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Published: August 3rd 2006
Coastal View
This was just as we started the walk to Cape FoulwindWe stayed at the top ten campsite for just one night in Westport. In the morning we headed down along the coast towards Greymouth, we followed Jon and Lisa. On the way there was lots to see. We took in the sights while walking for a few km’s from the car park towards Cape Foulwind. When we arrived we were greeted by lots of seals playing and basking in the sunshine. Lovely animals but boy do they stink! There was also a sign post with multiple destinations and the distances from that point. It was quite nice to see just how far away from other cities we were! The walk back to the vans was just as nice, the views were amazing and we had been lucky enough to get good weather, got quite hot walking. We all (Lisa, Jon, Thommo and I) had lunch in the car park and then carried on down the coast and made several stops along the way to take in sights and do a few other short walks off the main road. The other big place we stopped at was the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki in the Paparoa National Park. It was a great place
Sign Post
Cape Foulwind even though we didn’t manage to see any really impressive blow hole displays, due to the tide, the rocks were interesting: lots of layers upon layers that resemble a stack of pancakes, hence the name. The fact that we had seen a smaller blow hole on the way to the Pancake Rocks, at Truman Bay, made us feel a little less disappointed. When we arrived at Greymouth the weather wasn’t too great and we all hopped in the spa to relax and warm up. That evening we tried to go to the cinema but it was closed and being set up for the Young Farmer of the year awards. The following day we ventured into town, but unknown to us everything shuts early on a Saturday! So after just wondering around taking in the town we bumped into some fellow travellers who were discovering this beautiful country on the Kiwi bus. The weather was nasty that day but we did make it back to the camp site in time to set up and get ready for the tremendous down pour. Boy did it rain! The van was being blown about during the high winds and the sea was really loud
Truman Bay
Check out the layering of the ground on the cliff (yes the camp ground was right by the beach). Not much sleep was had that night!
That morning we woke up hoping that our van had not leaked again, oh yeah forgot that bit - it had rained the night we stayed at the Mussel Inn (in the Golden Bay area) and the sliding door leaked so that the bed was soaking! For some reason it held its own in the rain this time, outside there were lots of massive puddles though. We ventured to Shantytown, it is a replica of a gold mining settlement. We looked about the informative village and even panned for gold, what hard work that is! I would not like a job doing that!
Afterwards we headed down towards the Glaciers. On the way we drove off the main road to see the grandiose Lake Kaniere. This lake was really stunning, I managed to make it to the shoreline to take a few snaps (and get bitten by a few sand flies in the meantime!) We then drove around the lake to Dorothy Falls (very beautiful). My back was playing up again that day but we took a short walk to the lake
Me and Thommo
At Truman Bay front at this point and managed to take in a different perspective. I remember thinking what a lovely area this was and there were plenty of walks we could have taken if my silly back wasn’t making it hard to move! But I was just grateful I got to see as much as we did.
Our second stop on the way was at the Bushman’s Centre in Pukekura. This is a bizarre place that has hilarious (even though somewhat non p.c.) signs everywhere and houses lots of information on the capture of deer. We watched a DVD which shows adventurous men leaping out of helicopters onto deer with the goal of capturing them to set up deer farms. It was interesting to learn that after deer where introduced to NZ they became somewhat of a problem as the numbers where out of control. Nowadays along with the vast number of fields full of sheep and cows also evident are fields brimming with deer. This place also has a shop and café, the shop sells possum pies! Was not really up for trying one though as we had only just fed some of the little critters in the museum! The
number of dead possum you see whilst driving around is astonishingly high. Am not sure if people try to get them on purpose or if they love the lights on the cars.
We arrived in at Franz Josef (known to the locals as simply Franz) pretty late but did manage to meet up with Lisa and Jon again. We shared the cost of another spa with them in the hope that my back would ease up on the pain side of things. The next day Thommo and I asked for information from one of the tour companies about the Franz Glacier walk. After explaining my concerns the woman said that when fitness is in question it all comes down to mind over matter, this annoyed me slightly. If it were simply a question of fitness I would have agreed with her but a back problem is not only about pushing through the pain barrier of a long days walking! Due to walking a lot when I was younger for silly distances while training for Ten Tors I am accustomed with pushing on even when you think you can go no further, so I knew this would not be an
Pancake Rocks
Check out the layers. There are lots of things to see at the rocks, i mean faces and stuff that appear to be there. issue for me- it is my back that causes the problems and my mind has no matter in that! Enough of the rant. They suggested we take a look at it, so we headed to the Franz Glacier with that in mind, to see if I would be capable of doing a walk on the ice. We did the hour and a half return walk to the terminal face and were lucky enough to see a guided group trek up onto the Glacier. After witnessing the time it took for them to clamber up the face I decided that in the current state my back was in there was a huge risk involved in me going on the full day trek on this Glacier. This decision for me was incredibly hard. I had been looking forwards to this adventure since planning travelling, however I was very conscious that if my back gave up on me I would still have to find my way off the ice and down the very steep terminal face. At this time the game plan was to do the half day hike as at least that way I would not be too far up the Glacier.
