Day 20 – Goodbye NZ

And so we say goodbye to our home for the past three weeks we have decided to extend the common reference to the “land of the long white cloud” to include:
... the land of the hitch-hikers, the one-way bridges, the stalkers, the super fine merino clothing, dump stations and stock effluent stations, winding roads and national parks, take-aways, Montieth & Speights Breweries, Juicy & Spaceship budget rental vans, braided rivers and beautiful mountain peaks.

We have done pretty well, having travelled 3600km and 12 different modes of transpor on our journeyt;
- Plane
- Bus/Coach
- Motorhome
- Ferry/Catamaran
- Tram
- Punt
- Car/4WD/Van
- Helicopter
- Jet Boat
- Segway
- Gondola
- Train

It has been an excellent holiday and we have certainly seen the sights. I’m sure there’s much more we could do and see, but for now this is enough.
All we had to do in NZ this morning was get breakfast and get to the airport. We did both of these with ease.

Last night we scoped out a good place for breakfast just up the road, so we headed there when it opened at 9am. We were done and back at the motel by 9.30 and escorted to the airport. We had a furry traveller on this journey with us – the owners four-month old Jack Russell called Scooby.

We checked in (nobody told us we had to pay to leave the country - $25 each!) and made our way through security – my backpack was worked over because he thought he saw something on the x-ray. It just had to be in the bag that I had all the souvenirs in, so there was paperbag after paperbag to go through. It turned out it looked like a blade right next to Guy’s bottle opener but it was the magnet on the back of it.

With that ordeal out of the way, we then wound our way through duty free shopping. Guy didn’t take long to pick out the four scotches he was going to buy with his and my allowed quota. I, however, needed some more time to suss out the makeup area so he took a seat while I did this. Then I perused one of the clothing shops, and then I was ready to go into the Qantas lounge.

Guy wasn’t expecting much from this lounge but to our surprise it was lovely and had awesome food. We tucked into some mini sausage rolls and savoury scrolls (with mashed potato in the middle...yum!) and pizza.





I remembered I had some NZ dollars left that I HAD to spend so I ventured back out, came back, went out again...came back....you get the picture. I was all finished with about 20 mins to spare before boarding so I had a lovely L&P – the last for the trip – and Guy poured himself a G&T (this is after his wine and beer).

The flight was pretty full and it was a crappy plane that didn’t have ‘on demand’ movies – I was devastated. Because of this the flight felt like a long time, but we had the seats behind Business again so it was quite roomy.

As soon as we were off this flight we were go, go, go..... I forget Guy is a seasoned traveller so he doesn’t want to hang around for just one more look at duty free. It paid off as every queue was short.

To Guy’s disgust, we did however have to go through the ‘declared’ line in Customs. This was for a few reasons; I had some left over snacks, we bought a wooden ornament and we’d been on farm land, etc. When we got to the x-ray machine I had to pull out the popcorn and it was taken away. She wasn’t even interested in the wood ornament. From our Border Security watching days we thought for sure that the wood would be a problem.
So we are now through all that and have transferred to the Domestic Terminal where we are waiting in the Business Class lounge for our next flight. Mmm.....warm scones.....

Day 20 - Christchurch (via Greymouth)

Warning: no photos from today.

When we left Franz this morning at 8.30 it was 2 degrees, by far the coldest morning we've had.

We only had a two hour drive to Greymouth, so after a quick leg stretch in Ross (a very small and boring town on the way), we arrived at Greymouth. It was about 11am and we had plenty of time to kill before our train trip. We sussed out where everything was - answer is that the car rental drop-off and the railway station were the exact same building!

It was very windy (and cold due to wind chill) in Greymouth. We are very lucky we haven't had that kind of weather throughout our holiday. The conditions have definitely made all our activities more enjoyable.

We went to McDonalds so Guy could get a good coffee and we could kill some of that time we had on our hands. BTW the chocco frappe I had was awesome!!

After about a 45 minute stint at Maccas we filled the car up with petrol and dropped it back. We did 1800 km in the car which means we did exactly half our travel by motorhome and the other half by car. At the same time we checked in for the train and checked our baggage.

We crossed the road to the Speights Ale House for lunch. We couldn't resist - great food and closest eatery... The food was again delicious and it wasn't busy so we hung around till 1.15.

We boarded the train - a first for us both on this trip - and it was quite nice and roomy. The chairs were comfortable enough with a decent amount of legroom. The overhead storage was a bit crappy, but we didn't have too much that needed to go up.

