High Peaks Hotel Fox Glacier

I left Hokitika about 10:00 and travelled south on State Highway 6 towards the glaciers (Franz Josef and Fox). The drive took a couple of hours with a few stops in between for coffee (at Whataroa) and some scenic views (most notably at Lake Mapourika &#8211; picture uploaded).<br><br>Franz Josef was the first of the two glaciers I visited. A short walk from the car park revealed the huge glacier which stood out from between the valley. Very spectacular. Following Franz Josef it was time ...

... clouds but we got a glimpse of most of the top in our rearview mirror. <br><br>All in all it was about 8 hours total and Murphy drove all of 'em. Windsheild wipers on most turns. He did a great job though - we cruised through the most extraordinay roads, most of which were curvy mountains and LOTS of sheep! It's the beginning of spring and there are many ...

... between us and the animal &#8211; seemed clear to me but not clear enough for the young Chinese couple who seemed more interested in taking photos of one another ; so the girl crouches down close to the sea lion to let her boyfriend take her photo with it in the background, at which point the lounging creature senses the movement within what was its personal space so decides to sit up and then open its huge mouth. A rather scary moment but Sean stepped in as a buffer ...

... afternoon we went ice skating at the rink in the park to limber up for the following 3 days physical challenges.<br>Day 1<br>The bus took us the 45min journey to the summit of the 'Remarkables' ski field. A twisting cliff side traverse 1940 metres above sea level. The upper reaches of the trail had the coach making hairpin turns every 500metres or so over near vertical drops of many more hundreds of metres.<br>At the summit you are greeted by a 220 ...

... on to Franz Josef Glacier that afternoon and sleep there, not wanting to stay two nights in one place. As I had already paid for another night at Ivory Tower we parted ways.<br><br>That evening, Sebastian and Dom showed up. They had booked a glacier tour for the next day, as I had planned on probably doing but had decided against. We hung out a bit that night, but the next day I continued on the coastal road while they stayed to experience the glacier.

... br><br>After a night of incessant rain hammering on the campervan roof, we woke up and drove a short distance to the village of Franz Josef, famous of course for the Franz Josef Glacier. It's a small town, with lots of tourists and lots of rain we found out. It wasn't just our bad luck that we had arrived on a day that it was wet and grey and miserable &#8211; apparently it is like this all the time, with rain at least 4 out of 7 days usually, due ...

... 2 plates meet. But the infrastructure is quite compatibile with no high buildings really, no bigass cities...so there usually isn't much damage. So it 's all good in da hood...i am disappointed, however, that i missed it.<br><br>The next day i have a long bus ride ahead of me and quite a bit of traveling to do in the next few days..i think anyways as my plans can always change. So it may be a quiet few days, we shall see...please hold.<br>

... awesome hills and cliffs. <br><br> We made it through the Haast pass and started the journey up the West coast through Mt Aspiring National Park. A couple of hours drive north and we reached Franz Josef township just before sunset. It was a long drive and the roads were very busy, we saw 8 cars in 5 hours ...

... Eine Seltenheit und sehr schuechtern dazu. (Siehe Foto) Als ich gegen Nachmittag dann nach Franz Josef gefahren bin, habe ich meine erste Anhalterin mitgenommen. Eine Kanadierin, die eigentlich einige hundert km weiter wollte, aber dann doch mit mir zum naechsten Gletscher gekommen ist und diesen viel besser fand als den ersten. Man konnte naemlich richtig nah ran. Und dadurch wirkte der zweite Gletscher viel groesser als der erste.

... kleine lantaarntjes. <br><br>De ochtend van de tweede regende het nog steeds. Wij hadden een gletsjer-hike geboekt voor de middag, maar of dat wel leuk was in dit weer?<br>Toen wij ons om half 1 melden bij het kantoor bleek wat wij vreesden waar: door de hevige regenval van de afgelopen nacht waren alle tochten op de gletsjer afgeblazen. Het gevaar van knappende ijsblokken en van de nu vrij wilde stromende rivier die uit de ...