Hello, Gorgeous!

In the interest of trying to keep up & get caught up, we’re going to try alternating current activities with the travels we’ve done in the last month… here’s what’s happening now!

On March 13, we flew from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand.  We’ve been quietly excited about our time in New Zealand, and were dismayed when we looked at our itinerary about a month ago to find out that we only had 8 full days (9 nights) to spend here.  There is so much beautiful country to see, and 8 days only allow us to barely scratch the surface.  Fortunately, we got a head start on sight-seeing during the last 40 minutes of the flight.

Somewhere over the Southern Alps

We made our way from Christchurch on the east side of the south island, winding through the mountains to the west coast, stopping in Greymouth as our first destination.  Greymouth is the largest town on the west coast, yet we found it completely dead on the Sunday night we arrived.  Even in a ‘city’, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.  In the morning we made our way north to do a couple hours of hiking and to see the ‘pancake rocks’ in the town of Punakaiki.  Half way along our 45km (28mi) drive, a small bumpy feeling in our Hyundai Getz turned into a loud flapping. We quickly pulled over and found that the rubber was stripping off one of our tires.  We pulled into a lot and changed the tire all by ourselves. We thought this would make our fathers proud.

Lug nuts off

At least there was a nice view... and clear skies!

Ack!

We carried on and checked out the pancake rocks, which turned out to be pretty neat, as far as rocks go.  They’re called as such because they look like stacks of pancakes, and geologists haven’t quite figured out exactly why they have become the stratified stacks that they have.

Mmmm... pancakes

Given we were driving around on a midget spare, our hike was cast aside in the interest of getting a new tire put on.  We back-tracked to Greymouth – which was on the way to our next destination anyway – and paid the friendly people at Firestone a visit.  They fixed us up but spooked us a bit by saying we were extremely lucky the tire didn’t explode in our faces & kill us.  Yikes! Next time, let the pressure out…

We carried on to our next stop, the town of Franz Joseph Glacier.  Our path took us through several sleepy towns, the biggest of which, Hokitika, has as its main attraction a Sock Knitting Machine Museum. We seriously debated stopping but instead pushed forward because we wanted to walk to the glacier (here pronounced glassier) face before it was too dark. This decision was the right one, and we enjoyed our walk along the surface of the moon to the glacier face.

Hello down there! (Glacier approach path)

Where's Jason? (hint: yellow shirt)

At the base of the Franz Joseph Glacier

The next day we went even more intrepid and hiked on the face of a glacier itself. We chose to hike the Fox Glacier, which is just south of Franz Joseph yet much less touristed.  We joined a guided trek and spent the day climbing on the ice, checking out the features of the ice and learning about the local glaciers. It was heartening to learn that there isn’t much concern for the future of the glacier: although it’s in retreat, it continues to advance and retreat in irregular cycles, and they see no danger of it melting away completely.  The rainforests growing on the mountains on either side of the glacier are regenerating. So nice to hear a positive environmental story for once!

We had just about the perfect day for the hike – it poured throughout the previous night but had stopped by the time we woke up.  The skies were clear and the temperature was perfect for walking around on ice in medium weight clothing.  That said, the approach walk which is normally open to the public was closed that day, due to the flooding from the previous night and the instability that can cause in the rocks (there were some landslides far above when we were on the glacier!) – but it is pretty safe to do with an experienced guide.  I found the trekking frustrating because I was nervous, and conclude that winter mountain sports just aren’t my thing (Jason felt differently – he really enjoyed walking on the ice!). Even with my fears, I did enjoy the experience simply for its uniqueness and the stunning scenery.

If you squint you can see another group on their approach walk, crossing the riverbed

Beginning our ascent - note dustcloud from landslide above.

Another group from below

Resting for lunch

This looks more perilous than it is (the drop behind me is about 2 feet)... but I like the effect.

A view from our furthest point up

On the descent

SO glad to take these off!

On day 4, we followed the coastal road south and then turned inland, through Mount Aspiring National Park to the town of Wanaka.  Every 100 meters or so we’d pass over a creek or some other geological feature, and they all had signs with their names.  While many were named for people, we got a kick out of others: Dismal Creek, Dizzy Creek, Gout Creek, and my personal favorite:

The drive was one of the more spectacular routes we had ever come across, as it took us by the northeast corner of Lake Wanaka, and along the west edge of Lake Hawea.  See for yourself:

Lake Wanaka

Lake Hawea

We are spending 2 nights now in a campground on the southern end of Lake Wanaka.  We hosteled it for the last few nights, and now we’ve got a little 1-room “cabin” and a short walk to the shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. Now let’s hope tonight’s rain dries up by morning so we can enjoy more of this gorgeous country tomorrow (and trek on regular ol’ dirt, thanks very much). 

Our shack

Very close to our shack