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Published: November 12th 2013
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It is drive back to Greymouth and we use the free WIFI at the tourist Info Centre and then we think, why not get haircuts. How busy can this little town be? We had to go to 3 different hair salons before finally we found one who could fit us in. and then it was a young one who cut Ken’s and I had to do some trimming later. Mine was fine. She had been to Canada, had been to Banff and Jasper and the Icefields and would love to come back. But she forewarned us that these Glaciers in New Zealand aren’t quite the same as the Icefields. We were also told we had to have whitebait for lunch. So I had the whitebait pattie between 2 slices of white bread ($18) Nothing else on the plate!! We drove the winding roads and it is raining. Arrived at Franz Josef, found our motel. The room is huge. It has a separate bedroom. No WIFI. We found where the glacier is and after turning off the highway the road is one you don’t want to meet anyone on. You can sort of see the gorge where the glacier is and there
are several walks. We decide to do the one that is 45 minutes return. Remember , it is still raining. We come to a lake called Peter’s Pond and think it is a long way around to the glacier, so we give up and head back. This time we really read the sign and it was 45 minutes return to Peter’s Pond. Just another lesson in reading the directions properly. So now it is back to find a restaurant for supper. It looks like there is one!(only one and the grocery store) I had a bowl of pumpkin soup (Have I told you that pumpkin is often served as a vegetable and it is the most common soup in Australia and here in New Zealand.) In the grocery stores they are a very pale yellow. Do our farmers dye them? Ken had the Venison sausages and Mash! That is the other thing, we have seen several deer farms. Shelley, you would be sad watching Bambi behind the fences. But they look happy and they are well-fed and don’t appear to want to escape.
The next morning, it is still raining and we found a café, where they served pancakes
(for Ken!) This time we drove in on this very narrow road and prayed we did not meet anyone. We thought maybe we could get a tiny glimpse of the glacier. But, as Canadians, nothing is going to compare to the Columbian Icefields and having seen the Iceland glaciers, I think we were expecting too much. They tell us that their glaciers have really shrunk. So we did see the gorge in the distance. It was then on to the windy roads along the Tasman sea and then going inland on our way to Queenstown. The forests became rolling hills and the pastoral scenery of the sheep farmers. It is up the mountains and then down. The road into Queenstown reminded a bit of driving down the hill into Osoyoos with all the hairpin turns. The number of hairpin turns was 10X that of the Osoyoos hill. The views are just spectacular. I could really enjoy them because I wasn’t driving!! Just had to remind Ken that he could only watch the road!
Queenstown is an absolutely gorgeous city. They are in the middle of the snow covered mountains and a lake at the bottom. So people can go
skiing in the winter and boating in the summer. People need to be very outdoorsy and love the hills. They are very steep. We asked the gal at the reception desk where a grocery store was. She said just down the hill and to the left. Well, going down might have been fine but I would never have made it up. It was about 5 blocks and a steep gradient. Our luxury hotel room was a one bedroom with a full kitchen and a fantastic view. We could watch the boats in the lake and the paragliders coming down from the top of the mountain as well as watch the gondola going up and down the mountain. We were able to buy some food and make our own breakfasts and suppers. Nice to have fresh veggies. We were up early as we had a 5 hour drive to Milford Sound and we had to check in by 12:40. The drive is as usual very twisty with flat plateaus along the way. It is hard to imagine that people actually drove sheep and cattle from Dunedin across this land. I can’t imagine the engineers making the decisions about building roads through
these mountains. There was a long one way tunnel that was a little claustrophobic but you had no choice. There is no alternate route. You finally arrive with lots of time to spare. We had the typical happening when getting on the boat. There was a large group of Asians getting on and they just don’t believe they should wait! Turns out that there is no problem as there’s lots of room on the boat. We were told to get our special no fruit picnic lunches at the bar. – good sandwiches and chocolate muffin and chocolate cookies and shortbread cookies. We had to take some with us for later snacks. Have I told you New Zealanders love their chocolate. And even McCafe makes really good Hot Chocolate (Cant’s say the same for their coffee!)
Milford Sound is actually a Fjord. The discoverers thought this channel was actually between two bodies of land. In fact, a fjord is a deep body of water between steep cliffs. It is beautiful. The water is very clear and the boat takes us between these mountains all the way out to the Tasman Sea. There are many waterfalls and on the return trip there were sea lions sunning themselves. On the boat one of the workers happened to be from Quebec. My little Canadian flag gave us away. She had been working for the company for 2 months and was loving it but planned to go home to go to university in September. She had worked for 6 months in Canmore. Why weren’t we that adventurous? She also told us there were lots of kiwi birds behind their dorms and they were normally shy but maybe because they did not feel threatened they wouldcome up close to them. We still haven't seen any!
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