We arrived in Greymouth on Weds 18th after a few scenic stops on the bus, and a record breaking time in eating some pancakes when we stopped for some lunch/breakfast as they weren't served until we were supposed to be on the bus.
Greymouth doesn't really have much, and despite being the biggest town on the west coast South island, it's still a small place. There is nothing to do either, so Jo and I did some food shopping and watched Chicago (on VHS!). This little account is boring because Greymouth is.
Next day we took a nice scenic route to Franz Josef where the famous glacier hike is, but no longer as a long section is melting, meaning that only heli-hikes are now available. These aren't really hikes, as you're using a helicopter to get to the top, which obviously costs a lot more, but with the advantage of great views. We just wanted to do a full day hike, so we gave it a miss here and went to some spa pools for the afternoon instead. The following day we got the bus 30 mins down the road to Fox Glacier. We spent the day doing some little hikes, and arranged our big glacier hike for the next day. These little hikes mostly went around the rainforest which is all around the glacier. There were plenty of lookouts looking over the mountains or the glacier or the rivers running down the valley, and some really cool old bridges which I naturally took loads of photos of.
Sunday morning we wandered over to the centre and got given boots, socks, crampons and jackets, then piled into some buses to make our way to the foot of the glacier. I got a little worried as there were a lot of us, but it soon worked out as we were all on different hikes, and those on the full day were then broken up so we had at most a dozen in a group with a guide. Our guide was Magret, an Icelandic girl who spends all her time in the summer as she comes to NZ to guide for 6 months then back to Iceland to guide for 6 months.
We took a pathway up through the rainforest in the sides of the canyon that the glacier flows. Would've been nice to get straight to the ice, but we got some good views which you can't really get anywhere else. We all then went down to the start of the ice, strapped on our crampons and an extra layer of clothing and got walking. I'd never used crampons before, but they're brilliant, make walking really easy, and are pretty comfortable.
We walked on the lower ice for a while which has been worn down and is a lot flatter, with quite a few "moulins" where water flow has formed holes or tunnels in the ice. We got some cool photos playing around in these, then stopped for some lunch on a load of rocks, before heading to the upper ice. This ice is a lot higher up, and hasn't been worn down as it passes through the valley yet, so it is cleaner, and a lot bigger, with crevasses, gulleys, and peaks around 6m high, which makes hiking progress a lot slower, but also a lot of fun, trying to climb or navigate between the huge pieces of ice. We got some more cool photos, then started heading back. We got back to the township at 4.30ish and headed straight back to the hostel for a cup of tea and hopefully watch Toy Story 3, but a bunch of German lads had just put on Lord of the Rings, so we sat and watched that with them.
Next morning we were up early (as always) to travel to Wanaka. We stopped in a few places including Lake Matheson, which is a mirror lake looking towards Mt Cook, which was very serene and pretty (bloody cold still though).
Wanaka is a town surrounded by mountains by the side of a lake. We stayed at YHA which had an amazing view over the water and mountains which we weren't expecting.
As a small town, there isn't an awful lot to do in Wanaka, though I think that'll soon change and the tourism vampires will soon invade with scores of extreme sports as available everywhere else. There are already a few sky-dives available, but in the way of different and personal to Wanaka, there is the Cinema Paradiso and Puzzleworld. You may argue that both of these could be built anywhere else also, but it feels more special in that they're run and frequented by locals, and not some big company with arms everywhere, just churning out the same branded thing everywhere.
Anyway, we only had one afternoon, and we had a brief look over Puzzleworld, so we thought we'd traipse the town before heading to the cinema to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Great British cast, so thought it was a sure thing. I wasn't disappointed, but this is my travel blog to read over one day, not a film review, so we'll leave it at that. The cinema was really cool and kitsch, with movie posters adorning every square inch of wall, theatre itself that felt like a big living room with instead of normal cinema chairs, lots of big comfy sofas, some airline seats, and a converted Morris Oxford! They also have proper coffee served in the cinema in china instead of paper, and an intermission when they bring out fresh, homemade cookies. Was a really cool experience, and afterwards Jo and I went to the lake-front and played around in the kids playground for a while (I thought my camera broke, but fixed it), then back to the hostel where they were showing ANOTHER film. This one was called Boy, a kiwi film based in the 80s. Very funny, with a brilliant Maori take on Thriller at the end! Sat around chatting with tea after, then I hacked my face to pieces with a chinese old-style razor I bought in Fiji for 30p on a weeks growth (lesson learned there).
