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Published: December 3rd 2005
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On the Glaciers
Franz Josef Glacier *
Day 1:
Arrived in Dunedin Fri eve with my plane landing in the middle of a
field full of cattle, bit like home. I tracked Dave down at our
hostel, the Kiwi Nest,and went for a nice meal. This was after I
realised my aussie mobile doesn't work overseas, and had trekked
around town, which included a visit to the wrong hostel the otherside
of town! Twas fun.
*
Day 2:
Walked up the steepest street in the WORLD and went to a cool music
store where I bought lots of tapes for the tape player in my car,
which doesn't work😞. Then we left Dunedin and took the Taieiri Gorge
train + bus to Queenstown. Lots of great scenery, and a crazy
busdriver who had the gift-of-the-gab followed. She had some great
stories, one was about people tying bras and shoes to a farmer's
fence. The shoes were still there but the bras had
disappeared....hmmmmmm.
We arrived in beautiful Queenstown and had a huge meal (New
Zealander's don't do food by halves/for fear it may be our last- see
Day 3!).
*
Day 3:
Time for activities and we started our day like no other - Dave went
Dave
Franz Josef Glacier to bungee jump off the Nevis (gondola suspended 134m above a river)
and I went to jump out of a plane 12,000ft up in the air.
Exhilirating to say the least. Felt fine about the skydive until I
was sitting in the door of the plane with my feet dangling out - I
lost the plot and screamed and screamed and screamed, until I was
safely on the ground again! I hated it BUT loved it. Everyone should
do it. I'd defintely do it again but would try and take more time to
enjoy the view on the way down. I did it over Lake Wakatipu which is
amazingly beautiful.
After that I met up with Dave again back in Queenstown and we went off
to the Shotover river for some jetboating and rafting. Jetboating is
sooo crazy. We came within millimetres of the rocks so many times,
our driver assured us we'd just 'bounce' off them if the boat actually
hit the rocks. Thankfully, we didn't find out. Amazing how the
kiwi's get a huge thrill out of saturating the aussies at any given
opportunity, as demonstrated by our raftign and jetboating guides!
Rafting was good. A little boring at the beginning as there weren't
any rapids for quite a while. Going thru the rapids was brill, but
didn't last too long. Water was absolutely freezing. Great day
though.
*
Day 4:
Went on a bus trip to Milford Sound for the day. Again there was lots
of amazing scenery to be had, including some small glaciers. Once at
Milford Sound (which fyi is not a sound - was named incorrectly by
some Pommy
cough) we boarded a boat and went for a 2 hour cruise on
the Sound. Saw dolphins, seals and mussels. The long journey back to
Queenstown was v. long indeed.
*
Day 5:
Picked up hire car and Dave drove us up to Franz Josef, stopping at
Fox Glacier along the way. It poured from the heavens all day which
created lots of new waterfalls including some which just fell onto the
road. We stopped off at one raging river for a closer look. Got to
Franz Josef that eve and checked into the Glow Worm hostel.
*
Day 6:
Beans and toast for brekkie (with vinegar, mmmm) and then a helicopter
flight to the Franz Josef Glacier for a 3 hour hike on the ice
equipped with crampons and an axe (in case we got attacked by one of
those snow monsters). The glacier cracked while we were there -
slightly frightening, but luckily was quite a distance away. Made a
v. loud noise though.
Next, it was back to the town of Franz Josef, by helicopter again, a
bite to eat and then off to Lake Mapourika ('Flower of the Dawn') for
a twilight paddle. We set off in our kayaks and returned a few hours
later just as the sun was setting - I almost didn't make it from
exhaustion, not as easy as they'd lead you to believe.
*
Day 7:
More beans & toast for brekkie (but this time with the beans on the
side so I could actually butter the toast). We left Franz Josef and
took the car up the coast to Greymouth. From here we caught the
TranzAlpine train to Christchurch (was a bus as far as Arthur's Pass
due to engineering works - can't escape them even in NZ!). Arrived in
Christchurch that eve and had a bit of a wander around and found an
Irish bar to have a drink in.
*
Day 8:
I made the most of my last day in NZ and went on a walking-tour
(self-guided) of Christchurch. The highlight for me was visiting
Rutherford's Den in the Arts Centre, a bit nerdy I know but come on
the guy was the first person to split the atom.
In the afternoon I had said my goodbyes to Dave and was on a plane
back to Melbourne😞.
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