Lizrussosmells's travel blogs:
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Whirlwind Tour of New Zealand
Entry 6 of 7 | show all | print this entry |
As we kayaked in the Tasman Sea, Katherine and I realized that only the day before we climbed a glacier and the next day we would be in Fiji...
After our quite abrupt decision to make the trek across New Zealand to take on Franz Joseph Glacier, we soon realized that we had absolutely made the right decision to keep driving. The hiking the first day was incredible, as I have already mentioned. But, believe me, it was nothing compared to actually spending over 6 hours exploring the glacier itself. Empowered with our typical confident style, as the guides broke up the group into smaller groups of 10 or so, Katherine and I made sure we were situated in the very front of the very first group possible. It was well worth it.
As I should have guessed, it turns out that our guide, Dale (who is also a lead guide and has been guiding for over 6 years), has the nickname "the deviant." He earned this title as he has the wonderful tendency of leading groups deep into the glacier and then has to come up with 'creative' ways of getting them back out. Our trip was no different, but I would not have had it any other way. We were able to see more of the glacier than any other group as we were even able to explore some of the caves and tunnels. As thrilling as the blue ice was, it also meant we had the joy of hanging on to ropes for our dear lives as we climbed down sheer walls of ice. I loved it! I'll definitely be the first to tell you that I was scared at times, as any rational person would be, but it was absolutely incredible. We even climbed high enough to be able to see all the way to the sea. The views were outstanding and it was a great experience.
When we finally made it off the glacier, we decided that we were going to head to Abel Tasman National Park, which is located in the northern part of the South Island. When we called to make kayaking reservations that afternoon, they thought we were insane for wanting to drive up there that night (it was about 6 or 7 hours away) and they managed to convince us to wait to make the drive the next morning to kayak Saturday instead. They were right on with their recommendation. The roads were incredibly curvy and there would have been tons of black ice if we had made the drive at night. Plus, the drive up the west coast was ranked by Lonely Planet as one of the top ten drives in the world -- it was beautiful to drive along the coast with the sea on your left and the southern alps on your right.
As they recommended, we left Franz Joseph early Friday morning to make it up to Abel Tasman in time to get some hiking in that afternoon. I definitely realized how spoiled we have been with the hiking as we spent a little over two hours hiking along the coast through the rain forest and were then disappointed when we had to turn around and head back rather than finding a loop trail. Life's rough. We spent the night in our luxurious camper parked in some motel parking lot and made our way back to the park to kayak the next morning. Of course the kayaking was amazing! The contrast between the sea and the forest was really spectacular. Unfortunately, we were only able to fit in about 3 hours of kayaking because we had to start the drive back to Christchurch that afternoon for our flight the next day. As always, we left the guides cracking up over our schedule but we finally got them to admit they "liked our style" as we actually do things while traveling rather than the typical bungee-n-bars that other tourists tend to do.
We stopped about half way on the drive back to Christchurch to enjoy the hot springs and Japanese bath houses along the way. It was nice (because it was our shower) but we quickly because antsy and ready to do something else...I know time will slow down on the islands though. We're now in Fiji and leave in a couple of hours to head to Beachcomber Island Resort where we're staying for the next 8 nights before we sail through the Yasawa Islands.
I can't believe how fast three weeks have gone by. Yet I somehow feel like I was in Australia months -- not a week -- ago.
I hope all's well back at home. I miss you and can't wait to see you soon.
Love,
Elisabeth/Liz
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