I’ve spent most of the past four days around snow, for a change. After leaving the rainforests of the upper west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, I headed south to where a few glaciers can be visited: the Franz Josef Glacier and the Fox Glacier. I was able to hike up to the nose of the Franz Josef Glacier and touch it. It was very blue in parts and it was full of small rocks and pebbles (which is what gives them their dirty appearance). Hiking up to the nose of a glacier is not the safest thing in the world to do since they’re continually melting and collapsing at the bottom, but the “experts” were leading tour groups up onto the glaciers from the same point, so most hikers assumed it had to be safe enough — even though there were signs everywhere warning you not to go near it.
It was raining when I hiked up to the Franz Josef Glacier. One of the coolest things that happens when it rains is the sudden swelling of the streams running off the neighboring mountains. One in particular had a contant flow of water coming out of it, but about five minutes after a downpour it would sound like a jet engine spewing all the runoff that couldn’t be absorbed into the rock.
From the glaciers, I took a long drive through “Mount Aspiring National Park” and the Haast Pass, a spectacular path through snow covered mountains up into “The Southern Alps” — one of the biggest ski regions of New Zealand. The drive was beautiful, taking you past endless mountains covered in snow with many huge crystal clear lakes at their feet. There were several cranked up ski towns in the area (including Queenstown) packed full of partying skiers, so I opted for the quieter Wanaka on the edge of Lake Wanaka. It was the first time I had trouble finding accommodation down here. I was hoping to do a bit of hiking in the area, but the freezing cold weather and the idea of hiking up into the snow fields made me decide to head onward in my nice warm car.
From the ski towns, I headed for Milford Sound in “Fiordland National Park” in the south western part of the country where I took what was probably the most spectacular drive of my life. There were mile high mountains with steep cliff faces that dropped straight down into fjords. For 17 kms of the drive (each way) you were not allowed to you’re your car because of the risk of avalanches. The road gets closed about 20 times a year, I was told, sometimes taking up to 5 days to clear.
The end of the road takes you to Milford Sound, a place that is supposed to attract 7 meters of rain a year. My rough math tells me that equates to an average of about — an inch of rain every single day. Fortunately there were sunny blue skies when I drove in so there was plenty to see. Overnight and on the way back out it was pouring rain, which really hampered your visibility.
There is a 3-4 day “Milford Track” hike that extends through this Fiordland National Park considered by many to be the ultimate hike anywhere wordwide. I was told the hike was so popular you needed to make reservations a year in advance. The reservations even require you start on a specific date to synchronize all the hikers. During the summer months, the trail is supposed to be chock full of backpackers.
I continued heading to the southern tip of the country, through Invercargill, along a scenic coastal drive before heading up north to Dunedin for the night, the South Islands second largest city. The first half of the drive seemed a bit nicer than the second half. The first half ran past the tapering off snow capped mountains of Fiordland. The second have ran past lots of sheep and rolling green hills. Lots of sheep. Actually, many of the sheep have babies this time of the year here, which are very cute to watch. It looks like someone sprinkled the hills with stuffed animals, but they play around with each other like puppy dogs.
I’m juggling my options for travelling from here. I could either continue up the east coast of head inland for Mount Cook, Australasia’s highest mountain (3000+ meters). Depends of the weather. After driving all day in the rain yesterday, I’m not real keen on racing half way across the country to see more clouds blocking my view.
