Category: New Zealand 2009

We drove up from Queenstown to Franz Josef today and it was a long, slow day on the roads. Bloody windy roads, very up and down a quite a bit of traffic on the roads, most of it slow.

The benefit was – more time to see the incredible scenery. I’m kind of sick of banging on about it, but it’s just incredible. Today’s driving took us through high mountains with wall-to-wall snow, down through rain forests, siding up against rivers & massive lakes, parallel to the Tasman Sea and then Fox Glaciar. Quite the variety!

We stopped @ Fox Glaciar, however it’s almost permanently blocked off now to groups not traveling with a guide. After a conversation with a NZ couple @ tea, it’s probably due to the 2 Australians who died a few years back when they stood directly under it. We still got some good photos though.

15 minutes up the road we got to our stopping point which is Franz Josef, the 2nd glacial site. We’re staying in a semi-backpacker site nestled amongst the rain forest and it’s a great little town. It’s a top spot to stay, it’s a shame we’re only here for a night. We bar hopped for a bit, trying the local brews and grabbed dinner in a nice old inn-style place.

We then walked down to “Glaciar Hot Pools” – which is basically a mini-resort full of heated pools, some which you can have a private relax in. The pools are split into 3 – 36 degrees, 38 and 40. Just an awesome way to spend the evening, being totally surrounded by big ferns and other rain forest vegetation and sitting in hot water and just doing nothing.

Tomorrow, the boys are doing a 5hr guided hike to Franz Josef Glaciar while the girls check out the town more and do their thing. Hopefully the weather holds out – so far it’s been just perfect.

I’ll try and get some photos up soon – until recently I’ve been doing this via my iPhone until I checked the bill… it’s well, ahem, large! Not to worry, it’s been worth it!

Today was a designated rest day but we still ended up doing heaps.

We headed off to the home of the jetboat / thrill rides, Shotoverjet. 530horsepower and 3 tonnes of boat makes for a bloody quick ride up and down the shotover river.

360° spins, sharp turns, slides through the corners and getting ridiculously close to the sheer cliffs was incredibly good fun. It’s certainly one of the best things we’ve done even though it was freezing, literally.

Our driver was telling us that they started late today due to the river icing up in parts and earlier it was -25 degrees with the wind chill factored in. By the time we got there @ 1pm, it was apparently a lot warmer. We didn’t think so. Ice flew off the front of the boat as we flew along, there was ice throughout the river and even with all the warm gear we had on, anything exposed just went numb.

From there, we travelled in the same direction to Arrowtown which, as Liam describes it, is “sovereign hill but without the $25 entry fee”. Every store looked like it was fake, it was just too perfect. The town was built to service the gold rush from ages ago, now it’s tourism only it seems. They certainly make good food! We stuffed ourselves silly at the cafe, the bakery, the sweets/lolly shop (sampled a lot of different fudges), ice cream shop (I had a dark chocolate truffle with wasabi – not bad!) and we somehow made it back to the car and not mistaken as beached whales. Actually we were thought to be the elephants of the sea yesterday as some of us couldn’t stand up on our snowboards so we had to do this rollover manouvre from our backs to our fronts… but I digress.

After that, we took some very nice photos of yet another mammoth lake, most of the group went shopping whilst Liam had a snooze (soft) and I went exploring and photographing evrything I could.

Tomorrow it’s off to the Franz Josef glacier. 5hr odd drive and we say goodbye to Queenstown unfortunately. It’s a fantastic city – I can see why so many stay longer than just their skiing holiday.

We had a day of snow today and for those who told me snowboarding is easier than skiing – you serious bro?

We arrived at the bus area in downtown Queenstown ready to board our bus. Away we went on an enormous bus up the mountain to The Remarkables ski centre.

The trip took about 45mins, 30 of which consisted of traversing the steep mountains on a dirt road. I can see why so many people own 4wds in this part of the world. If it was wet, it’d be treacherous.

At the top we piled out of the bus and headed off to the rental area to grab our boots + boards and meet in the area for our learners class.

After a basic bit of instruction from Mic, an Australian from the home of snowboarding – Alice Springs, we clip one foot in and learn some very basic stuff which was surprisingly difficult. The first lesson went for about 2hrs and then broke for lunch. It’s fair to say we were already hurting both physically and our pride. This should be easier than we made it look.

During the lunch break though we had more of a play and it started to make a bit more sense to some of us. The girls found more fun in tabogganing down on the snowboard.

After lunch we kicked on and learnt some more stuff and started to go faster and crash harder. Ben and I kept going while the others tried some of the mulled wine and pondered over which “action” photos to purchase.

At just before 4pm we called it a day. We were all pretty much stuffed by then, so returned the gear and rode the bus home.

We kicked on after showering and hit the town. Good nightlife as you’d expect from a predominantly younger crowd at this time of year.

A thoroughly enjoyable day and we all have the bruised and sore muscles / heads to show for it.

Just a quick one as our internet time is running out…

You can check out a bunch of our photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/glenr01/MilfordSound

After hearing of the bus crash just out of Milford and 1 or 2 people dying from it, we were very keen on our light aircraft flights from Queenstown to Milford Sound.

After the discomfort of having to disclose our weight to all and sundry (not to mention the shock of now realising just how small the plane is likely to be), we get escorted out onto the tarmac to the waiting of a number of sessnas.

We pile into 2 separate planes, get the run down on the its operation, put our headsets on and buckle up. Next up – can the 300hp single engine get us off the ground?

We got off the ground with ease. Kinda weird being in such a small aircraft and being so exposed but it felt so real. As the pilot dipped us left and right, you prayed the doors with their single latches would hold.

The plane quickly became an after thought as we rose up higher an higher and we started to get above the low-lying cloud. The white mountain tops, sheer cliff faces and deep valleys meant that anyone with a camera suddenly became ansell adams. I kept snapping away, every time thinking that was the best shot I’d ever taken only to see a better opportunity next time I changed my glance.

Some of deb’s that she took on our pocket-sized canon look incredible. As she says, taking photos takes your mind off the sudden drops in the plane or the minor turbulence.

After about 20-30 mins of possibly the most amazing journey we’ve taken, we then reach Milford Sound. Quite possibly the most beautiful and untouched place anywhere. We fly out to sea just to get a better look then come back through the monstrous glacial avenue.

After touching down, we board a good sized boat and head off to see it all from sea level. It’s hard to measure or to get perspective from up in the air so to see it up close was just incredible. The whole cliff faces are granite, there’s no soil, yet plants and trees flourish. The seeds bed in the cracks in the rock, germinate and spring into life. They only stay up by grappling onto each other. It’s an amazing eco system.

For the next 2 hours, it’s literally wall-to-wall scenic bliss. Enourmous waterfalls, white caps on the mountains, blue as blue water and just nature being nature – except for the odd other boat or aircraft, you’d swear other life didn’t exist.

We finish the cruise and back on the plane we go. By the time we get back, we seriously think we’ve overdosed on scenery.

Back in town and we hire our ski gear for tomorrow, have an enormous Ferg burger and check out the town a bit.

Sorry for the long post, if you’ve gotten this far you’ve done well. It was seriously one of the best days I’ve had and beats any of the thrill stuff we’ve done.

There’s photos in the post below if you haven’t seen already seen them. I haven’t filtered any, that is the full list, so apologies for the rubbish ones or the multiples where I tried different things. Deb’s are to come shortly.