By land and by air: Queenstown to Nelson
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2008
1
11
22
Trip End
Mar 05, 2008
Fox Glacier,
New Zealand
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
It started out with a really bad day... On Monday morning, we woke up with extremely high hopes for the day. We were back at our beloved Sofitel in Queenstown and had just slept for 11 hours. After our Milford Track experience, all I can say is that we were exhausted. We were clean, massaged, refreshed and ready to watch the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Andrew had scouted out the best pub in Queenstown to watch the game. It was a great place called Monty's, that served local Montheiths beer, had three flat screen TV's, surround sound, an open air feel with views of the mountains in the distance and good food and drinks. We got there 45 minutes before the game began to get the best seats in the house and settled in. We ordered some potato skins and a couple beers and were soon joined by fellow Pats fans complete with face paint and paraphernalia. We came to learn they were from Cape Cod and Maine and slowly more and more people joined our table. It was nice to be amongst friends in a foreign place, despite the group of pseudo Giants fans behind us, who were really only rooting for the Pats to lose.
With a score of 7-3 at halftime, I left Andrew at the bar to attend to this blog as apparently we have some fans of our own who we did not want to let down. Andrew spent the better part of the second half not understanding why the Pats offense was being kept at by and upon my return with two minutes left in the game said, "Where have you been, I have been needing you!" Apparently things were not going well. With that Eli threw a bomb and there was an amazing catch, followed by another throw and a catch in the end zone. Oh my GOD, the Giants were winning with 35 seconds left in the game. Andrew looked like he might cry. 35 more seconds and the game was over... The Pats lost, no more perfect season... Poor Andrew! Andrew was so upset, he left without setting his tab. We collected our luggage and our car from the Sofitel, returned to Monty's to apologize and pay the bill and were on our way for a four and a half hour drive to the Fox Glacier.
We passed by huge lakes and mountains, the ocean on the West Coast, more sheep of course, but not even the beautiful scenery could help lift our spirits. Andrew simply could not piece together how a perfect season could come to an end during the most important game of the year. Seeing that we had the better part of four hours to think about it didn't help. What was already a bad day turned a bit worse when we stopped for dinner at the Frontier Cafe in Haast, a local cafe filled with locals where it took over an hour to bring us our fish and chips. All we wanted was to get to the Te Waheka Lodge at Fox Glacier and here we were stuck in a crappy town, at a crappy restaurant waiting for a pile of fried fish to arrive after a big loss. It all seemed like a cruel joke. A ratty guy in the bathroom with no shoes asked Andrew, "How ya goin'" and Andrew almost lost it. But that is not the worst of it. With an hour and a half left in our journey I was driving over 120 KM's an hour on these tiny two lane roads through dense brush trying to fight the daylight as it would get much harder to drive in the dark. There it was, an adorable little bird in the distance and it was dive bombing our car in the lingering sunlight. He literally committed suicide on our windshield and I watched his limp body fly through the air in my rear view mirror and collapse on the other side of the road. I almost started to cry, but the tears were kept at bay when we saw the steep snow capped mountains rise out of the distance suddenly. We finally arrived at the Fox Glacier and the Te Waheka around 9:30pm, checked in and collapsed on the bed defeated. It was a low point, but we had to keep moving.
7:30am the alarm went off. Andrew did not sleep well due to all of his sand fly bites from Sand fly Point at the end of the Milford Track. We packed up the KIA, a great little car by the way, a lot like a Passat, and drove 25 minutes to the neighboring Franz Josef Glacier. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a little breakfast spot in town and checked in for our Helicopter Ride. We were going to take a 30 minute ride to the top of the Franz Josef Glacier where we would get out for a few minutes and then fly back down. The check-in process was so quick that before we knew it we were in the air. There was no time to be nervous. Andrew and I looked at each other with our big headphones on, mouths and eyes wide open as we gracefully lifted off and proceeded up to the top of the enormous glacier. I promise to put in pictures soon as the pictures will speak a thousand words.
