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March 31st 2009

Published: March 31st 2009

SarahandRob

Franz Josef Glacier

Sarah and me a few km's back from the terminal face.

Day 51 - Franz Josef

We had a leisurely start as we were off glacier walking for the day but conveniently the meeting point was about 2 minutes walk from our hostel. We got to the office and got fitted up with boots, crampons and any other gear we needed. We then drove up to the car park at the bottom of the glacier and started the 3km walk to the “terminal face” i.e. the start of the actual glacier. Once we got there we headed up some rather handy steps that had been cut into the ice that morning and then headed over the rocks which make up the bulk of the first section.
In the first section of the glacier the ice is white (unsurprisingly) and the crevasses run parallel to the valley so you walk on the tops looking down. Once you get higher up, the ice becomes blue and the crevasses run perpendicular to the glacier so you have to go through the crevasses and wiggle your way up. At certain points there were some big drops and you were digging your crampons into the wall trying to get as much grip as possible. Also, some

Franz Josef Glacier

Sarah and me on the ice.

of the crevasses we walked through (or more like shuffled) were 20m deep and only about a foot wide so you got soaked by the sides of the ice and they were certainly not for the claustrophobics out there! We also got taken to a few ice caves and other ice formations on the way up.
The glacier changes every day and moves about 2 meters down the hillside each day so it’s always changing. At one point on our way down there was a rock slide on one of the valley walls which made a loud bang as several boulders fell several hundred meters - which I thought was pretty cool. We had a brilliant guide throughout the day who was quite a small woman but carried and swung round this huge pick axe all day carving out our track as she went along.
We spent about 7 hours on the ice in total. At the end of the day we were really tired but it was definitely worth it, we had such an amazing day. Once we got back to the hostel we headed to the sauna and cooked up some stir fry for tea followed by a

Franz Josef Glacier

Sarah in a little crevasse.

game of Monopoly - I (Rob) won after Sarah admitted defeat.

Day 52 - Franz Josef

This was designated as a day to sort our lives out and actually have a bit of a lie in as we couldn’t remember the last time we hadn’t been up at the crack of dawn and it was beginning to take its toll. We spent the morning grazing round town before lunch in the hostel. Then we went for what was supposed to be a flat, relaxing short walk through the bush to the glacier but it actually turned out to have the usual ups and downs and to be a good bit of exercise. It was also another pretty walk with loads of little streams and mossy scrub.
We were supposed to walk all the way back but decided to take the easy option of hitch-hiking back into town so that we had enough time to check out the glacier museum (which is only small) but seemed to answer all our glacier-related questions. Laundry was next on the agenda before dinner, a drink in the village and bed.

Day 53 - Franz Josef - Wanaka

We were off

Franz Josef

Me next to a river on our walk through the bush.

to Wanaka today and had an early start to ensure that we were to have a decent amount of time at Lake Matheson. We soon arrived at the lake and we had a good few hours to take a walk around the mirror lake and to perfect our postcard perfect photos. Yet again we were really lucky to have pretty clear skies, with only the tips of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman covered by a whisp of cloud. Some of the photos are almost perfect where you cannot tell which way up they should go, I think it was the most beautiful setting I have ever seen.
After our stop at the lake we did a lot of driving with a quick stop at Thunder-creek falls to fill up our water-bottles (the water is that clean!) and did not reach Wanaka until late afternoon. We only had that afternoon/evening in Wanaka so we headed straight to the Visitor Information centre to find out the best short walk in the area and yet again they sent us up a hill! It was worth the effort though, with a good view of Lake Wanaka even though it was a bit cloudy.
We

Lake Matheson

A view of Mt Cook in the mirror lakes - damn that cloud.

had pretty chilled out evening, making the most of having a TV in our room.

Day 54 - Wanaka - Queenstown

The Kiwi bus was leaving at 9.15 so it was a late start and a short hop down the road to “The Puzzling World”. We spent nearly an hour doing the 3D maze but could not give up (unlike most people on our bus) until we finished it. This meant we didn’t have long to look through the rest of the exhibits in this really odd “Puzzle Park”. One of the funniest things was a room with the same technology used to film small people next to giants in Lord of the Rings, using human actors of equal size. We walked through different doors into a room and I look really big and Sarah is really small and then we swapped over, then it was played back on a delayed video. I’ve recorded it and it’s quite funny but I don’t know how to put it on the blog.
Once we had finished at Puzzling World we hit the road for Queenstown. We enjoyed the scenery during the relatively short drive and stopped at the Kawarau bungy

Wanaka

Me at the top of Mt Iron.

centre just out of town. This is where the first commercial bungy site was made back in the 80’s and we went down and watched a little film about the origins of bungy and saw a few people jump off the bridge. We thought about doing it but in the end it just didn’t seem worth the money for 5 seconds of fun/extreme fear.
Once we got into town we checked in to our hostel and spent the afternoon shopping as it was raining. We instantly loved Queenstown as it has loads going on and is like a ski resort (well it is one in winter) in it’s vibe. After exploring the streets and buying some souveniers we decided that we were massively hungry and had to hit the famous Fergburger for a late lunch. We had heard about Fergburger from people who had already hit Queenstown, it is a burger place that does really big take-away gourmet style burgers. They are good but not as good as our find in Wellington. We also made a snap decision to hire a car for the few days that we were in Queenstown, so it took a while to sort that out

Queenstown

Me with my super hot pink wheels.

in the afternoon as well.
In the evening we decided to go to the cinema to see Duplicity as it was a horribly wet evening and a few of our friends were arriving in town the next day.

