Franz Josef Hotels
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Put me on ice
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Well I was gonna stay overnight at Greymouth to break up the 10 hour bus ride but when I got there I wasn't too tired (or impressed) so I rushed into the Intercity station there to book a ticket for the next leg of the ride. So glad I did.
Franz Josef is famous for its glacier, unique in that it carves through the mountain to almost sea level into a subtropical landscape. It should melt, but it doesn't - at least not very quickly - and all this is what has geologists and tourists alike buzzing over the natural marvel it is. The town is beautiful. A tiny place consisting of loads of motels and hostels, a few bars, a local shop and an internet cafe in an old run-down bus. Surrounding the town on three sides is a wonderful mountain range, its jagged peaks hitting a clear blue sky and towering hundreds of feet above. Mountains streaked with snow and the jutting rocks that it couldn't quite mangage to cover, mountains covered in a vast carpet of green and others an unforgiving landscape of grey. Put simply, it is stunning.
I checked into a hostel, booked a 3/4 day hike up the glacier for the next day, and spent the evening winding down from the bus journey. It's funny - when I was at home I would never even consider travelling on a coach for 10 hours but since I've left, I've been on train journeys of 17 hours and not thought anything of it. I guess that's just the way it goes. Well morning came, so I made myself some sandwiches and set off for the glacier tour company where I met Ems and Farley, a couple from Frome with whom I had a fantastic time for the next couple of days. It turns out that Farley works in a microbrewery so much of the day was spent talking about local ales, as well as every single food combination imaginable.
We got into our hi-tech brown smelly leather hiking boots with bits falling off them, a pair of genuine Merino wool socks (which naturally, I stole - they had millions), and got our cramp-ons then climbed into the bus for the short journey to the bottom of the valley. The glacier goes through stages of advancement and retreat over the years, and the valley floor that has been gouged out is a barren landscape, dotted with the occasional tree and strewn with bolders left before the glacier retreated again. With a couple of stops along the way to give us a bit of education, the guide led us up and onto the lower part of the glacier where we would meet 'Troy', a guy who - by the name - we assumed would be as wide as he was tall with tree trunks for arms and the biggest ice axe ever wielded by any human being. Alas he didn't look like any of our detailed wonderings, but he was a nice chap and assured us he didn't take any nonsense. Troy led us up the glacier along paths that ran alongside deep crevasses and, dirt-covered ice and sheer walls of rock covered in trees and dotted with the occasional waterfall. It was amazing to think that we were actually standing on God knows how many tons of ice that was slowly melting and moving down the valley.
Further up we walked through cracks in the ice barely big enough for one person, and the ice on either side took on a polished blue colour. Anyway, I got loads of pictures so again, I will upload these as soon as I can find somewhere that will let me. Next stop... Wanaka. More thumbnails ...
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