Rainy West Coast

The weather after the glaciers was absolutely horrible man!! The west coast really is region with the highest rainfall. I was originally planning to head up to Arthur's pass and do the Avalanche Peak day walk, which was reputed to be really really good. But, due to shitty weather, I could not do it! Damn sian cos that was the trek which I was really very interested in doing. And due to the high altitude, I cannot do it in the winter too.

So after driving all the way there, I found out that the weather forecast is going to be bad for the rest of the week. I realised that when it rains in NZ, it just goes on and on for a week or so, and then it will be sunny again. There don't seem to be such a thing as one day rain. Oh well. I ended up driving all the way to Christchurch, and had to spend the day there as I was very tired out from driving already.

What I forgot was that Christchurch is one of the major gateways to NZ, and bookings for hostels are essential!! After trying out tons of hostels without availability for dorm beds, we had no choice but to pay twice the amount and stay in a twin room. Super sianz....but no choice.

The next day, drove out of Christchurch first thing in the morning, and headed to Picton for the ferry ride over to Wellington. Along the way, I stopped by Kaikoura for lunch. Kaikoura is the Maori name for crayfish, which is a delicacy here in NZ. I initially wanted to try, until I realised 1 crayfish costs about $50+!! OMG that's damn ex. But it's not the size of what we have in Singapore, but is at least 3 times larger. Looks more like a lobster to me.

Anyway, Kaikoura is also really famous for whale watching and swimming with dolphins. I initially wanted to go swim with the dolphins there, but since I already did it for free down at the Catlins, I decided to save money and give it a miss. So on to Picton and took a ferry down to Wellington.

A bit lazy now, so will post pictures of the trip to Wellington the next time ba.

Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers

OK after months later, I decided to continue the blog on my exchange. Mainly is because I would really like to have somewhere to post all my nice memories and pictures, before I forget them.

To pick up where I last left, my last and final place before heading up to Wellington was the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. These 2 glaciers are actually very near one another, like a half hour drive away. When we arrived at Fox Glaciers first, we had to make 2 decisions. Which glacier should we visit, and when to do the walk.

We didn't want to spend so much on both glaciers, which we felt would be about the same. So we asked around and most of the locals said that the Franz Josef had a more challenging terrain, whilst the Fox was slightly more scenic. With that, it was Fox for us then.

When we arrived, the weather was turning bad, and after checking the weather forecast, we found out that it was predicted to rain very heavily the next day, and will be cloudy the following day. In the end, we decided to drive on down to Franz Josef first and do a day walk to see it from a distance.

The walk turned out to be super boring!!! We had to walk over a very rocky path, with a few small streams of melted ice flowing out. Also, we did not really see much as the glacier was quite a distance away and there was a barricade stopping people from going nearer due to rock falls. Apparently, many tourists frequently ignored the warning and went ahead. Because of that, there have been cases of tourists being killed from falling rocks and ice.

Glacier from as close as I could

As it was getting late, we had to stay at Franz Josef for the day. We decided to trust the weather, and go for the walk the day after. That left 1 day free for us. I decided to try out the indoor ice climbing wall that day, as I doubt I will have much chance to do so since I don't foresee myself going for any ice mountain treks in the near future. As I was the only customer, I had the luxury of having a one to one instructor. He taught be the basics of climbing using crampons and ice axes. And off I went!

Reaching to top of the 2nd climb

Almost at the top of the toughest wall they have

Climbing on crampons and ice axes really isn't easy at all. After 2 or 3 climbs, my arms were totally sore already. Thankfully I was the only person there, so I had lots of time to rest my arms and finally attempted the toughest segment. I was stuck at that spot in the previous picture for damn long, but then finally managed to reach the top after a few attempts. Kudos to the instructor there for being super patient and supportive all the way man.

After that, I spent the rest of the day watching some super old movies like Ghostbusters and Gladiator in the hostel. Have I mentioned that most of the hostels there still uses video?

The next day came finally, and I felt super cheated!!! The weather the previous day was superb in the first half, and drizzled slightly from the late afternoon on. But the day I signed up for the walk, it rained the entire day!!! In the end, I went for a glacier walk on a super cloudy, wet and cold day! It felt like I was just walking on ice the entire way with no scenery to say. And this was also the coldest I ever felt ever since coming to NZ. The 2nd day on the Routeburn was not as cold, though that was a lot more miserable cos I did not have any warm bed to look forward to at the end of the day. Oh well but I still did learn loads about glaciers, and also had the chance to walk around on a whole solid chunk of ice! So cannot really say it was a total waste. Anyway, did you know that the 2 glaciers here are actually advancing glaciers. Kinda ironic considering global warming and the fact that the ozone layer above NZ is very thin.

River crossing!!! With our cowboy guide helping us across

Fox glaciers from afar. Will be seeing it up close and personal soon.

The start of the glacier walk with dirty ice and my very wet camera

I look wet on the outside, but surprisingly dry on the inside. I love my waterproof gear!!

My travelmate with a tunnel in the glaciers. Look how blue it is inside!

A stream running under the ice

I find it odd that the ice, and the trees are at the same altitude

Early the next morning, we woke up early in the morning to visit this lake nearby, which is the most photographed lake in NZ for its super calm and reflective water surface. But to do so, we had to reach there at 7am as that is the time when it is at its calmest. Unfortunately for us, the weather was still not good and we could not get very good pictures of it at all.