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Published: November 2nd 2008
Me and our guide Troy
Franz Joseph GlacierIm sitting here writing the blog having dinner cooked for me. Again. Being the driver has great advantages! We'll we've passed another few days in amazing NZ, and so far, no sign of "beauty fatigue" (thanks Conor!). We've been doing a far bit of tramping around looking at and climbing up glaciers. The first was Rob Roy glacier in Mount Aspiring National Park near Lake Wanaka. About 3.5 hour round trip up and back in gale force winds, which made crossing a swing bridge kind of interesting! But once we started climbing up through the forest, it was magical. Seriously like being in Lord of The Rings. The whole bloody country is like being in LOTR - all snowy, rugged moutains, blue lakes, and spooky-mossy, root-knarled forests etc. Its deadly. Its actually kind of hard to write a blog about, as nothing really mental has happened, like crazy sell-you-stuff Vietnamese ladies following you up moutains, and we've "just" been seeing loads of gorgeous scenery - but there is only so much you can write about that and do it justice. So, I'll be letting the photos do most of the talking again.
Anyway, after the Rob Roy glacier tramp, the
weather got pretty feisty and it started to hoop down rain. We were staying in a one of the DOC campsites (dept of conservation, and nearly free) which are located in pretty remote areas and have varying facilities - maybe water, a loo that if you are lucky is not of the long drop variety - stinky much? - and that's about it. But, they pretty much always are in the most amazing, remote locations. We camped at Boundary Creek, a little delta on Lake Wanaka, but it was getting dark and the weather was mouldy. Im telling you, it was like something from a Stephen King novel. The wind was howling, buffeting poor wee Ruby about, and the rain was lashing out of the heavens. We were the only people there and it was pitch dark. I mean pitch. I was fully expecting yer man from Wolf Creek to rock up and tap on the window with his knife. Cacked myself completely until thankfully three other campervans arrived and I figured they had a better chance, being nearer to the road than us, of being butchered by a mad man. Unless the mad man came on a boat, in
which case we were scoobied. After making a mad midnight dash to the loo, guided by my trusty headlamp, I managed to get some sleep in and woke up at 6am the next morning to the most glorious scenery. See pictures!
We headed then to Fox Glacier (quick stop off) and Franz Joseph Glacier on the west (or wet) coast, staying again in a much less scarey DOC campsite the first night. After two days without showers, and planning a hike up FJ glacier, we decided that we definately needed full facilities and checked into a lovely campersite in Franz Joseph town - Rainforest Retreat or something like that. The glacier trek was deadly. We opted for the half day one, as it said for those with a moderate level of fitness, but in hindsight, we probably could have gone for the full day trek. In any case, it was brilliant. We got to don crampons (spikes for your hiking boots) and climb up the glacier, up ice steps and through crevasses - as our guide hacked away at the ice creating new steps for us or tightening the safety ropes as we went along. The ice is this
incredible blue colour (one you get passed the dirty bit at the very front of it) and once we got to our turning point, we sat hand had some food, taking in the views, literally freezing our arses off on the ice. The route back was far too quick - I could have spent all day up there! So, to any of you thinking of doing it - do the full day trek!
That night we hit our campsite's bar & restaurant. Two Kiwi Xperience buses had pulled in (knocking shops on wheels basically) and the pub was jammers, as it was Bingo night. Brilliant! I won a box of Weetabix. Not to be sniffed at when you are travelling on a budget!
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