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Published: April 28th 2012
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Once we left Wanaka, it was obvious we were now entering a part of the country that was even more stunning than everything we had experienced so far. We were also preparing to try something we thought we wouldn't ever have a chance to do, normally; walk on a glacier.
After the spectacle of the lakes we trundled on towards the Gates of Haast which greets you with mountains looming unexpectedly out of the terrain surrounding you – as it was a low mist morning the mood was even more atmospheric as the torrents of creeks rushed past us. We were truly now in the Mount Aspiring National Park and saw a 95ft waterfall. Haast itself is fairly isolated and is the last stop for fuel for 150km plus a much need warming Speight's and Steak pie!
We could start to see the glaciers ahead of us as well as a glimpse of Aoraki (Mount Cook) and found amazing camp sites to stay at lakes such as Lake Paringa which allowed us to explore the surrounding walks and terrain. We headed through to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier townships where it was obvious that all the remaining tourists
had headed as it was wall to wall campers! We had to book a couple of days in advance for the half day walk on Fox Glacier which gave us a change to explore the walk up to the terminal face of the Franz Josef Glacier. This one is in retreat so you can only now walk near to where you can see the end of the glacier. (I had picked up an Urugayian polo shirt in Dunedin which caused much excitement here as we bumped into some Uruguayians who are on a world tour). It's incredible to see this icy mass in the middle of beautiful rainforests and glacier pools. The view from Peter's pool is awesome and gives you a beautiful reflection of the glacier in it. It whetted our appetite for the fun ahead and we then headed back towards Fox Glacier and camped by the wild and windy Gillespie's Beach. This was tempered by a spectacular pink-hued sunset which showed off the best view of Mount Cook that we'd had to this point. We were nervously excited about the adventure head and went to bed early only to have another mouse hitch hiker aboard who proved
to be difficult to evict as he stayed with us until Christchurch (over 450km later!).
Despite the weariness of the early morning start we pulled on our walking gear including the boots and warm socks provided by the company and hopped on the bus to the start of the walk for Fox Glacier. The guides (particularly Tim) were really informative and the bus bounced us over the very point of the Alpine Fault which is responsible for the spectacular mountain scape we were fortunate to experience. The Fox Glacier is more advanced than that at Franz Josef but has varying periods of retreat and is much further back than in the 1960s when the current car park didn't even exist! Even in 1998 the glacier had advanced a good 2km from where it currently is. The progress or otherwise of the glacier depends on how early and hard the snowfalls come and it is possible the glacier could advance again soon. It is like a world you could never dream to see outside of the poles and using a pick axe Tim guided us over the ice staircases and melting ice streams up to some ice caves / tunnels
that we were able to slip and twist our way through a cool blue bubble-like environment. The blue tinge is the only part of the light spectrum that can come through the density of the ice. It was an exciting and slightly surreal few hours and definitely rates as one of the best things we have ever done.
Upon our return we had some much needed sustenance and prepared to leave glacier country behind as we head to our camp at Lake Ianthe and started to see the terrain and climate start to change once again as we headed up the West Coast towards the sea and sun. We stopped at a bigger camp-site in Hokitika for showers, clothes watching, charging of appliances and so on (the mother of all mouse traps...)! It is a beautiful seaside town and houses a mix of attractions including a knitting shop with over 100 sock knitting machines (Anna was v excited about that!). Thoughts were now turning back towards Christchurch and the potentially challenging trip for Scrappy through the Otira Gorge and into Arthur's Pass. We felt sure if he made it through there he could make it anywhere!
True to
form, we didn't hesitate to go for it and Scrappy was soon cruising around the bends and heading ever higher up over the viaduct which only claimed one life in 1926 when the track was first being build for cart and horse. The views again have to be seen to be believed and with a little bit of grunt Scrappy got us safely to Arthur's Pass village where we had planned to stay at the DOC camp site there which was the best equipped one to date. Luckily we did as there was a massive hold up on the road ahead due to a serious accident, sadly. As in many parts of New Zealand emergency response depends on volunteers in small villages like this and it the staff of the visitor centre and the volunteer fire service were heavily involved in an operation which took many hours to resolve and then they all returned to their normal work / lives.
The Arthur's Pass National Park gave us loads of great walks to do including the shortish one up to the Devil's Punchbowl Falls which were brilliant and are fed by melting snow at the top of the hill. We
were surrounded by huge peaks and deep valleys which also housed a big tranche of the TransAlpine and we saw the train passing through the station twice a day on it's way to Greymouth and back to Christchurch. Although we were only about 100km the terrain makes you feel you are in a huge distance from so called civilisation and for most of our time in the South Island we've felt like we're seeing the New Zealand that the first Maori and European settlers would have discovered all those centuries ago. Our last walk at Craigieburn was a big bendy trail though forest and up a massive peak, the clouds and mist started closing in so we headed back down and decided to go on to Christchurch as more job hunting and visiting with Kate awaited us!
We've been back in Christchurch nearly two weeks now and plan to be here for a few more as we ratchet up the hunt for paid work (!) and get our paperwork ready so we can apply for our visas once a job offer is forthcoming. It is a tough market but we're plugging away. We may not have blogs like this
to write in the coming weeks but we will keep you up to date with our plans and any mini-adventures we may undertake!
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