As we sat down and made ourselves comfortable, we looked to our left and saw 2 of the couples we did the helihike. One of which we knew about, but there was another of them and the 6 of us were the last in the carriage - what a coincidence! Our journey was to be about 4 1/2 hours across to Christchurch. We ended up arriving about 15 minutes early.

On the trip, Guy researched how to use Light Room, computer components and then played solitaire. I had a little snooze before reading a magazine. We did both try to enjoy some of the countryside, but considering we've driven for most of the past 3 weeks it kind of all looked the same. Would definitely be impressive when there's snow on the mountains.

When we arrived in Christchurch we collected our luggage and met someone from the the Addington City Motel who came to collect us. We had our own little person with a 'Blucher' sign - I have always wanted that. The gentleman took us just around the corner to our accommodation, and offered to take us to the airport tomorrow for a much cheaper price than a taxi and showed us where some eateries are. The room is quite outdated but very big and quite sufficient for our needs.

We walked down the road just a little and got a Domino's pizza (bacon rashers and meatballs) and some drinks from a local shop - Guy's final locally brewed beer.

Now that we are 'on our way' home, we both just want to skip the 5 1/2 hours of travel tomorrow and beam ourselves back. Will be good to be home even though we've had such a great time over the past three weeks.

Day 19 - Franz Josef Glacier

We were up and raring to go this morning. We checked out but were allowed to leave our car at the motel while we went on our helihike on Fox Glacier. Thought we might have got one last glance of the poochies, but no luck there. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. It would have been a great opportunity to get our Lake Matheson photo but we weren't up early enough to get that done before the helihike and afterwards the clouds had returned. Oh well. You really have to be committed to get "that photo".

So at 8.50 we were sitting waiting for our ride to the helipad. I was more than a little bit nervous at going up in a helicopter!

When we were at the helipad we were fitted with boots and provided with extra thick socks if we wanted the. I grabbed a pair to put over my thick socks - to make my boots fit better and add extra warmth up there on the ice. We also started the lovely fashion trend of having your socks over your pants ....woo hoo. Our guide Geoff (from Texas originally) briefed us on all the rules for getting in and out of a helicopter and what would happen when we get on the ice. It all sounded a little daunting.

The total group of 9 were split into 2 helicopter loads, we were on the first group with the guide and a Mexican couple. In the other load were a couple from Ireland & Spain, another was English and Colombian and one single guy who was English. Quite the international group - although Spanish speakers were the majority, we were the gringos. I was placed right next to the pilot in the front seat and Guy was in the back. Not really where I wanted to be at the time, but I was then very surprised by the smoothness of the takeoff and journey. It only took about 8 minutes to get up there and do a little tour overhead before landing on the ice. During this little tour the driver did a couple of steep 'high G-force' turns. This thrilled all others on board except me. Guy got some video of it, while I clung on for dear life.

We landed on the ice without any issues and walked/slid straight out to where the company keeps their equipment. We turned away when the helicopter took off and I was actually quite surprised about the wind and ice flying around - I thought the instruction to 'turn around' was just a basic precaution.

This is me on my first tentative steps on the ice.



We sat there for a few minutes while the other group were picked up and delivered by the helicopter.

With everyone on the ice, we set to fitting crampons (spikes for your boots). Ordinarily this would be quite easy, but when you are standing on slippery ice, it takes some balance. With crampons fitted we grabbed a walking stick (most useless thing ever) and were guided over and through the ice.

Where we were on the glacier was in between the quickest moving and slowest moving sections which creates compression between the ice and therefore some pretty cool arches. We spent all of our time in this section as it was the most interesting for formations and crevasses. Guy is looking forward to 'touching up' the photos when we get home. Currently they just don't do justice to the colours of blue that we were seeing.









We were on the ice for about 2 hours which felt long enough. I was just starting to get quite cold in the finger tips, but other than that all our warm clothes had worked a treat. We were at approximately 800m above sea level. The top of the glacier is around 2000m.

When it was time to get down, we were again first cab off the rank. This time Guy was in the front and I was in the back. We went straight down this time so I was much happier.

Very glad we had this experience.

Following this exciting morning we collected the car and headed to Franz Joseph where were we are staying the night at the Glenfern Villas just out of town. We stopped at a Cafe (Beeches) where I had a heart attack on a plate (wedges covered with cheese, bacon and sour cream washed down with an iced chocolate drink..mmmm).



Arriving at Glenfern Villas we were again greeted with a Labrador - this time chocolate. He was most unhappy to be kept separate to the new alpacas in a fenced off area, so we gave him some love before we checked in. We have a lovely villa with plenty of space and it isn't as far out of the town as we thought so we'll be able to head back in to Speights Landing for dinner.