However, I asked Thommo to take the 40min drive to Fox so we could speak to the company there, I had heard that the walk on this Glacier was not as strenuous. The woman told us that you do need to be pretty fit to do the full day hike but that if I woke up in the morning with a bad back they would be more than happy to give me a refund, something that the other company in Franz were not keen on doing. I decided to bite the bullet and just go for it in the hope that my back managed to keep up with my desire to complete the walk. We headed back to Franz so I could try to get a massage at one of the hotels, just my luck the only woman that does them had gone on holiday for three weeks the day before!
I woke up and crossed my fingers that my back would not start playing up again. My back is weird you see, it never hurts when I first get up, I have to wait for quarter of a hour to see how it will treat me that day.
Locked up
Great fun on the stocks and other things you can take silly pictures of at Shantytown Anyway, we headed to Fox and we were both over the moon that this day was a relatively good back day. I had to inform our guide (Gill) of my back problems. At first she didn’t seem very keen as the weather was way to bad for a heli lift if something went wrong. However I explained that I understood the risks and was pretty sure that my back was having a good day and would hold up, she was ok with it. After being kitted out with a warm fleece, some sturdy boots and some crampons we (only five people on the trip!) all jumped on the bus and headed towards the Glacier. Due to the speed of advancement of the Fox Glacier it is too dangerous to get onto it from the terminal. A hard ascent up into the temperate rainforest for about an hour and a half is required to gain access, there is even a part that up have to speed through due to a high risk of rock falls! I hear you say rainforest and Glacier!? We were informed that this is the only place in the world where the two coexist.
Once we
got to the ice we donned the crampons and took sticks with us. At first I was very unbalanced on the ice, but Gill took me under her wing and made me stay behind her the whole way up. Going upwards is not really a problem for me and after literally getting to grips with the crampons we all started to enjoy the walk and take in what little we could see in the distance. The weather was terrible and only stopped raining for a total of 15mins the entire trip! The heavy rain made the ice very tough and Gill had her work cut out to make the steps. Once we pasted the mark where the half day trips come too I was so pleased that I had made the right decision in doing the full day. You just get onto the ice and walk a short way till you have to turn around on the half day. Anyway, we continued up the ice for quite some distance and everything was going great, although it was an almighty struggle for me to make the ice steps in certain places (even with the help of Gill‘s hand to steady me).
Lunge!
Dorthey Falls We had to change the route once due to my incompetence! I was slightly embarrassed by this but ever so glad the group was small and understanding. Lunch involved stopping on the ice and eating the sandwiches I had prepared, the rain actually stopped for about 3 mins and we managed to put on extra layers and have a few bites before it starting peeing down again. Shortly after lunch one of the other girls on the trip had a funny turn and fainted. She turned a horrible shade of white and had to sit down for some time. It turns out she was dehydrated as hadn’t drank anything that day! It is strange to think you can become dehydrated while surrounded by so much water! She was fine in the end and as it was nearly time to turn around and head back anyway we did so. Now, going down is actually harder for me. So with Thommo in front of me to assist I battled my way down and was only slightly slower than everyone else, although by this point I didn’t care - I had managed to fulfil my dream. Aside from the physical problems of this
lake side
Lake Kaniere, this is a massive lake! trip it was sensational! We got to see lots of ice pools, crevasses, ice tunnels, blue ice and the lower ice fall. For quite a while there was only us six even on the ice. Once we got down off the Glacier and had descended through the rainforest Gill took us near to the terminal face. Which is where I tried to take one too many snaps and ended up braking my camera!!!! Too much water inside the lens! We had just finished and were returning to the bus when Gill had to about turn and run to stop some very foolish people going up the face to touch the ice! I can not believe the gall of some people, there are so many signs around telling you how dangerous it is to go near the face. Just as they were walking away there was a rock fall which produced a gargantuan rumble in the valley. I just managed to see the rocks fall and the huge dust cloud that lingered for sometime. We were all far enough away to be safe but it sure did scare the naive people that had gone up to the terminal face!
That
Me
Lake Kaniere evening we had to stay at Fox as the road to Wanaka was closed due to a rock fall. NZ is a bit unstable when it comes to dealing with heavy down pours. So we treated ourselves to dinner out at a nice café in the township, think we deserved a treat after the long but exciting day we had experienced. Looking back on it I probably would have been capable of doing the Franz Glacier on that particular day, but always better to be safe than sorry! I am just so pleased that we both got to experience this together. I didn’t want to limit Thommo’s experience due to my body! I would defiantly put this on the top five best things we have done in NZ and I would say it was money well spent.
Onwards to Wanaka…………
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Lindy_LoO
non-member comment
Climb
Brrr.......looks really cold, think of all the fresh air your getting :) xx