Day 44 – Franz Josef to Wanaka.

It was an early start for yet another long day of driving. We had to be on the bus for 7.30am so we had time for plenty of stops and whatnot along the way. Our first stop was at the beautiful Lake Matheson. Unfortunately the weather was a little cloudy so the views weren’t as reflective as they could have been but you could imagine how amazing it looked on a good day. We grabbed a cup of tea and a small breakfast from the café before making our way on one of the walks to see the lake, well to the first viewing platform anyway as it would take hours to walk the whole way around it.

Back on the bus we played another one of Gary’s little games. This time around it was the Weetabix challenge, this was to see who could eat a whole one in the quickest time without having a drink. I generally eat cereal dry anyway so I probably would have been quite good at it if I didn’t have a broken tooth on one side. We had a brief stop at Ship Creek to see if we could spot any dolphins but unfortunately we didn’t.

Next stop was Thunder Creek Falls, which is a 96-metre waterfall, located in the Mount Aspiring National Park. It’s amazing just to drive around this place and see so much beautiful scenery. 

We then had another brief picture stop in Lake Hawea lookout, the water was so blue but the winds were crazy!

After check in we actually had quite a few hours to check out what Wanaka had to offer. So Kirsty, Adam and I went on a little walk around the lake, dipped my feet in the water and just walked around the little town. All these places are just so beautiful. We went into New World as we had decided to make a group meal. Our obvious option was curry and we even treated ourselves to some garlic bread pitta things… they didn’t have any Naans, their naans looked like tortilla wraps which made no sense to us so we went for the next best and closest thing. Dinner was a success and we managed to cook the right amount and not have any left over.

We went down to the bar that evening as they had a game on called Bus Wars, this was because a Kiwi Experience bus and a Stray bus turned up that day so they play games against each other to see who is the better bus, obviously we were. We played Musical chairs, dance off and other things and Kiwi won them all! Terrible dancing and some karaoke then topped off the night.

Day 43 – Franz Josef

We needed to meet at the Franz Josef Glacier shop at 8.45am but it was only a short walk from where we were staying so it didn’t mean a crazy wake up time. I met a few of the girls and we all wondered over there together. They gave us a brief talk and told us to go through to the other room where they gave us a rather fetching outfit. They supplied us with big shoes, socks, trousers, jacket, hat and gloves. They also gave us a red bag, which was the only bag allowed out with us, they do this for safety reasons in the helicopter and so people don’t bring a bunch of things they don’t need.

We walked over the road to the helicopter launch and when the next one arrived we jumped on in. The whole thing could carry 6 people and the pilot, I ended up with a seat in the back but next to a window and the views going to the glacier were amazing. The ride was only 5 minutes long but I’ve never been in a helicopter before so it was all rather exciting. You don’t realise how high you are until you see other helicopters after you’ve landed. It looks like a little bird high in the sky.

Our glacier hike was called the ‘Ice Explorer’ and was just over 3 hours long. Franz Josef is a 12km long glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the west coast of the south island. We got to climb quite high and then back down to the helicopter landing. Ice paths and stairs have been created all over the place to make it easier for us to be guided around. They say you have to stick to where your guide goes otherwise the area could be unsafe and you could fall into a bottomless pit… ok maybe not that drastic but you never know! I don’t really know what to write about it. It was cool and the views were very nice but I think I was quite disappointed. It was all very dirty and not this pristine white canvas I imagined. It was an interesting way to spend half a day but I wouldn’t bother doing it again.

Once we got the helicopter back we went into the café at the bottom of the road because they do deals for people with glacier wristbands. I purchased a breakfast burger (even though it was about 2pm!), which contained bacon, egg, hash browns and lettuce. It was super nice and filled me up for most of the day!

After all of that I was pretty knackered so I took an hour or so to sort myself out, update some of this blog and put some photos on Facebook. Sometimes you feel like you’re wasting time doing all of this but it needs to be done at some point. I have tried to write this blog on the coach but bendy roads and with no real surface to lean on it became quite a challenge.

For dinner the three of us just cooked some pasta with a sauce and some added mushrooms. After the bonfire the other night we all had clothes that were a bit smoky so we decided to do a joint wash and dryer. Surprisingly these machines worked much better than the ones I had used in Wellington.

Day 42 – Westport to Franz Josef

The bus left Westport at 9am but as some people went surfing and some others went on a boat ride we had a bit of time to kill before we could pick them up, so Gary dropped us off at Cape Foulwind. We walked from there to the lighthouse, along the coastline to Seal Colony where guess what, we saw some seals! The whole walk was pretty cool and the views were rather nice, just a shame the sun wasn’t really out to make it that much nicer.

At the end of the walk the surfers had arrived and we just had enough time to grab an ice cream before getting back on the bus. The ice cream company over here are called Tip Top and we all went for the classic kiwi flavour Hockey Pockey. Its just vanilla with butterscotch balls but it was very tasty!

We drove straight from here to the Pancake Blow Holes in Punakaiki. The stop wasn’t very long and by the time we had eaten our lunch we only had 10mins left to do a 20min walk… we asked Gary if we had enough time and he said yes if we ran it… so challenge accepted! We looked a bit crazy but the views were cool and we got to see as much of it as we could and even managed to make it back to the bus and not be the last people, which to be honest isn’t really hard.

We stopped for a supermarket shop before arriving in Franz Josef as it was cheaper and easier to do it outside. It was a town Gary had never really stopped in before so he went around the roundabout and shouted ‘Shall we go around again?!’ so we did about 3 times just for fun. That’s what we need, a driver with a good sense of humour. Back on the bus and we had just less than 2 hours until we arrived at our final destination. To pass the time Gary decided to create a little competition where you can win a prize to spend in Queenstown, this competition was Karaoke or as he was calling it Buseoke, he said you just need to come up the front, choose a song on his iPod and take over the microphone. We had ‘Jessie’s Girl’, ‘My Heart Will Go On’, ‘Cups’ and some others. Half way through Kirsty decided she quite wanted to do it but didn’t want to go, after a bit of a discussion with the whole of the back the pair of us decided to sing the glee version of ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, lets just say I’ll never do it again but hey we know how to have fun without involving alcohol.

We dropped a couple of people off and then arrived at our accommodation called Rainforest Retreat. It was quite a nice place and the welcoming from the staff was the best we’ve had. As always checking in was a nightmare and we were last but luckily got a room together.

Kirsty, Francesca and I cooked stir-fry for dinner in a semi decent kitchen; well at least it was bigger than any other one we’ve been in. We wondered over to the bar as they have evening games on and tonight’s prize was a Queenstown Bungy! The game was fetch and the last person to return was out, unfortunately none of us won, not that I played or wanted the prize anyway… I suppose I could have sold it to someone else. I didn’t stay out that late as I have to get up tomorrow for a hike quite earlier.