs backwards (it was started at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1999-2000), a large maze, which was a lot of fun, a giant, mind-numbing puzzle room (strategy puzzles not jigsaw puzzles) and a place filled with illusions. I spent a lot of time in the puzzle room when I first got there and I was able to figure most of them out, but when my head started hurting I moved on to the illusions. The first room was filled with holograms. The second room was full of famous faces that appear to follow you as you walk, which was strange but entertaining since none of them actually moved. The next room was tilted so that you had to stand at an unnatural angle to all of the stuff in the room - Running water apparently flowed uphill and just being in that room made me
The Franz Josef Glacier
This is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world and it draws large crowds to its crevassed surface. feel a bit queasy but it was entertaining watching other peoples' reactions to the room. The last room of interest was a forced perspective room that forced you to see two people of equal size look considerably different in size (this was used during the filming of The Lord of the Rings trilogy). The maze was the main attraction and to solve the maze I had to find the tower at each of the four corners and then find the exit. I spent over an hour walking through the maze and, at times feeling like a lab rat, I had a lot of fun. Every time I thought I had figured something out I was proven wrong, but eventually I started to learn the maze and I was able to finish it without cheating. Other interesting things to see was a re-creation of a roman toilet with a painting on the back wall that made the room look twice the size and full of people if you stood in the right place and a note on the wall challenging any psychic people out there to discover where a $50,000 treasure had been hidden on the owner's property (it was an
Flowers and Snow
The snow capped mountains surrounded by rainforest was an impressive sight. attempt to prove that there are psychic people out there).
I left A Puzzling World after several hours of enjoyment and walked to Iron Mountain, which was a small mountain near Wanaka. At the trailhead I ran into a guy from England that I had met in Westport and we decided to hike to the top together. The hike was not difficult and the view from the top was great - I could see the tall mountains of Mt. Aspiring National Park in the distance with the town and the lake in the foreground. I walked down the other side of the mountain by myself, because my friend had planned to read for a while on the top. The trail I took down was considerably more scenic with tall, sheer cliffs and lots of trees and steep switchbacks, which made the walk down very enjoyable. That evening I at a Chinese restaurant for the first time since I left America, which was great and then I went to the hostel. I spent my 'extra' day in Wanaka taking it easy and doing some reading. At one point a little duckling came and sat beside me on the beach. We
talked for a while (I don't speak duck very well and the ducks English was not all that good) and then I got up to leave, but the duckling followed me - I ended up leading it back to its mom who was not at all happy that I was there, and we parted ways (after the ducklings mother scolded me). The night before I had seen a portion of a show called 'Super Size Me', which was a disturbing show about the effects of fast food on the American population - I don't even eat fast food, but it prompted me to make an amazingly delicious vegetable soup the following day with lots of fresh and tasty vegetables. The following morning the shuttle showed up as I had expected it to the previous day and I was off to Te Anau.
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digital_explorer
Reymos
Leaning structure
Quite peculiar structure!