Hiking with seals and climbing on glaciers

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Well even though the trip from the north island to the south island took us from east to west it certainly seems a lot colder here. After departing the ferry Friday afternoon in Picton we drove west to Nelson, one of the major wine regions in the country. However no wine tasting for us. Unfortunately, that night we choose what was probably our worst hostel yet, in a creepy old house from a horror movie kind of way…it wasn’t awful but a little run down and a little dirty, plus it was supposed to have free internet but that wasn’t working.

Saturday morning we got some information on the nearby Abel Tasman National Park, then we wandered around the city of Nelson and did a quick heritage walk before departing to Takaka where we would stay Saturday night on the edge of the Abel Tasman park. On the way out of Nelson we stopped in a café on the edge of the bay for a bite to eat, where we had some great seafood chowder, with a spectacular view across the bay where we could see snow capped mountains stretching in both directions. The road into Takaka took us straight
for those snow capped mountains and seemed to be what we could look forward to around most of the south island…steep and windy. A difficult but beautiful drive. We decided to do what was told to us by the park ranger in Nelson a 4.5 hour loop mostly along the coast which would take us by a seal colony. Sounded great, however by the time we reached the colony it had been almost 3 hours and we were nowhere near halfway done with the loop. We got a bit of a surprise while watching the seals as well when one snuck up from behind us on the cliff we were sitting on…guess we were in a good spot. So after watching the seals play in the water and bask in the sun for a while we decided to skip the loop and just head back the way we came, and by the time we got back to our car 6 hours had gone by and we were spent, plus the sun was setting. So instead of a quick hike in Abel Tasman as planned and then driving south along the west coast we decided to return to Nelson for another night and head out in the morning.

Sunday we woke up and started our trip down the west coast where we stayed in Greymouth in one of the nicest hostels yet. It had an African theme and had really nice sheets...seriously, they were nicer than my bed at home. As far as the town went, we did nothing there except stay the night. Nothing much to do or see.

Monday morning we woke up and headed to Franz Josef which is home to the fastest moving glacier in the world. Pretty cool to see. Ryan really wanted to take a guided tour into the glacier, which would have been great…but we didn’t. But we hear it is amazing. So, we just looked at it from a distance and tried to hike the river up to the face but it was too windy to hike up to the glacier that day. The wind was pretty crazy and the trail was closed. That night we stayed in Franz Josef. Our hostel there was bustling with lots of young travelers from everywhere who stayed up all night drinking (earplugs were needed that night)…some who even missed their guided tours by the
sounds of things in the morning. However, as cool as we are, we played scrabble that night and went to bed early.

Tuesday we checked out Fox Glacier just about 20 minutes from Franz Josef. There we hiked up to the glacier face, an amazing sight. The water looks so clean and delicious flowing out of there. I half expected to see a water company logo and a pipe hooked up to the river right there…that would have been funny. Anyway, after the glacier we checked out a beautiful lake called Lake Matheson, famous for its postcard perfect reflection of the Southern Alps. This lady on the way back from the walk around the lake told us that it was the “…most fantastic experience of her life” when we asked how the walk was in a very dazed tone. So we expected some sort of life changing experience from this walk. Not life changing, but it was really beautiful and we took a lot of pictures…no need to buy the postcards now. Although some of you may still get them in the mail…it is pretty. After that we drove until we reached Wanaka for our next few nights where we will fill you in on our next blog on our skiing and cold nights.

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