Following morning we boarded the bus bound for Queenstown!
Greymouth doesn't really have much, and despite being the biggest town on the west coast South island, it's still a small place. There is nothing to do either, so Jo and I did some food shopping and watched Chicago (on VHS!). This little account is boring because Greymouth is.
Next day we took a nice scenic route to Franz Josef where the famous glacier hike is, but no longer as a long section is melting, meaning that only heli-hikes are now available. These aren't really hikes, as you're using a helicopter to get to the top, which obviously costs a lot more, but with the advantage of great views. We just wanted to do a full day hike, so we gave it a miss here and went to some spa pools for the afternoon instead. The following day we got the bus 30 mins down the road to Fox Glacier. We spent the day doing some little hikes, and arranged our big glacier hike for the next day. These little hikes mostly went around the rainforest which is all around the glacier. There were plenty of lookouts looking over the mountains or the glacier or the rivers running down the valley, and some really cool old bridges which I naturally took loads of photos of.
Sunday morning we wandered over to the centre and got given boots, socks, crampons and jackets, then piled into some buses to make our way to the foot of the glacier. I got a little worried as there were a lot of us, but it soon worked out as we were all on different hikes, and those on the full day were then broken up so we had at most a dozen in a group with a guide. Our guide was Magret, an Icelandic girl who spends all her time in the summer as she comes to NZ to guide for 6 months then back to Iceland to guide for 6 months.
We took a pathway up through the rainforest in the sides of the canyon that the glacier flows. Would've been nice to get straight to the ice, but we got some good views which you can't really get anywhere else. We all then went down to the start of the ice, strapped on our crampons and an extra layer of clothing and got walking. I'd never used crampons before, but they're brilliant, make walking really easy, and are pretty comfortable.
We walked on the lower ice for a while which has been worn down and is a lot flatter, with quite a few "moulins" where water flow has formed holes or tunnels in the ice. We got some cool photos playing around in these, then stopped for some lunch on a load of rocks, before heading to the upper ice. This ice is a lot higher up, and hasn't been worn down as it passes through the valley yet, so it is cleaner, and a lot bigger, with crevasses, gulleys, and peaks around 6m high, which makes hiking progress a lot slower, but also a lot of fun, trying to climb or navigate between the huge pieces of ice. We got some more cool photos, then started heading back. We got back to the township at 4.30ish and headed straight back to the hostel for a cup of tea and hopefully watch Toy Story 3, but a bunch of German lads had just put on Lord of the Rings, so we sat and watched that with them.
Next morning we were up early (as always) to travel to Wanaka. We stopped in a few places including Lake Matheson, which is a mirror lake looking towards Mt Cook, which was very serene and pretty (bloody cold still though).
Wanaka is a town surrounded by mountains by the side of a lake. We stayed at YHA which had an amazing view over the water and mountains which we weren't expecting.
As a small town, there isn't an awful lot to do in Wanaka, though I think that'll soon change and the tourism vampires will soon invade with scores of extreme sports as available everywhere else. There are already a few sky-dives available, but in the way of different and personal to Wanaka, there is the Cinema Paradiso and Puzzleworld. You may argue that both of these could be built anywhere else also, but it feels more special in that they're run and frequented by locals, and not some big company with arms everywhere, just churning out the same branded thing everywhere.
Anyway, we only had one afternoon, and we had a brief look over Puzzleworld, so we thought we'd traipse the town before heading to the cinema to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Great British cast, so thought it was a sure thing. I wasn't disappointed, but this is my travel blog to read over one day, not a film review, so we'll leave it at that. The cinema was really cool and kitsch, with movie posters adorning every square inch of wall, theatre itself that felt like a big living room with instead of normal cinema chairs, lots of big comfy sofas, some airline seats, and a converted Morris Oxford! They also have proper coffee served in the cinema in china instead of paper, and an intermission when they bring out fresh, homemade cookies. Was a really cool experience, and afterwards Jo and I went to the lake-front and played around in the kids playground for a while (I thought my camera broke, but fixed it), then back to the hostel where they were showing ANOTHER film. This one was called Boy, a kiwi film based in the 80s. Very funny, with a brilliant Maori take on Thriller at the end! Sat around chatting with tea after, then I hacked my face to pieces with a chinese old-style razor I bought in Fiji for 30p on a weeks growth (lesson learned there).
Following morning we boarded the bus bound for Queenstown!
No comments:
Post a Comment