Having some time to kill and a slightly weary body, we decided to treat ourselves with a 45 min stint in the hot pools. We paid for a private pool, not wanting to be annoyed by any riff raf! The water temperature was 37.7 degrees and absolutely lovely. We were both so relaxed afterwards and have hardly moved since.

Time now to head off for dinner, having just had our breakfast supplies delivered. Tomorrow morning we need to be off early so we couldn't afford the time into the town for a big breakfast. This continental spread will have to do.

Fun fact 1: Remember those dust storms in Australia last year? Well, the dust made its way over to New Zealand and settled on the top of this glacier (and others) creating a massive expanse of orange and red. I think the guide said it would take the top section (where the dust settled) about 60 years to reach where we were.
Fun fact 2: The glacier is retreating at the moment - it has retreated about 100m in the last 12 months. The year that the guide started (about 3 years ago), the glacier advanced 150m. Quite an active 'little glacier' isn't it? The weather here is is largely affected by the weather in Australia due to its proximity to the west coast of NZ - apparently a hot spell in Australia means a wet spell up on the glacier.

Lucky we did our Dart River safari the other day - we just saw on the news that there's been a huge cliff collapse onto the road between Queenstown and Glenorchy. We would not have been able to do our jet boat ride because this is the road the coach has to take to get us to the jet boat. Jeepers - those 'falling rocks' signs really mean that there could be falling rocks!!!!

Day 18 - Franz Josef Glacier

We set off this morning at about 10am for Franz Josef Glacier. The weather was fine and sunny, so no need for thermals today.

It's a 30 minute drive between the towns of Fox Glacier (where we are staying) and Franz Josef.

When we arrived, we saw a sign indicating that the Glacier Face Walk was 50 minutes each way, we figured we'd work up a good appetite for lunch on that walk. There were quite a few cars in the carpark but it didn't seem quite so busy out on the walk due to the wide expanses out in the river bed.



It took us about 35 minutes to get to the barrier where you aren't supposed to go further due to danger of rock and ice falls - mind you, that wasn't stopping a number of people from venturing further. While we were standing there we saw a large amount of rock tumble down near the glacial face. Best not to go any further.




As we walked back from the face, Guy tried to fill our water bottle from one of the waterfalls. He couldn't quite get close enough, so had to settle for the stream just below it - all captured on video. It's the waterfall on the right of the next image. The water was lovely and cold and tasted great!



After this we went into the township of Franz Josef and got some lunch at 'The Landing' which is a Speights pub. There's a sign inside that points in the direction of the Brewery in Dunedin where we did our tour and says "285km to Brewery". The menu was extensive. Guy had a meat pizza and I had a BLT. Guy has now tasted the Speights Dark and Monteith Black beers out of bottles and tap. His verdict is that the tap beer tastes much better. Both meals were outstanding, we'll be going back there tomorrow night I think.

With our hearty lunch out of the way we drove back to see the Fox Glacier. We are going on a helihike of Fox Glacier tomorrow - Flying up to the top in a helicopter and then two hours on the ice. But we wanted to see the terminal face too, so off we went.

When we got to the carpark we discovered that they had closed the walking trail due to recent weather events that had made it very unsafe. Bugger. Only guided tours were allowed to go through, but we suspect that there were a few others that had gone through due to the number of motorhomes in the carpark. We put safety first and decided to drive up to a viewing point from a road nearby - plus there were lots of Dept of Conservation officers around at the time. Not quite as good as being at the terminal face, but it will have to do for now.



As the weather was reasonably fine, we thought that we'd head back to Lake Matherson to see if we could get a better view (ie. any view) of Mt Cook. We thought we'd have a coffee/tea in the cafe and decide whether it was worth the 40 minute hike to the far end of the lake to take a photo of the reflection. When we arrived it looked like it might be possible, but then the clouds came over and we decided it was unlikely we would get the photo we wanted, so we settled for the view from the cafe.




It was here we saw stalker couple number 3. Not really a stalker I guess, they were just heading back to try and get a better photo as they were on the track at the same time as us yesterday.

We just wandered down the road to 'Cooks Cafe & Saloon' for dinner. We settled on this after walking up and down the main street to find a meal that appealed to us both. We both ended up having the lamb shanks in an onion gravy.... mmmmmm yum! They were good.

Up early in the morning to set off on our helihike.

