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beaches to glaciers, coast to coast
New Zealand's South Island is so narrow that they have to cram all their scenery into a small space. We got our car in Christchurch and drove to Akaroa, a beach town just south of there on a deep harbor on the south edge of the Banks Peninsula, a mountainous volcanic remnant that juts up above the Canterbury plain and the Pacific Ocean. It was a hot day so we took a wildlife cruise, and it was totally fantastic: we saw Hector's Dolphins (the smallest and most endangered ocean dolphins, which gamboled about the boat), a variety of tiny penguin (which looked very much like a duck, really), and a colony of NZ fur seals flopping around the sea cliffs at the edge of the bay. The edges of the bay were cliffy and full of caves and arches and other splendid formations.
The next day it rained, so we went back into Christchurch and spent a couple hours at the Canterbury Museum, mostly at their awesome Antarctic exhibit, then had lunch and beers at the Twisted Hop brewpub. Then we drove west toRohan Methven, at the edge of the Mt. Hutt ski area, and stayed at a really nice house-turned-budget-lodge where we were the only guests and thus spent hours chatting with the owner, who gave us good advice on a scenic drive to do the next day.
In the morning we hiked the Rakaia Gorge and then drove up the back way to Arthur's Pass in ever-improving weather. We stopped and took a few short hikes among the tremendous mountains and rock formations, and camped at Arthur's Pass for the night. In the morning we drove the rest of the way to the west coast. The road is amazing, over a viaduct that was just completed a few years ago that replaces steep twisty switchbacks across a rockslide area.
When we hit the other side of the country :-) we walked among the driftwood sculptures at Hokatika's "found art on the beach" competition (some of them were excellent!) and had a picnic lunch at the Hokatika Gorge before heading south again.
So we got to Franz Josef Glacier kind of late, found a crappy place to stay, and the next morning - it was raining. Well, no surprise, it rains a LOT in Franz Josef - 7 meters annually, according to the display in the visitor's center. But we hiked out to see the glacier anyway. The most interesting thing to me is how here you are, under 1000 feet of elevation, it's warm, and you are walking through rainforest, that, okay, subtropical rather than tropical, but still: trees, ferns, tree ferns, and moss hanging off everything. And then you go around a corner and whammo, huge dirty chunk of ice filling the valley from side to side.
After FJ we drove to Fox Glacier, which is only about a half-hour drive south. A bigger hunk of ice but a smaller town, and they get half the visitors FJ gets. This morning was clear, so we hiked up to as far as they let you go, which is much closer here at Fox than at FJ. (Although a couple of weeks ago, two brothers, tourists from Australia, went all the way up to the face, past the warning signs, and got killed by a big chunk of ice that fell on them.)
We splurged on a decent motel for a couple of nights - okay, not really a splurge, as we're talking around $72 US/night, but we'd been camping and staying at "backpackers" for half that, although mostly not nearly as nice. Like we actually have a kitchen all to our own, and a bathroom right there, and reading lights on both sides of the bed, and room enough to put our stuff down in a place we don't trip over it. But the real splurge is the heli-hike we signed up for, more than $200 apiece, yikes. The clouds were too low and we couldn't go as scheduled at noon, but if it's clear at 3 we will go then; if not, we'll try tomorrow morning, and if not then, screw it, we'll do a half-day glacier hike instead and then head on. We need to be in Queenstown in 4 days to set up for our next big tramp, the Caples and Routeburn tracks.
ETA:
13 Christchurch, Akaroa, and Sumner Beach photos (some taken on our second visit to CHCH near the end of the trip)
15 West Coast and Arthur's Pass photos
12 Franz Josef and Fox Glacier photos
The next day it rained, so we went back into Christchurch and spent a couple hours at the Canterbury Museum, mostly at their awesome Antarctic exhibit, then had lunch and beers at the Twisted Hop brewpub. Then we drove west to
In the morning we hiked the Rakaia Gorge and then drove up the back way to Arthur's Pass in ever-improving weather. We stopped and took a few short hikes among the tremendous mountains and rock formations, and camped at Arthur's Pass for the night. In the morning we drove the rest of the way to the west coast. The road is amazing, over a viaduct that was just completed a few years ago that replaces steep twisty switchbacks across a rockslide area.
When we hit the other side of the country :-) we walked among the driftwood sculptures at Hokatika's "found art on the beach" competition (some of them were excellent!) and had a picnic lunch at the Hokatika Gorge before heading south again.
So we got to Franz Josef Glacier kind of late, found a crappy place to stay, and the next morning - it was raining. Well, no surprise, it rains a LOT in Franz Josef - 7 meters annually, according to the display in the visitor's center. But we hiked out to see the glacier anyway. The most interesting thing to me is how here you are, under 1000 feet of elevation, it's warm, and you are walking through rainforest, that, okay, subtropical rather than tropical, but still: trees, ferns, tree ferns, and moss hanging off everything. And then you go around a corner and whammo, huge dirty chunk of ice filling the valley from side to side.
After FJ we drove to Fox Glacier, which is only about a half-hour drive south. A bigger hunk of ice but a smaller town, and they get half the visitors FJ gets. This morning was clear, so we hiked up to as far as they let you go, which is much closer here at Fox than at FJ. (Although a couple of weeks ago, two brothers, tourists from Australia, went all the way up to the face, past the warning signs, and got killed by a big chunk of ice that fell on them.)
We splurged on a decent motel for a couple of nights - okay, not really a splurge, as we're talking around $72 US/night, but we'd been camping and staying at "backpackers" for half that, although mostly not nearly as nice. Like we actually have a kitchen all to our own, and a bathroom right there, and reading lights on both sides of the bed, and room enough to put our stuff down in a place we don't trip over it. But the real splurge is the heli-hike we signed up for, more than $200 apiece, yikes. The clouds were too low and we couldn't go as scheduled at noon, but if it's clear at 3 we will go then; if not, we'll try tomorrow morning, and if not then, screw it, we'll do a half-day glacier hike instead and then head on. We need to be in Queenstown in 4 days to set up for our next big tramp, the Caples and Routeburn tracks.
ETA:
13 Christchurch, Akaroa, and Sumner Beach photos (some taken on our second visit to CHCH near the end of the trip)
15 West Coast and Arthur's Pass photos
12 Franz Josef and Fox Glacier photos
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Oh dear
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Can't wait for the photos. Man, this sounds acetastic.
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