Glaciers

01/03/2013
 White rabbits, I said it first!
 Our route today, according to the map, followed the coast for a good deal of the way, up to Franz Joseph , so we were expecting to see lots of the Tasman Sea. There was just the one scenic lookout along the first 60 K, which overlooked a beautiful bay, after that we turned inland. Only when we started to climb up into the Alps did we begin to see stuff, up until then we had been in forestry, with nothing  but trees. At least we made good time and arrived at Fox Glacier just before lunch. ( We were actually lucky to get there at all as we drove past the miniscule little sign pointing to the glacier car park and had to do a U turn. It’s World Heritage listed for heavens sake , you would think they would have had the place lit up in lights! A little advance warning sign would do for a start.)
  From the car park the information boards state that it’s a one hour return walk to the nearest point on the glacier wall. It was a tough old tramp out, a lot of it up a steep hill but when we got there the view was superb. We were about 200m away from the ice flow, but it felt nearer as we were high up.  Unlike the Tasman Glacier, this one looks like an ice flow with deep crevasses in the blue/ white ice. Two down, one to go, tomorrow we will look at the most famous of the three, the Franz Joseph.
 We are actually in the village of Franz Joseph having a beer in the glorious sunshine listening to the constant stream of helicopters taking off with tourists to fly over, and land, on the snow at the top of the glacier. We will have to settle for hoofing it, helicopter rides are not in the budget.

 02/03/2013
  Well! We saved the best to the last, the Franz Joseph Glacier is just immense. A massive chunk of ice, in what looks like an enormous quarry, an amazing site. From the car park to the viewing point we walked along the glacial floor for 3 kilometres and found it hard to believe that the whole valley was once solid ice. The glacier has been retreating for a number of years but the thinking now is that it has stopped and is currently static. We were out early enough to get to the viewpoint , about 500m from the face , before the coach parties arrived, as we need to get some mileage in if we want to see more N Z icons.
 The road trip was a bit of an anti climax after the glacier, no real places of interest and not much to look at , most of the drive being through rainforest. We pulled into the town of Hokitika which has an annual Wild Food Festival but, just our luck, it’s next weekend. Wild food means hunting and foraging, you pick it, or kill it, cook it and eat it. No bunny huggers here. I’m all for it but I think I would give the possum pie a miss, though I wouldn’t mind trying the Huhu grubs.
 We are camped on the outskirts of Greymouth and haven’t had a chance to see if it lives up to it’s name. Might have a quick look in the morning before we head south east across towards  Christchurch.

 03/03/2013
  Sure enough. Greymouth is…..grey! Perhaps the dull overcast weather didn’t help but even if it was a bright sunny day we don’t think there would be much charm about the place, plus it was closed being Sunday.
 Our next ‘must see’ was Arthur’s Pass, an alpine village reached by a severe climb to the top of the southern alps then a steep decent on the other side. This mountain pass must be one of the most picturesque of anywhere although we encountered some low cloud and mist. We had taken pictures from the van as we climbed  there being very few places to pull over, and so we hope they are good. Just before the top of the climb you have to drive over a viaduct 450m long and 35m high. It doesn’t do to look down whilst driving!
 Over the viaduct there is an observation point looking down onto it and it was there we had a major disaster, between us we dropped the camera onto the road and it is smashed beyond repair. We think the photos that we have on there should be salvageable but we need to buy another camera.
 At Arthur’s Pass Village we stopped for a strong long black and bought some postcards of the viaduct. I would have liked something stronger to go with the coffee but we still had to negotiate the long winding decent. Naturally there were lots of photo opportunities on the way down but we only have memories.
  We have stopped for the night at Rangiora, about 35K’s north of Christchurch and had no intentions of going back to the city, but it looks like we may have to, to buy a new camera. We will have a drink tonight.