Day 55 - Queenstown

Today we went on a bit of a road trip from Queenstown to make the most of Pinky (it was metallic pink!), our little budget brum brum. Our first and main stop was Arrowtown, a really cute little town to the north of Queenstown. We started by taking a walk along the river and up yet another hill to see the beautiful view. Once we were back in the town we had a wander around (it didn’t take long!) and ended up in Craig Potton's Gallery, a photographer whose work seems to be everywhere in New Zealand. After many um's and r's (mainly from me) we bought a photo of the Emerald Lakes for our flat when we get back to England.
We had a quick pie (my first, and last, in New Zealand!) and headed back to Pinky. Our next stop was Cromwell, a town that was flooded in 1993 and has since been

Queenstown

A teapot cocktail in the World Bar.

re-built. I would describe it as an outdoor shopping centre, it was not very nice but it was good to get away from all the tourists and the visit turned to be worthwhile as Rob brought a jumper. Plus it was good to be able to see all the scenery again as it had rained the day before on our coach drive from Wanaka.
From Cromwell we headed back to Queenstown via a couple of the Wineries in the Gibbston Valley. Here they are famous for their Pinot Noir but their Pinot Gris was quite good too. When we arrived back in Queenstown we took a walk around the Queenstown Gardens and along the lake front.
In the evening we decided to make the most of the bars in Queenstown so after treating ourselves to Winnies Gourmet pizza bar (amazing!) we headed to meet everyone from our bus in Altitude bar before later ending up in the infamous World Bar, the home of cocktails in tea pots! Very random but really cool. However, only I could spill half our teapot on the table when trying to pour it into the shot glasses! Was a really good night but I was

Milford Sound

The entrance to the Sound from the Tasman Sea.

to really suffer in the morning.

Day 56 - Queenstown (Milford Sound)

We were on the coach to Milford by 8am after 4 hours sleep and we were both feeling very rubbish to say the least. Luckily we slept for the first 2 hours of the journey before stopping for a stretch in Te Anau, a nice little town which is known as the gateway to Fiordland.
We then headed into the wilderness of Fiordland National Park and the scenery got crazy; huge u-shaped valleys, waterfalls, rivers, mirror lakes, snow-topped mountains etc etc. I can see why the Milford Track is said to be the finest walk in the world with a years waiting list!
After 5 hours of driving we finally reached Milford and we were all rushed onto our cruise boat as our coach was a little bit late. You would be very lucky to see Milford Sounds on a clear day as it rains on the majority of days so we could count ourselves lucky that although it was not sunny, it did not rain. Apparently we saw "true fiordland," with the low-lying clouds creating a really moody atmosphere. Although the scenery was incredible, I

Milford Sound

One of many waterfalls in Milford Sound.

would say that the scenery we had seen while driving through the National Park was more spectacular but maybe that was because it was hard to take in the huge scale of the sides of the fiord and the huge waterfalls that fell from the rocks.
We stopped by at an under-water observatory on our way back through the fiord which was also pretty cool, as there are some wierd and wonderful sea creatures at a relatively low depth in the sounds as the sun does not penetrate the water. After our 2 hour cruise, it was back to the coach for the long journey back home. We did not get back to our hostel until 8.00pm and we headed to bed pretty swiftly as we still felt pretty rough from the previous night.

Day 57 - Queenstown

We set the alarm for 7.30 today but the snooze button was repeatedly abused for about an hour. The last two days had really taken their toll and we just couldn’t get up! Once we did rise we got in old Pinky and headed north to Glenorcy and then to the Routeburn Track. The Routeburn is one of the many

Routeburn

The main valley the Routeburn starts in.

“Great Walks” throughout the country. The entire track is normally done over the course of 2/3 days but we didn’t have time so we planned to walk 10km up to one of the huts and back.
It took about 1.5 hours to get from Queenstown to the start of the track and the last 9km was on a single track gravel road (the perfect time to have a rental car) and I did some rally driving. Once we got there we set off and the track started with a big suspension bridge across a perfect blue river. Our legs were feeling a little heavy but we were ascending in the morning and descending in the afternoon so we knew that the second half was considerably easier. The views from the top down the valley were so amazing but unfortunately we are not too good at photography and as with everything in New Zeland we just can’t seem to capture the magic.
We got back to town and I had another Fergburger - they are just that good! In the evening we went to meet another couple that we had met on the Kiwi bus who we got on really well

Routeburn

Me on the track.

with. We just chilled out with a cup of tea in their hostel and I am sure we will meet them in Australia somewhere.

Day 58 - Queenstown - Christchurch

I reckon that today was the most uneventful day out of all 58 so far - it went something like this; we got up and packed, got on the bus for 45 minutes, bought some food, got on the bus for 2.5 hours, stopped for the toilet, got on the bus for another 2.5 hours and finally got to Christchurch. I think usually they stop to look at the views of Mount Cook from the east side but as the clouds restricted all views we did not bother to make the stop.
Once we arrived at our hostel we did laundry and had some dinner and now we are in the internet cafe, so not a terribly exciting day!
Off to Australia (Melbourne) tomorrow where the excitement can resume once again.
New Zealand has been an amazing place with the most incredible scenery. The weather has been so kind to us with beautiful days for most of our outdoor activities and with the worst weather always (apart

Routeburn

Another view down the valley.

from once) occurring on days spent on the coach. We will definitely be making another visit at some point, it seems that we have barely even scratched the surface, especially in the south of the South Island.

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