The trip up was exhilarating and our pilot with his cools sunglasses and watch gave us some commentary about the glacier, which moves 10 feet a day. We gently touched down and had a few minutes to walk around to take in the beauty of the neighboring Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook and look at the valley and glacier far below. Andrew talked our pilot into giving us an extra thrill of taking us over the top of Mount Cook to see the neighboring valley where the Hermitage was where we spent our first night in New Zealand. Amazingly, to see Mt. Cook, what took us 10 minutes or so by helicopter would take 6 hours by car.
The helicopter quickly banked and I was looking straight at the ground far below. My stomach swirled and we headed straight back down the glacier to land back where we started half an hour before. When we got off the helicopter, I turned to Andrew and told him that was one of the top 5 experiences of my life. With that, we rounded the corner and were on our way to the Hukawai Glacier Center, the only indoor ice climbing wall in the Southern Hemisphere.
We checked in and spent some time in the amazing and informative audio-visual exhibit about the geology, flora, fauna and glaciology in the South Island. We could have spent an hour in there. We were short on time, so we strapped on our Crampons and Helmets and entered the below freezing ice climbing room where we would learn to ice climb. We had the place all to ourselves with our own instructor. In a rain soaked region with 52 millimeters of rain a year (60 times that of LA), all I can say is thank goodness it was a beautiful day out as it would otherwise be pretty crowded.
With our ice-axe's in hand we took turns climbing and belaying. At one point Andrew came off the wall and literally lifted me three feet in the air. Thank goodness the instructor had clipped me down with a rope to the floor, otherwise, I might have been at the top of the wall. We had 6 challenging climbs between us and a couple bruises from hitting knees and shins on the hard unforgiving ice. We departed Hukawai around 11:30am with a Helli ride and an ice climbing experience under our belts and were on our way to Nelson in the far North of the South Island where we would spend the night before departing for Abel Tasman. In two days, we would cover the equivalent of Tahoe to LA on one lane roads similar to that of Highway 50 and Highway 1 along the coast. We were pretty tired, but thank goodness for our ipod, filled with music, as it would take more than the gorgeous scenery to get us through our journey.
We stopped for lunch in Hokitika, a coastal town known for its green stone, where we stretched our legs with a walk out to the beach and sped off for the remaining 4 hours of our drive. We passed by waves crashing on the rocky shore, long beaches, penguin crossing signs and bikers falling over railroad track signs. There were not enough sheep! With a few serious switchbacks along the way, we took it easy. But then it happened again. An adorable little bird flew right at me!! There was a beautiful river to our right and there it was, bam! I killed a second bird, only this time, it left a crime scene chalk outline on my windshield. It was upside down, this little bird, beak wide open, wings spread out. I couldn't take it. I reached for the windshield wipers, thankfully the indicator did not go off and I erased the evidence.
Once arriving in Nelson, it took us a couple loops around the church to find our bed and breakfast, the Cathedral Inn. Exhausted and hungry, we dragged our enormous bags to our adorable little room with its pocket doors leading to a private balcony and immediately went to find a place to have dinner. We ended up at Cafe Affair, a hip open air cafe with a unique menu. I ordered chicken skewers on a hot stone with seasoned wedges and upon the arrival of my meal, I found sizzling raw chicken on my hot stone. Our waiter explained to us that the stone stays at 450 degrees for up to an hour and a half and provides a healthy meal. So while Andrew started his steak sandwich, I cooked my chicken and when it was ready, it was delicious!! We indulged in the most amazing cold drink called an Iced Chocolate consisting of two scoops of ice cream, chocolate milk and syrup, topped with whipped Cream. It was a good end to a very long day.
We went home and packed a separate bag for our 3 day 2 night journey to Abel Tasman National Park where we are now relaxing. I will let you know how it is in our next entry, but so far, it has been amazing. Mostly because there are no cars allowed here.
