Around The World – Glaciers and Wanaka, New Zealand
I have been sufficiently chastised that my posts are behind my current geographical location, so I’ll pop a few out in short order.
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My goal for the next few days is to go to the famous Franz Josef and Fox glaciers and make it to the town of Wanaka and a bit further south.
In the morning, I got a message that a long-time friend was cycling and was hit by a car. I’m just shocked, this kind of thing is not supposed to happen to the people we know. I sent love and strength to her and her family.
I had a great hot 12-minute shower for 2 x $2. Used up all of my 1GB Wifi allotment uploading pictures to Google.
I went to drive away but the battery was low, the engine turned a bit but wouldn’t catch and start. I borrowed jumper cables from another camper and jumped the second (fridge) battery to the first, fired right up.
Drove into the town of Nelson, parked and walked up and down the main street. It was Saturday morning so there were lots of folks out and about. I bought a tube of lip balm, as my lips were getting chapped from the cold and dry air. Went through a farmers and artists market, saw 3 wood turners and talked with them about their tools and local woods.
The morning weather was low cloud and drizzle for the drive south-west to Westport on the west coast. Very zig-zag, up-down road, I took it carefully but at least I can see where I’m going. I pulled over several times to let folks behind me go through. Just gorgeous scenery, following a river through gorges all the way.
It was suggested to me to stay overnight in Westport but when I got there it was still early, so I carried on down the coast to Punakaiki. What a beautiful craggy coastline. One spot had a special walkway to the coast to see “pancake rocks” and a blowhole, shooting water into the air on each incoming wave.
I carried on down to Greymouth and tried to find a place to park the van. I used the Camping NZ app’s suggestion but it was full. The manager referred me to his buddy a block away with a backpacker hotel called Noah’s Ark, which has a driveway that can take one camper, so I booked in for $18.
I walked around town a bit, not much going on to say the least on a Saturday night. Came back to the van and made cheese sandwiches, trail mix and DC for dinner.
I got 300MB of Wifi with my night’s stay so uploaded about 50 pictures to Google, 225 more to go when I find more wifi. Two guys inside were watching an AUS/NZ footy match. Stood next to a wood burning stove to stay warm while the pictures uploaded.
The next morning I woke up, luckily still in the driveway at Noah’s Ark and not rolled out into the street. I cleaned up and went looking for the famed Sunday Market. Nowhere to be found, so packed up and headed south.
Today’s goal is the Franz Josef Glacier. I think this will be my first real glacier. The view on the drive down the coast, with some zigs and zags inland was spectacular. Gorges, valleys, ice-cold shallow rivers with gravel beds, single-lane bridges over those rivers, rainforest-like plants and trees, sheer drop-offs, stretches of sandy beach and rocky cliffs. I’m at the point where I’m running out of words to describe the natural beauty of this country. Trust me, just fly here, rent a Jucy van and drive from the north to the south and just try to describe it, I dare you. Even my pictures can’t justify the sweeping vistas, mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, glaciers, oceans, beaches, colors, sky, stars. It reminds me of a line from the movie “Contact” where Jody Foster is travelling through space and she says “They should have sent a poet”.
I rolled into the parking lot for Franz Josef and locked up the van. The sign says there are three paths, one short, one medium and one long right to the glacier. I decide I’m here, so I might as well go all the way. The path started out through the forest until it broke into the gravel river and former glacier area. The glacier has receded a long way back up the mountain. There is no way to deny climate change if you look at the 2008 picture of the glacier and stand in the middle of the gravel looking 3km uphill to the bottom of the ice face. The path then goes up the flat, gravelly-rocky riverbed to where it starts to head uphill. The path leads up to about 100m from the ice face where it’s roped off with signs showing the danger of going any further. If you take a helicopter up or sign up with an experienced guide you can get to the ice, but not on the public walking paths. My fellow Hobbit Jenny Louise Akers did the helicopter trip after I was there, check out her pictures.
The ice is crumpled, beautiful deep blue with a dusting of dirt in places. I sat on a rock at the end of the path for a while and contemplated the majesty and power of gravity, ice, water and earth. That is the real deal. You feel really, really small and insignificant.
I walked back down, took about 2 hours total round trip. Back on Hwy 6 to the second glacier, Fox. It looked to be another seriously long walk, so I decided to take pictures from the riverbed.
On the road just south of Fox, a deer (or something) the size of a horse ran across the road about 1 second in front of me. Almost so fast it was a blur, couldn’t remember if it had horns or not, but it was dark brown and bounded across very fast. If I had been one second father, I’d be a smear on the rocks on the side of the road. I’ll check with the locals to see if they know what it might have been.
Headed south to my destination town of Haast. I was dangerously low on petrol, but luckily there’s a station in Haast, at only 26% higher price than everywhere else I’ve filled up. Supply and demand at its best. My advice: fill early and often in the south island because the towns are few and far between.
I checked in to a campsite for $18. It offered access to a nice heated building with shower, toilet, lounge room and a food shop. Paid $6 for unlimited Wifi, boy am I going to make good use of that. Uploading 295 pictures to my Google album, doing email & Facebook, edited / generated / uploaded video of the ladies’ skydiving back in Taupo, downloading newer Mr. Robot and Last Week Tonight at 400kbps while watching older Mr. Robot. It’s almost like being at home! All while powering laptop from the 150W inverter plugged into the van’s 12V socket. The laptop is getting a little warm from all of the effort, but is helping me to stay warm in my cave! Started the engine to make heat and keep the battery charged.
