Blogs from Franz Josef, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

Franz Josef Our next stop was Franz Josef on the South Island’s West Coast. It’s really only a short distance from Mount Cook National Park, but the Southern Alps form a central spine down the South Island that’s impassable by car for much of its length. The drive to the West Coast (AKA ‘Westland’) was suitably soggy. The coast bears the brunt of the ‘Roaring Forties’ (i.e. the winds blowing in from the Tasman Sea), which dump about 3.5 metres of annual rainfall there. If that’s not wet enough, the town of Franz Josef gets about 5 metres of rain each year and most of it seemed to be falling on our first night there. We’ve travelled to the other side of the World to find somewhere rainier than Manchester (or even Ramsbottom)! According to the ... read more

Friday- I enjoyed the bone carving so much I decided to turn my hand to jade carving- of course it was a really sunny day and I was stuck inside but nevermind! The tools used water and their was less work by hand so it was harder to see what you were doing. I enjoyed the bone carving more but again I'm pleased with what I made today. I then drove down to Franz Joseph, I was going to go to Fox Glacier but after the unsociable night I had had I decided to go to the busier of the 2 towns. I met 2 rugby lads who had just left Oxford Brookes Uni and went to the pub with them- so definatly more sociable. ... read more

Well After last nights shenanigans everyone was a little worse for wear....and incredibly quiet bus journey. We stopped at the Bushman Centre to see a bit of life on the West Side (sorry west coast!) Basically a hut with loads of deer and possum hunting memorabilia and taxidermy galore. Some disgusting (live) eels in grotty water, a worried looking live possum (surrounded by possum skins) and a very depressed looking fat pig. Alun was 'volunteered' (read 'made') to feed the poor thing hunks of bread before beating a hasty retreat. To be fair the big ugly pig just laid down after the bread was finished. Too mind numbingly bored with his daily performance to even think about attacking Alun. It wasnt in the least bit menacing but Im sure the health and safety bods would have ... read more

The Franz-Josef glacier is one of only 4 (I think) glaciers in the world that descend to temperate regions (i.e. from several 1000 m above sea level, to just 250 m above sea level). The other one is it's neighbour, Fox, and the other two found in Argentina. The FJ glacier is pretty spectacular from far away, and I should imagine it is mindblowingly stunning when viewed close up. My plan was to see it close up after a 10 minute helicopter flight to high on the glacier and then do a little wandering around for a couple of hours on the pristine blue ice (with fully fledged ice guide and proper ice boots and picks and paraphenalia, obviously). However, it was not meant to be as the weather was crap and too cloudy. This meant ... read more

Caute, tak zo super Mt. Aspiringu sme sa presunuli kusok dalej na west coast, co je poriadne dlhe zapadne pobrezie ako je uz napadne z jeho nazvu. Este jednu turu sme spravili v mt. aspiringu a ta bola uplne super ako zatial kazda viacdenna tura co sme tu spravili. Rozhodli sme sa vyjst na Mt. Armstrong (inak tie nazvy kopcov su tu hrozne) - nasa prva dvojtsicovka, t.zn. aj so snehom :). Cesta vedie ako vzdy strmo hore, to ani nemusim spominat a prespat sa dalo na stvormiestnej chatke, proste cakal som romantiku v horach. Tak sme si kupili tie listky na tu chatku, tu sa to plati dopredu v informacnom centre. Rano sme vstali dost skoro, kedze to ze si kupis listky neznamena, ze budes mat aj miesto. Kto skor pride, tan skor melie. Boli ... read more