Trust No One

Some of you may remember my previous post regarding the Chinese stalkers. I was convinced that I had shaken the tail on the way in to Queenstown with some evasive driving techniques. Three days had elapsed since the last sighting, so as far as I was concerned we were free and clear.

That was until walking around Lake Matherson this afternoon! Who should come walking up the trail towards us but the Chinese couple. Aaargh. That was just way too scary for me to handle. What are the odds of them being on the same walking trail as us, three days after the last sighting at exactly the same time?!

At this stage, I'm pretty sure they're not staying at the same motel as us... but maybe that's what they want me to think.

It's clear that we need to be very careful of our movements from now on.

Day 17 - Fox Glacier

Today we left Queenstown and headed towards Fox Glacier via McDonalds. We ran out of Weetbix so we grabbed breakfast in the town before we hit the road. I had a yummy Kiwi Big Breakfast and we both grabbed hot drinks to take away.

The plans for this stage of the trip were up in the air until the other day. We have our helihike booked, but we could have stayed in Queenstown for another night, stayed in Wanaka or Fox Glacier. We decided to push through to Fox Glacier so we have enough time to take in the sights of the terminal faces at Fox and Franz, as well as Lake Matheson.

We made a stop off at Puzzling World which is just out of Wanaka which is about 1 1/2 hours from Queenstown. Some of the exhibits were quite interesting, but it's lucky it was only $9 each. We went through the Illusion Rooms where there were walls of faces that followed you around, 3D laser images, slanted room and a room that can make you look like an elf or a giant. It was fun and served its purpose of being a good leg stretch.








All up we had a 4 hour drive from Queenstown to Fox Glacier. We drove through some gorgeous forests and stopped off at a couple of waterfalls (one was Fountain Falls - can't recall the other name). And some orchards that Guy thought looked nice.








We were held up briefly on the roads by some workers who were clearing loose rocks from the cliff face. Two abseilers pushed down the loose rocks while the traffic was stopped and then a bobcat comes along and scoops it all up.



After our big breakfast, we only needed a light lunch so we stopped at Haast for a cake and coffee/tea.

We arrived at The Westhaven in Fox Glacier at about 3.30pm and were welcomed by 3 labs taking in the sunshine on the porch (2 golden and 1 black). They shot up, tails wagging and ready for a pat. They promptly rolled onto their backs for a good belly rub.

We didn't waste much time before heading to the Lake Matheson walk. In perfect conditions there's a spot where you can get a photo which has Mount Cook's reflection in the lake. Sadly this was not that day. We could barely see Mt Cook due to low cloud, but got some other nice photos anyway. The walk took us 1 hour 10 minutes and was surprisingly hilly. We were definitely overdressed, the ambient 14 degrees felt a lot warmer walking around the forests surrounding the lake. Depending on the weather tomorrow we'll try the photo again.










We are continuously amazed by the weather here. We are still having great weather and according to the weather report the west coast is sunny and fine tomorrow while the rest of the South Island is forecast for rain. We've just been a day or so ahead of the bad weather, so lets hope it stays that way for just a few more days.

We headed to the Fox Glacier Inn for dinner. Guy had sussed out a steak and ale pie that he liked the sound of but alas it wasn't available. He had to make do with fush un chups instead.

We are unsure how a lot of the restaurants we've been to are able to stay in business during the winter. We were again the only customers for dinner at this place (like 2 or 3 other places) and apparently it doesn't pick up again until November in this part of the country!!

Back to the room now and settling in for the night. The heater isn't quite as effective here as our other accommodation, but hopefully it'll be comfortable through the night.

Day 16 - Queenstown

We weren't in a rush this morning considering our Dart River tour wasn't picking us up until 11.25.

We went for a short stroll to the waters edge directly in front of our accommodation. We discovered all the concrete holding up the buildings - yikes!



At about 11 we headed into the town to get KFC takeaway so we could have 'lunch' while waiting for the shuttle bus. We were picked up on time and after collecting a few extras, we were on our way. I was pretty spot on with the age demographic. We collected 3 couple who would have been late 40s/early 50s and two guys who were from Australia (Brisbane and Sydney - Guy thinks they were gay, but they went to uni together so I think they're just friends).

It was about 45 minutes drive to Glenorchy which was quite interesting. Our driver and guide for most of the day was Stu, of Maori heritage, who was very informative about the local flora and fauna. Guy said he looked like he'd just been unplugged from 'The Matrix'.



