Ice To See You (To See You...Ice!)
Trip Start
Oct 15, 2007
1
66
97
Trip End
Aug 24, 2008
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Franz Josef,
South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Fully laden with fruit, nibbles and drinks, we now had one last obstacle ahead of us before we could make our way down the west coast.
Yep. Our old friend, Takaka Hill.
We let the faster moving traffic past us and started to grind our way back up towards the summit. Fred, the mechanic who had checked the van over, had given us a tip on how to keep the temperature of the engine down. We made it to the top of the hill without the temperature gauge going into the red, but it wasn't exactly fun. The tip was to run the radiator and fans at full blast, to draw heat off the engine. Even with the windows wound all the way down, it still got very hot, very quickly.
Never mind though, we'd made it to the summit again and the temperature (both of the engine and the cab) soon dropped as we rolled back down the other side. Anyway, it gives us something to write about.
Essentially, the rest of the day was just journey. We had one worrying moment when we realised that we were low on fuel and that the 'towns' marked on our map, at which we'd assumed we would find petrol stations, seemed to have somewhat fewer than the standard 'one-horse'. The slightly larger settlement of Inangahua Junction had a shop with a very old looking pump and a very old looking Mobil sign, but, it turned out, had not had fuel for a few years. They gave us directions to Reefton, the nearest town with fuel, which was thirty odd kilometres away and on a route we hadn't intended to take. Running on fumes, we drove as economically as possible and made it without having to push.
All fueled up, it was onwards to Greymouth, where we stopped at the supermarket, then down through Hokitika and along the coast. We decided as it got dark that we'd find somewhere to stop for the evening. Until that point, we had passed several suitable looking laybys, but, as per the law of sod, as soon as we had decided to stop, we couldn't find one. An hour or so later, we finally ended up stopping at a layby by Lake Mapourika, a little way north of Franz Josef glacier. The lake is one of the largest on the West Coast and, as the winds of the region tend to sweep over the mountains high above it, it is known for its still surfaces and consequent beautiful reflections. Not that we could tell, however, as it was pitch black.
A brief meal and a couple of hands of cards later, it was time for bed.
The following morning, Kirsty needed to get up early to go to the toilet. Dawn was just breaking, and the scenery was every bit as beautiful as the descriptions in our guidebook had promised. The lake was glassy and the reflections stunning. Having taken photographs, she crawled back into bed.
At a slightly more sociable hour, we were up and back on the road.
