On Friday (Nov 27) we head for the West Coast of the South Island. The drive down the coast was very much like driving down 101 on the Oregon coast. Same type of beaches and rocks off shore with the highway on bluffs above the sea… heavy pounding surf that has made some cool rock formations (pancake rocks, etc). We stay in Hokitika and for dinner we have Whitebait omelets. Whitebait is a tiny locally caught fish and each omelet had 20-30 fish… the whole fish, head and all. It doesn’t sound appetizing, but it was very good. It has been cool with heavy clouds since we have arrived on the coast. Overnight it rains hard, which we learn is typical for the NZ west coast.
Karen and Brian at Pancake Rocks
We get a good contrast between Aussie and Kiwi in the morning as one of the B&B guests was an Aussie. The Aussies are aggressive, individualistic, still have a rogue prisoner mentality, and beer drinking is nearly a religion. The Kiwis don’t want to draw attention to themselves, are willing to sacrifice for the common good, and are rule followers. Brian says that he agrees with the outlook that Kiwis are to Aussies as Canadians are to Americans.
We drive further south down the coast to Franz Josef. We do a short hike to the foot of the Fox Glacier and then hang out at a lake that is suppose to have great views of all the Southern Alp peaks. The clouds begin to clear, but just enough to get a glimpse of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman… but no full views. We won’t ever get a good view during our 2 days here.
On Sunday we do a full day outing on the Franz Josef glacier. Karen isn’t too happy in the beginning… poor fitting boots, lots of steep climbing up the ice… but once we are up on the main sheet of ice she gets into it. The crampons are amazingly effective on the solid ice surface of the glacier. We are on the ice for about 5 hours walking up and down over jagged ice flows. We stoop through 2 ice caves as well as shimmying through narrow crevasses. Our guide cuts steps into the ice and puts in an ice screw with a rope on steep sections to make it easier for us. The deep blue color of the ice is quite amazing. This hike is a much more rugged and in depth experience than the prior glacier walk Karen and I had done in Alaska. The weather was cloudy but no rain.
Karen & Dave crossing a crevass on Franz Josef glacier
We decide to blow out of Franz Josef a day early because it really is a one horse town (all glacier, all the time) and with the heavy cloud cover hiding the peaks there isn’t much of anything to do. So we head on over to Wanaka to begin the next phase of the trip because we think there will be more options for activities there.
