Fox Glacier and in between
OK we stayed in Arrowtown, just outside Queenstown (Queenstown is busy due to a rugby tournament) on Friday night. A lovely wee hostel called Riverdown. Very nice. We gave our 'roomie', an Ozzie called Ret, a lift the next day up over the highest road in NZ to Wanaka (past the bra fence, a fence covered in bras, strange indeed).
Wanaka is a lovely wee place (with a population around 250 it's actually pretty big for round there) we stayed in a cheap and rather large hostel called Albert Town Lodge (just along the road from the infamous campsite where a riot broke out at new year). Nice place, well equipped and no doubt much busier in the skiing season. The nearby Clutha River was very high and too high to fish so we drove around a bit but not much else. Shania Twain has a house in Wanaka apparently.
Next day up over Haast Pass through some rugged terrain (the road was only opened in 1965 connecting the West Coast to the Southern Lakes and through to Dunedin etc). We eventually came to the tiny town of Haast which is where the road meets the West Coast. From there we drove to the southern most part of the West Coast road, Jackson Bay. An interesting wee fishing village where I decided to sample the local delicacy whitebait (tiny fish about an inch or so in length, cooked whole and much saught after when they head up the rivers this time of year). A whitebait burger actually. Very nice, not at all fishy, hard to describe. The woman in the Craypot Cafe described it as 'delicate' which is pretty accurate.
After that interlude we headed all the way up to the apparently excellent fishing lakes of Moeraki and Paringa and checked in to the Lake Maringa Wilderness Lodge. We had a little cabin by the lake but the wind was blowing and with the lake surrounded by trees fishing would have been impossible. So we didnt really get up to much at all.
This morning we came to Fox Glacier, booked into the Ivory Towers backpackers (which is pretty big but seems pretty good).
At 1:30pm we headed off on a guided walk across the glacier. Very interesting and strange as we clambered up the side of the glacier before crossing onto it for a trek around the pre-prepared steps and path. Amazing things glaciers and Fox and Franz Josef, round the corner, are particularly amazing due to thier proximity to the sea, given the closeness to the equator and their speed of flow (fox flows at around 60cm a day).
Anyway we've got two nights here, maybe go to Franz Josef tomorrow. More importantly Stephen and Corrine (from work) should be in town today and for 5 days. So we'll hopefully manage to track them down. It should be good because we've been everywhere they're going and vice versa so hopefully we can exchange tips.
The sun is out down here, it's raining on the glacier. This time next week we'll be in Kaikura, on the east coast, where the whale-watching and some dolphin swimming takes place. It could be a good point to take stock and decide what the longer term might hold.
Happy days.
Peter
Wanaka is a lovely wee place (with a population around 250 it's actually pretty big for round there) we stayed in a cheap and rather large hostel called Albert Town Lodge (just along the road from the infamous campsite where a riot broke out at new year). Nice place, well equipped and no doubt much busier in the skiing season. The nearby Clutha River was very high and too high to fish so we drove around a bit but not much else. Shania Twain has a house in Wanaka apparently.
Next day up over Haast Pass through some rugged terrain (the road was only opened in 1965 connecting the West Coast to the Southern Lakes and through to Dunedin etc). We eventually came to the tiny town of Haast which is where the road meets the West Coast. From there we drove to the southern most part of the West Coast road, Jackson Bay. An interesting wee fishing village where I decided to sample the local delicacy whitebait (tiny fish about an inch or so in length, cooked whole and much saught after when they head up the rivers this time of year). A whitebait burger actually. Very nice, not at all fishy, hard to describe. The woman in the Craypot Cafe described it as 'delicate' which is pretty accurate.
After that interlude we headed all the way up to the apparently excellent fishing lakes of Moeraki and Paringa and checked in to the Lake Maringa Wilderness Lodge. We had a little cabin by the lake but the wind was blowing and with the lake surrounded by trees fishing would have been impossible. So we didnt really get up to much at all.
This morning we came to Fox Glacier, booked into the Ivory Towers backpackers (which is pretty big but seems pretty good).
At 1:30pm we headed off on a guided walk across the glacier. Very interesting and strange as we clambered up the side of the glacier before crossing onto it for a trek around the pre-prepared steps and path. Amazing things glaciers and Fox and Franz Josef, round the corner, are particularly amazing due to thier proximity to the sea, given the closeness to the equator and their speed of flow (fox flows at around 60cm a day).
Anyway we've got two nights here, maybe go to Franz Josef tomorrow. More importantly Stephen and Corrine (from work) should be in town today and for 5 days. So we'll hopefully manage to track them down. It should be good because we've been everywhere they're going and vice versa so hopefully we can exchange tips.
The sun is out down here, it's raining on the glacier. This time next week we'll be in Kaikura, on the east coast, where the whale-watching and some dolphin swimming takes place. It could be a good point to take stock and decide what the longer term might hold.
Happy days.
Peter
posted by PeterZ at 9:57 PM
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