NZ/AUS EPIC HOLIDAY - Days 32-38

Day 32 - 1st March - Arthur's Pass to Lake Mahinapua

After taking the bus back to Greymouth and then rejoining the Kiwi Ex bus I was soon at Lake Mahinapua. I'm sure the lake would have been a lovely place had it not been for the heavy rain and mist but today, it seems, it was to be an indoor day.

Tonight we were all sleeping in bunks inside a small country pub and it was apparently party time. I had a few pints...nay, jugs of beer but didn't go too crazy due to my desire to save money.

At least no one kept me awake with sex tonight.


Day 33 - 2nd March - Lake Mahinapua to Franz Josef

We resumed our southward bus journey, many others nursing hangovers and splitting headaches, and drove towards the small town of Franz Josef. All in all it was a fairly uneventful day, the most interesting event being our brief stop at a bushman's cafe where some very tasty possum pies were for sale. Apparently possums are a massive threat to New Zealand's flora and fauna because they were introduced from abroad and have no natural predators. They've been munching their way through the countryside making other species endangered or extinct so now everybody is encouraged to kill the little bastards on sight. If you're ever driving and you see one, flatten the fucker! The Department of Conservation will thank you.

The only thing of interest I photographed today was a stag that was roaming around in a field behind the bushman's centre.

We arrived in Franz Josef before long and I checked in to my hostel. Franz Josef is a pretty, but tiny little place, though certainly larger than Arthur's Pass. It's main attraction is the Franz Josef Glacier nearby and also Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand. You can't actually see Mount Cook from town but scenic helicopter flights can take the more wealthy tourists for a spin around the mountain. Personally I would rather hike up and earn the view but treks up Cook requires mountaineering training and lots of money. My plan is to hike about halfway up on my own but the approach is from the east coast and I'm going down the west coast right now so that's an activity for another day.

Anyway tomorrow I'm doing something just as fun.


Day 34 - 3rd March - Franz Josef

So my activity of choice today was a hike with a difference: a glacier hike. I'll admit it's not the first time I've gone hiking on a glacier. Thanks to my wonderful job I've been clambering over the glaciers of Alaska during my time on ships, as well as over the Alaskan ice fields on a husky driven sled, but that's another story.

Hiking on the glacier requires a guide to navigate a safe path up to and over the ice. Newspaper cuttings featuring grim stories about solo climbers ignoring warning signs and being crushed to death were plastered all over the information centres around town. And there was me thinking that guides were required just so that they could make more money off tourists!

We started the hike and I was placed in the first group with our guide Julia who, as the lead guide, was tasked with forging a path over the glacier. We set off and began climbing the steep sides of the glacier while Julia hacked away at the slopes with a giant pick axe in order to create stairs for us poor uninitiated rookies following along behind. It was such a stunningly fine day that I stuffed my warm clothes and raincoat into my pack and wore only a T-shirt. We really couldn't have hoped for better weather.

For hours we clambered over crevasses, squeezed through narrow cracks, climbed steep slopes and dodged round cliff faces, all made from ice that glowed with a stunning blue glow when the light hit it from the right angle. There were a couple of precarious climbs up nearly vertical ice-walls and the most vertigo inducing moment was towards the end of the day when we reached an impasse and realised that the only way was straight down!

After a long an exhausting day we returned to the base of the glacier, all in all we had covered more than 12km. Perhaps not a significant distance when hiking on dry land but quite an achievement when you're scrambling over a treacherous landscape of solid ice using crampons, ropes and ice axes.

It's not hard to see why hundreds of people flock here every day to experience the thrill of glacier hiking. All I can say is if you're ever making the journey up or down the west coast of the south island, this is the activity worth doing.

Mind you I could say that about nearly everything in New Zealand.

posing for the camera

Day 35 - 4th March - Franz Josef

It was another perfect day, lucky considering how much rain Franz Josef gets, so I decided to go for another hike. The glacier hike was fantastic but I felt that I wanted to gain more altitude today. I chose a walk called the Alex Knob Track which promised to get me up nice and high for a fantastic view over the glacier that I had ventured upon the day before.

It was a long hike that took up most of the day but the view from the top was incredible. To the west was the ocean and to the north were the snow capped peaks of the southern alps, with the massive glacier running starting amongst the peaks and running all the way down to the valley below.

I was almost tempted to go skydiving today. Apparently this is the second most scenic skydive in the entire world. Nearby Mount Cook is so high that skydivers find themselves jumping from not over the peak but level with it. The rest of the southern alps stretch off as far as the eye can see and right below the stunning Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers add even more eye candy to the scene. Complimenting the visual feast some more is the rainforest that surrounds the lower areas nearby and the Tasman Sea off the west coast provides a nice ocean view that rounds off the experience nicely.

But I really was trying to save as much money as possible during this trip. Perhaps I'll come back when I'm a certified solo skydiver!

If you were wondering what the number one most scenic skydive in the world is then I'll be delighted to inform you: it's Mount Everest! Quite an incredible view from the air I'm sure but it carries quite a price-tag. As of now it costs 30,000 US dollars to be one of the lucky few who can boast that they've pulled off a stunt of that magnitude. With that in mind it makes Franz Josef/Fox Glacier seem like a bargain at a piffling 300 Kiwi dollars eh?


Day 36 - 5th March - Franz Josef to Fox Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier isn't the only glacier in the area. There is another nearby called Fox Glacier and it's next to a town of the same name. I got on a small shuttle bus and made the short half-hour trip down to the small town. Like Franz Josef, the tiny little town of Fox Glacier proved to be a nice, quaint and picturesque location. One advantage that Fox had over Franz was that you could see Mount Cook from ground level. It was a stunningly beautiful peak that towered over the distant landscape at over twelve thousand feet high.

It was another splendid day and I had arrived quite early so I rented a bike from the hostel for a paltry fee and went off to explore. I made my way down the road to a small lake named Lake Matheson, a place that, on calm days, is like a mirror and provides stunning reflections of Mount Cook on the water. Sadly though, as did happen today, even the tiniest breath of wind and the reflection is obscured by ripples. Still I enjoyed a nice walk round the lake before mounting my bike again and returning to my hostel.


Day 37 - 6th March - Fox Glacier

It was an utterly miserable day, pouring down with rain and no visibility at all so instead I put my feet up and watched the first two Lord of the Rings movies. After all why not, they're great movies and it's a good way to see some nice New Zealand scenery when the real thing is engulfed in a perpetual downpour.

I actually wanted to go and see Fox Glacier but with such awful conditions I figured there wasn't any point. It does seem silly though to come to the town of Fox Glacier and not actually see the glacier but to be fair I had actually been lucky with the weather so far. Apparently Fox and Franz Josef get so much rainfall per year that they measure it in metres instead of millimetres. So to get three days in a row of perfect sunshine was extremely lucky.

I would have watched all three but it was getting late. Perhaps that's an activity for the next rainy day.


Day 38 - 7th March - Fox Glacier to Wanaka

Once again I rejoined the Kiwi Ex bus and was taken even further down the coast before turning inland and following the southern alps down to Wanaka on the lake of the same name. Lake Wanaka and it's township were a beautiful sight, surrounded by the mountains that seem so ubiquitous around New Zealand's topography.

It was a long journey and by the time the bus arrived it was getting later in the day so I just took a couple of photos and went shopping to restock my supplies