Glaciers
1/17 Friday Today we have a long drive ahead of us. We will travel south then west and head for the two glaciers on the south island. Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. Both are on the west coast of the island. The drive is a long one but we see some amazing country. The mountain passes give us stunning views and the canyons have wide-open fields always with plenty of sheep and cows. We get into the north end of the Westland National Park and we’re met by “Lake Mapourika”, one of the many beautiful lakes on NZ. It is about 6:30 pm when we get to the Franz Joseph glacier. Plenty of daylight left since it won't get dark till 9 pm. So we head right in and check it out. Most of the tourist traffic is gone and we have the area to ourselves except for a few other hikers. We see the glacier from a distance and it is soon becoming closer but not before we pass side-by side waterfalls; beautiful crystal clear sheets of water cascading down the rock faces. We hike all the way to the face of the glacier. We touch its icy cold face and watch it as it drips water from an ice cave. We see the deep blue color of the ice. We also broke every rule of safety by being at the face as well as inside the cave. The hike back continues to leave the park to us alone and the clouds have moved and a rainbow is created. We feel good and the hike is a welcome bit of exercise after being in the car for most of the day. We drive to the town of Fox Glacier and check into our hotel. This is by far our smallest hotel room we’ve had on our trip and we joke it must be a converted closet. It’s the Fox Glacier Hotel and it’s all filled up so a room change was not available. We laugh it off and grab dinner across the road at "Café Neve" (Neve meaning high altitude basin where glaciers form). It’s casual and we have pizza and beer. One thing to note: we are introduced to the sand fly, which is a menace (small menace) on the south island. They bite and you receive a little swelling and itching. It’s an irritating thing… Lisa immediately buys some insect repellant. We retire to our room and catch some zzz’s – we’re pretty worn out. 1/18 Saturday We start out our day visiting Fox Glacier and rather than get close to the face we climb along the side and again touch the thick blue ice. I think the Fox Glacier is more eye appealing than the Franz Joseph but both are amazing in their own right. We then drive from Fox Glacier to Wanaka. It is again an amazing drive, we cross a river that is the color of ice aqua blue. We’ve seen this color a couple times and it is stunning. I’ve never seen water this color. We can only hope our pictures can show this water’s beauty. We have seen a large number of hawks on our drives and this one is no different. They seem to fly low and are easy to see from the car while driving. We see two huge lakes on our trip, Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea. They are both huge and beautiful. The landscape in this country is amazing! Much of this drive has roads that are lined with tropical ferns and lots of trees and moss. Upon arriving in Wanaka I dare to swim in Lake Wanaka. It’s at first cold but refreshing, however dip more than 3 feet deep and it gets real cold, real fast. We stay at a hotel called “The Moorings” and have a view of the lake and the mountains… very nice. We have dinner at “Missy’s” down the street and it is a top-notch experience. Excellent food, martini’s and wine. We have a couple conversations with the bartender Darren and he is well informed on the current events and we talk politics, travel as well as the relationship and perception of Aussies - vs. -Kiwis. The potential for war with Iraq is also a topic. We top all previous meal costs and total up at $190 NZ (~$100 US). Unbelievable for what we enjoyed.