Franz Josef Glacier

Most people travelling through New Zealand are doing it in the opposite direction as me - They start in Auckland and make their way south. I flew into Queenstown right after arriving in Auckland and have been making my way north. One of the unexpected pros about that is that the more people I meet, the better of an idea I get of what to see on my way north. One of the things that was on my 'maybe' list was Abel Tasman Park - New Zealand's most visited national park. It's got spectacular beaches, a great walk, and is the best place for kayaking (maybe 2nd best.. Milford Sound might be better?)  During the planning phase of the trip I eventually decided that I wouldn't have time to go to Abel Tasman..  but..  Way too many people I'm meeting are telling me that it's "must see", so..  I'm going try to head that way!

As such, I got out of Queenstown as soon as I could. I took a 7 hour long bus to the Franz Josef Glacier, through Wanaka, and the Haast pass. I was quite tired - didn't get much sleep due to the fact that there were party-oriented Americans in my dorm room.. so you'd think that I'd sleep on the bus to the glacier.. but nope! The scenery was way too amazing.. I might have dozed off a bit on the west coast, but for a half an hour max.

The drive to Wanaka was just spectacular and the Haast pass was fairly impressive as well. We made a couple stops - Thunder Creek Falls (picture time!), Knight's point (on the Tasman Sea), and then lunch at a Salmon farm. I ate an interestingly constructed smoked salmon & cream cheese dark rye sandwich, which was pretty damn good. On the bus with me was a Dutch guy, a couple Germans (surprise surprise!), an Indian girl (I think), and a Brazilian girl, who I talked to briefly. All in all it was a pretty interesting bus ride.

The Franz Josef township is basically a tiny town 4km from the glacier car park (6km from the glacier face) with a population of somewhere between 300-400 or so. There's a road ("highway" 6) going south towards the Fox Glacier, Haast, Wanaka, etc. and the same "highway" going north towards Greymouth. It's not much of a highway, really.. It's a 2 lane road.. And ALL the bridges along the way have 1 lane only.. which was kinda weird at first. I remember seeing the same thing between Glenorchy and Queenstown, but didn't think the trend would continue.

My hostel - the Rainforest Retreat - was pretty damn cool. As soon as you enter, there's a hot tub, out in the open, for all to use. There's also a bar/restaurant, a kitchen, laundry, tv room, and other amenities. Overall a very nice place!  The bar's motto is "When it rains, we pour!".. It was raining, and there isn't really anything to do in town other than glacier-related stuff, so I took advantage of the pouring.

A giant "Kiwi Experience" bus pulled up right before I arrived, with lots and lots of what I call "idiots" booking rooms and being generally annoying. I made my way to my room and found.. a MESS! It was insane.. clothes, pamphlets, random junk, EVERYWHERE.. and who was I sharing the room with? Turns out it was two British lesbians. They were quite alright, in the end! Just a bit messy... There wasn't much to do since it was raining, so I grabbed dinner (bangers & mash) at the bar, read for a bit, went online, explored the town a bit (yeah, in the rain), and crashed early.

Tuesday I awoke to stupid clouds everywhere.. I went to book a scenic flight, which I had been planning to do, but was told that it might not happen.. They put me down for 3pm and told me to check back at 2:40 or so. I didn't have to pay yet, until the flight was finalized, so it was no big deal.. but I really wanted to do the flight.. and get the hell out of this place as soon as I could.. While I waited I saw some Kiwi birds at a Wildlife reserve type place.. It was a 5min walk to my hostel, was pretty cheap, let you check out kiwis, had stuff about glaciers, how they work, when they were discovered, etc. Unfortunately I was not able to take any pictures, but it was a good way to kill the time. Eventually I made my way back to the scenic flight place only to find out that my flight had been cancelled due to the previously mentioned stupid clouds :( They put me down for a potential flight the next day at 10am. I went online and booked a bus to Greymouth the same day at 2:20pm. The flight was going to happen, or it wasn't, I didn't care, I was getting out of there.

There were clouds, but it wasn't raining, so I decided to walk over to the glacier. My left knee was still bugging me a bit, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I walked 4km to the car park (there is a shuttle running between town centre and the car park, but I *just* missed it), and then 2.5km or so to the glacier face. It was actually somewhat disappointing! The only other glacier I've ever seen was Glaciar Grey in Chile, and that thing was just SPECTACULAR.. The face of Franz Josef glacier is grey and depressing.. there wasn't really much to see. I got some decent pictures, walked back to the car park, and then climbed sentinel rock - a 20min climb - which promised "spectacular" views of the glacier.. Again, I was a bit disappointed.. I went back to the hostel, had some beers, ate dinner (monsoon steak sandwich - very good!) and spent the rest of the day watching tv, screwing around online, and reading.

Woke up today to more clouds :( I walked over to the scenic flights office and was told that the flight was probably happening! And sure enough, it did!

We took a shuttle to "Franz Josef International Airport" and jumped on the plane.  The 50 minute long flight was SPECTACULAR.  I took way too many pictures.  The flight took us out to the Tasman Sea and both glaciers (Fox & Franz Josef).  Then we climbed a bit and flew around New Zealand's highest mountain - Mount Cook, as well as the surrounding mountains (including Mt. Tasman), and the 70 or so glaciers in the area.  I am pretty sure the pilot said there were 70 glaciers there!  It was beautiful.  Mountains and glaciers and snow oh my!  After a while I started getting a bit sick to my stomach, but it was really a flight I'll never forget.

That was about a half an hour ago.  Now I'm sitting at an internet cafe waiting for my bus to arrive.  Two hours and I'm off..  to more rain, if the forecast is to be believed.  No worries though, Greymouth is only a stopover - I don't have any significant things planned there.  I have been told there is a "must see" beer brewery there, and only 'must see' because they give you a lot of beer on the tour..  One girl I met claimed that it was "unlimited beer for an hour".  We'll see!  There's also famous pancake rocks about a half an hour north of the city, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to head there.  I am only really stopping in town because that's where my scenic train ride begins..  one that takes me through the Southern Alps again, through Arthur's pass - dropping me off in Christchurch.

I am having a really good time here.  I'll write more when I can!