The next morning I drove down to Wanaka, through unbelievably beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers.
Arrived in Wanaka, parked and started walking through the main street. Walked through a ski shop, remembered this is where Treble Cone is located, a big skiing area in the South island. Stopped at the town’s iShop where they have lots of tourist information, talked with them about a ski day tomorrow. All-day lift ticket for $90, I just have to rent equipment. Decided I was already here so why not, 52 year-old knees notwithstanding. Bought the ticket and walked back to the ski shop. Got fitted for skis, jacket, pants, poles and goggles from a very helpful lady. I had to buy socks, gloves and a toque (woolen hat for you non-Canadians). I managed to avoid the $150 pair of gloves… Loaded it all into the Jucy van.
It was approaching dusk so I drove to the campsite. Nice, but on the comparatively high end at $22 for a non-powered site. Booked for 2 nights, planning to stay tonight then come back and crash after skiing tomorrow, then leave the next morning.
Unlimited Wifi again but not a great signal from the van, so went into the lounge and surfed while watching a movie on the big screen. Back out to the van and crashed, excited about skiing the next morning.
Woke up to the start of another nightmare. I heard rain on the roof of the van. This was not expected, should have been light snow. Went inside to the lounge and heard on the radio that the mountain was “on hold” for opening due to gale force winds, it’s not safe to run the chairlifts. So the rain is not the issue, it’s wind.
Spoke with the girl at the desk and she now tells me I need chains on the van just to get into the parking lot at the ski center. Neither the iShop nor the ski rental shop mentioned this to me. Would not have guessed that, everywhere else I’ve skied they take good care of the access road to the parking lot. I ask about a shuttle bus, she said it left at 7:30, and there is only one per day. Not great logistics there either. OK, I get all of my gear on and head into town to the Mitre 10 Mega hardware store where they sell chains. I get there and an extremely helpful man helps me select the right chains, shows me how to put them on then watches me put one on. I walk out with a set of chains I’ll use once for $99. Hmmm, maybe I can sell them in Queenstown somewhere, do they have Craigslist? I’ll solve that problem later.
I head out and drive 30 minutes to the entrance to the ski center. I drive 100m up the road to a big gate with a huge Closed sign on it. There are a couple of guys working, turning everyone around, the mountain is now confirmed closed for the day due to the winds. Crap. All of this for nothing. I don’t have another day to spare in the schedule so I’ve got to unwind all of my plans.
I drive back and hit the campsite first, and ask for a refund for my second night. The suddenly surly girl at the front desk says no refunds. I try to explain that I’m getting nothing in return for my payment for the second night, they’re just getting free money. She just looked at me. OK, this day is not going well. I give her the stinkeye and walk out. Lesson learned, I will pay for a single night at a time from now on.
I head into town and happily get full refunds for my rental gear and the lift ticket. I am however stuck with a pair of ski socks, gloves and toque. Oh well.
I drive back to Mitre 10 Mega hoping they don’t have a “No refunds on tire chains” policy. I explain to the woman at the customer service desk that I bought them an hour ago, mountain closed, never even drove on them, she gives me a full refund on the spot. This is how you treat your customers right, cranky lady at the campsite. Reminds me of a Big Bang Theory episode where Sheldon got some bad service and told the clerk he took down a cupcake shop with a bad review on Yelp.
OK, I’m back in the same state I was when I rolled into town, so back into the van and south I go. Now that I have a free day, I decide to drive south-east to Dunedin on the east coast. The weather cleared nicely, bright blue skies and temperature up to 17C. Walked around downtown Dunedin, had a tuna sandwich at Subway and talked with the lady at the iSite shop about places to camp along the south coast.
I start following the south coast road when I get very sleepy at around 2PM, had a bad sleep the night before. I pulled over at a picnic place and crawled in the back and slept for about an hour. Refreshed, I continued on until I came across a region called The Catlins, where I took a few pictures of various The Catlins signs. Catlin is the name of my former solar co-worker so I’ll send them to him.
I arrived at a campsite in the tiny town of Papatowai. My Camping NZ app says it costs $6 and has toilets so that’s right in my sweet spot tonight considering I’m also paying $22 for an empty space back in Wanaka. A first for me, it’s an honour system where you put your fee into a plastic bag and then drop into a metal box at the front gate. It’s just open fields so you pick where you want to park. There’s a building with a large kitchen area and clean toilets, can’t ask for more. There’s only one other family here, in a large camper and they were cooking dinner on a gas burner. I’m still full from my mid-afternoon meal so I set up the cave. No wifi or even cellular coverage so I feel very disconnected from the world. Maybe that’s a good thing. There’s zero ambient light here and the Milky Way and southern hemisphere stars are about as bright as I’ve ever seen.
I noticed I had “The World’s Fastest Indian” so I decided to watch it, and the main character Burt Munro was from Invercargill, where I’m headed tomorrow! I’ll stop in, then then continue north to Queenstown.
