Blogs from Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Day 5 August 25: Morning broke and it was time to move on from the lovely village of Queenstown. We filled the trunk of Roaring Meg with our bags and loaded the six of us into the five passenger car (which of course meant troll got shotgun). We turned left and headed to our next destination Fox Glacier with a quick pit stop in Wanaka. After driving literally up and through a mountain which at some points we thought Meg was not going to make it and roll backwards off a cliff, we arrived in Wanaka. Wanaka (an hour away from Queenstown) lies upon one of the biggest lake in New Zealand. Being the trampers that we are we of course needed to go for a hike, although after what we went through the day before ... read more

Durch das sanfte Rauschen der aufgerauten See, wurden wir heute Morgen mehr od. minder sanft aus dem Schlaf gerissen. Da wir an diesem Tag ein bisschen mehr Zeit zur Verfügung hatten, konnten wir noch einen Blick in Hokitika's bekannteste Jade- Kunstschmiede werfen. Jade hatte bei den Maori's einen sehr hohen spirituellen Stellenwert. Man kann den harten Jadestein zu Werkzeugen aller Art, Kriegs- und Jagdwaffen und natürlich zu schönem Schmuck verarbeiten. Danach fuhren wir weiter zum Fox Gletscher. Hier sind wir auf eigene Faust bis an die Gletscherzunge vorgedrungen. Nachdem wir Self-Made Boodga mit kleinen und größeren Steinen gespielt haben, machten wir uns auf den Weg zum Lake Matheson. Dieser Lake ist eines der 100 Must-Do's in New Zealand. Auch wir konnten uns den Bann dieses großartigen Naturwunders nicht entziehen. Es war äußerst beeindruckend, wie sich der ... read more

A long driving day today. This was also one of the few nights (besides the two nights in Wellington) where we didn't have lodging secured. We are making our way down the coast to Te Anau, which will be our base to explore the Milford Sound area. So far as we can tell, we have a total of about 9 hours of driving time over the next two days. We decided to wing it a bit, and see what we ended up doing during the daylight hours before deciding where to hunker down for the night. Our first stop was to check out one of the island's 30 glaciers. Only two are accessible by walking path from this area without paying for a guide: Franz Josef and Fox. We decided on Fox Glacier, primarily due to ... read more

On the way to Haast you go across Haast pass, there are lots of little walks to waterfalls so we decided we would try to walk to them all. First up was the blue pools. These had been marketed as being crystal clear and so blue that you could see trout suspended in the middle of them. However, due to the exceptionally high rainfall over night the pools were more a murky grey than any kind of blue!! After that we headed on to Fantail falls these were just off the side of the road and used to be used to help turn a waterwheel I believe. Next on the list was thunder creek falls. At the time we got here so did a bus full of American tourists so we had to try to avoid ... read more

Day 21 Tuesday Got up at the crack of dawn for the bird walk, it had been a really cold, clear night so a glorious morning. Saw a fantail, chaffinch, thrush, magpie and a bell bird – impressed aren’t you? Walked through the woods used as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film. Back on the road again, these few days with just 1 night stop-overs are quite tiring but there is so much to see. Stopped in Hokitika cos that’s where most of the NZ jade comes from – new earrings!!!!! Still in the area of the mine disaster so an eerie quiet with lots of shops burning candles and showing support. Then drove on to Fox Glacier (which came first the mountain or the mint?) Got there about 3pm, booked in to our motel and ... read more