In Glenorchy we mixed with another group and then divided into two. Half of us were taking the 4WD and walk first and the other was starting with the jetboat ride. We were in the group who started with the 4WD. We were kitted out with a lovely warm jacket in preparation for the walk and boat. I put it on straight away and nearly overheated during the 4WD trek. I had a total of 5 layers on my torso (6 when you add the life jacket) and 2 layers on my legs. I was well and truly snug as a bug!

The 4WD trip went through the two local farms (huge allotments of land passed down through generations), the locations for movies (Lord of the Rings, Wolverine, and others I can't remember) and into the forest. Stu gave us an insight into what some of the plants were used for many years ago and what was introduced. Apparently, before European settlement NZ only had native bird life and no land mammals.

We stopped after just over an hour and took a short walk through the forest to the Dart River where we were met by the other group.





We hopped into the jet boat - we were in the back row - and zoomed off up the river. The views of the landscape from the boat were incredible. I was a little worried about the ride, but it was awesome. There was maybe just one too many 360 degree spins for my liking (only 6 in total), but Guy loved it! Guy took some video on the point and shoot camera for some of teh journey, so you can all see what it was like when we get back - it's a bit big to post on the blog.



The jet boat journey came to an end after about 1 1/2 hours. Our faces were quite chilly by this stage, but other than that all our warm weather clothes had worked a treat. We did have everything on mind you; beanie, gloves, scarf - for me, thermal top and bottoms as well as another couple of upper body layers.

Before we took the journey back to Queenstown we popped over the road to get a coffee and hot chocolate takeaway. We chatted to the other Aussies on the way back, they had just got back from Fox Glacier which is where we are off to next!

On Michael's recommendation (and backed up by "V") we headed to Fergburger for dinner - OMG! We got our burgers to take away because there really wasn't any room in there to dine in. While we were waiting for our order who should walk in the door but our new Aussie friends (aka stalkers according to Guy). Had another chat to them - Guy conversed about NZ beers - and we headed home with our loot.

Back in our room, the huge burger definitely lived up to the recommendation. Guy had a "Mr Big" which was essentially a double bacon cheese burger. He washed that down with his dodgy plonk in a Reidel glass. Thanks for the tip guys!!

Day 15 - Queenstown

It was really nice not to have anywhere we had to be today and as such we didn't rise till about 10.30!

We set off after a very late breakfast into the town centre to find the Information Centre again. Our special carpark was full! We managed to find another which was free for 2 hours - other than that they are $2 per hour.

We ended up booking the Dart River Wilderness tour for tomorrow arvo - leaving at 11.25 from our hotel to Glenorchy. The tour includes some time on the Dart River in a jetboat, a guided walk through a forest and then a 4WD tour through some of the Lord of the Rings locations. This is probably the least adventurous you can get so I'm picturing it being us and all the over 50s. We are both looking forward to the mix of experiences though and the fact it's only a 1/2 day tour.

We also enquired about booking a Segway tour. We had to call back in there in about an hour to confirm a time.

So with that done we ventured to a chocolate place for a hot chocolate and coffee. I also got white chocolate ice cream with hazelnuts...mmmmm. The hot chocolate was like cocoa and hot water - very bitter, but still tasty. It's the best hot chocolate Guy has ever tasted. It's kept in a bit urn and then churned up with a stab mixer before pouring into a mug.





We took a walk around the bay and then headed back to get our Segway time - 1.30. With an hour to kill we got some Subway (served by a Schwarzenegger sound-a-like: "Would you like cheese with that?") and headed to a park along the bay front. We walked back to our meeting point and got our introduction to riding a Segway.






I was a bit worried about the balancing, but it was actually quite easy and really fun. We just did a 1 hour bay tour which was just enough. We were taken up a hill and then had a couple of downhill slopes - not so confident on these. You had to lean forward to get it to move forward and lean slightly backwards for it to stop. We were told about reverse, but I don't think either of us attempted it. We were given some free time to cruise through the Queenstown Gardens which are really pretty and we'll definitely go back for some photography. We were given the opportunity to speed things up a bit (max speed is 20km/h) but both declined. We were confident, but not that confident. Really glad we gave it a go.



Following the Segway we headed back to our room and had some chillout time watching TV, perusing the internet and looking at the gorgeous view. A relaxing day was exactly what we needed.

We went to a place called Prime for dinner and both had lovely steaks. Guy had the a fillet special with moroccan spices and I had a fillet mignon with yummy potatoes. The garlic bread however was so-so. Didn't compare to that of last night and nothing will ever beat the garlic loaf of the Ale House in Dunedin!

Guy has discovered that the wine glasses provided here are Riedel's so he'll be having his 'dodgy plonk' in one of them at some stage.