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Published: November 30th 2014
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Next on the list to visit was Franz Josef Glazier, a good days drive from Nelson. Having had the company of mick we drove along the Twisty Turny West Coast highway and got into franz Josef about 4pm.
The only way to get onto the glazier and have a walk around on it is to get a helicopter and that’s exactly what I did the following day. The flight was booked for 10am and all was well, we even boarded the helicopter in full ice trecking attire (including crampons) before being ushered off as low cloud halted play. Thankfully the bad weather passed and we went around the glasier in the afternoon. The leader of the tour dug out obstacles in the ice for us to wriggle through. I very nearly got stuck at one point, but a gentle push on the buttocks by a Japanese lady half my weight and size helped me on my way.
The day afterwards I drove to queenstown and met up with Rob who I met at Big Hostel in Sydney. On the first evening we stopped at the Haka Lodge which is pretty clean, with very comfy beds. Me, Rob and Jamie
went into queenstown for a Furgburger ( I had the falafel burger whilst rob and Jamie went for the famous furgburger) and to book the Nevis Bungee.
Which brings me swiftly on to the Bungee. This has probably been the most craziest adrenaline fuelled activity I have undertaken yet. You are in control of your actions as you are not in the mercy of others to get you off that platform. The Nevis bungy is suspended 430 metres in the air and you have around 8 seconds of Freefalling before the bungee finally kicks in, and thank god it did. When they are bringing you back up you are supposed to pull a tag on your bungee that rights you into the sitting position. Apparently I was pulling this down rather then out and as a result it did not work- I returned to the platform dangeling by my feet and looking rather flushed. Only me.
Link to the Video: http://www.ididit.co.nz/vault/84012/media/1481512
As we were unable to stop for longer at The Haka Lodge due to it being full we loaded up the car and drove around the corner to ‘The Flaming Kiwi.’ Unbeknown to me I had
spilt a good portion of the litre of milk that I had in my cool bag, which meant me frantically scrubbing and airing out the car to get my deposit back. When I dropped the car off in Auckland I had to pay $90 for the cleaning fee as admittedly the car stank like hot sick/ death and decay.
The next few days were spent in and around queenstown and on the last day we blew the budget and went both river rafting and something called the Nevis Swing. The Nvis swing is at the same site as the bungee, but is a bit more tame as it doesn’t involve dangeling upside down by your feet.
One of the must see's when in Queenstown in to take a trip to Milford Sounds. On the map Queenstown and Milford Sound looked about an hour away, but a mountain range meant that it was a four hour drive each way. The weather on that day was terrible, but it was still a very pretty place with glacial waterfalls and seals!. I worked out that at the point where our Jucyboat ( owened by the same company as my car rental=
half price!) returned back was the furthest point I would ever get away from home.
On the Friday I drove back up to Christchurch to fly over to Brisbane. ( More on this later) As I had many miles to cover and a flight to catch, I admittedly was driving a tad on the fast side when I noticed some blue and red flashing lights in my rear view mirror. I hadn’t realised but a police car was tailing a caravan and had clocked me doing 129kmph in a 100 zone. I wasn’t going to argue and I received a $210 fine. I drove the rest of the journey with my tail between my legs looking at the speedo constantly, paranoid that every vehicle behind me was a police officer.
The total distance covered in my little car was 3042 Kilometres or 1890 miles. Next week- My trip in the RV from Brisbane to Cairns with Kirsty.
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