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Published: April 26th 2009
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Queenstown and the drive to Franz Joseph Glacier 001
I wanted a picture of this for so long but it was so far away from town! I finally got it on our way out! Well my wireless adaptor is not working. Glynn: it’s not even listed in my device manager under adaptors and I tried to reinstall it but I don’t know what’s going on...
Today we packed up and left Queenstown. Last night I had a bit of a freak-out because I could not find my camera. I was basically hysterical, thinking I lost it somewhere, left it on the LOTR tour, and the thought crossed my mind that it could have been stolen from our room when it was cleaned…although I didn’t want to believe that. I went to bed in a right state but woke up more calm, searched the car one more time and found it under my seat. THANK GOODNESS. It means so much to me because it’s a record of the trip and it’s how I can help you guys follow along. Although that doesn’t seem to be working out now thanks to my wireless adaptor…
Anyway…we left Queenstown in the morning and headed North West towards Franz Joseph Glacier, which is where we are right now. During the drive we saw the most beautiful scenery we’ve ever seen in our lives. Nothing could compare to this
and pictures don’t do it justice. There are mountains and old volcanoes everywhere, covered in thick, deep-green trees with clouds covering the peaks and some are dusted with snow. There’s winding roads where some have the equivalent of a US 8mph speed limit due to the hazardous locations. There are cliffs, streams, rivers, rapids, waterfalls, and tons of one-lane bridges where you take turns crossing. The landscape is so rugged and untouched. It reminds me of a combination of the Appalachian mountains, a rainforest, Hawaii, Jurassic Park, and Lord of the Rings, of course. And when I just gave movie references, I meant the scenery from the movies. There aren’t many Velociraptors or Orcs roaming here. Just possums. Lots and lots of possums. Although I’ve only ever seen smooshed ones so far.
We stopped at a Café/Restaurant to caffeinate ourselves and use the facilities. We stood in a line by a shelf of freshly-baked goods that you could grab and put on your tray. I wasn’t hungry at all (I mean it) so I had a flat-white. It’s a combination of a black coffee and a non-sweetened cappuccino. I also had an incident with a pushy/touchy-feely asshole in line
and I went into a bit of a rant about it after we sat down. I felt like decking him but I don’t know what New Zealand’s laws are on self-defense.
Afterwards we drove. And drove. And droveeeee. Eventually we came to a place where we could turn off to see seals! So we drove some more! About 15 minutes to a parking lot that had a sign that said if you want to see the seals, you need to follow the trail and it takes approximately 3.5 hours to walk there and back. Uhhhhh is that NZ hours or US hours????? Haha so we didn’t do that since it was almost dark anyway.
We stopped at a gorge/river lookout and I wanted to explore a bit so mom and I headed off on a trail. I came up behind another guy, probably in his 70s who was looking out at the river. He turned and grabbed at his chest in fright. I guess he hadn’t heard me walk up behind him. He told me I frightened him and that if we had come 30 seconds earlier we would have caught him doing his wee-wees! HAHA
We
kept seeing signs for “half bridges” and my mom said, “what’s it do…stop halfway over a river???!” We figured out later they call them that because they’re one-laners.
We finally found Franz Joseph Glacier and we found a hotel a little outside of town because the ones right in town were very pricy. The room we were given smelled like urine and my mom said that maybe we would get used to it and I said we were getting another room. So we did and this one smells great! Well, like a regular hotel room anyway. Tomorrow we’re going to check out the local Anglican church because they’re supposed to have a beautiful service but we checked it out tonight too and nothing was listed. We’ll see!
Ashley
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