Would anyone like a mint?
(18th - 19th December)
We had seen the weather forecast and heard it was rubbish all over NZ, but particularly the West Coast. With this in mind, we decided that we would aim to move back to the east coast, via the famous Frans Josef and Fox glaciers. We opted for Fox Glacier (not a mint in sight), as you can get closer to this without needing to take a tour (which is quite expensive and timely). The rain had eventually subsided so we were finally going to be able to get out the car. We drove up to the car park and then it would be a short walk to the foot of the glacier. I was unable to see this properly last time as the weather was so appalling. I'm now thinking I may be a bad omen for these glaciers. We were able to see even less this time - the rain had made the river swell up so much that they had closed even the entrance to the glacier as being too dangerous to access without a guide. I did see one group get out their bus ready to embark on their guided trek up the glacier. I was promptly relieved that we hadn't paid for such a tour. In the time it took Chris and I to eat our lunch, go to the toilets, take a few pictures of the river and then see the signs saying we could go no further, the group were already on their way back from the glacier 'tour'. We're not particularly slow eaters, they'd probably had a good 20 minutes of exploring before the guide evidently thought it too dangerous to continue.
You could see why they'd struggled to get far and why they'd closed the base. We saw the river carrying what we though were rocks, but upon closer inspection they were huge blocks of ice (neither of which seem that safe). Apparently ice the size of a campervan can fall from the glaciers in these conditions.
So we eventually headed off to our DOC campsite for the evening, a place called Goldsborough. There used to be gold in the river, but we couldn't find any obvious signs. The sun had finally come out, so I attempted to hang up my sopping trousers in a tree, and then we set up a fire. We'd got loads of firewood but unfortunately, thanks to all the rain, we couldn't really get the campfire going, but parts of it looked impressive for a few seconds at a time!
It was a lovely surrounding, and I got to see many of NZ's bird's that I hadn't seen yet. Such as a Tui - a black bird with a white tuft under its neck. Also saw a Fantail - a small bird with a black & white tail (much like a fan, I suppose). And a Weka. I thought these were rare and shy - I saw one in Fjordland and almost mistook it for a kiwi until I looked up what it was in a bird book. It is a brown feathered, flightless bird, with a shorter beak than the kiwi. The one in Fjordland was very shy and timid. The one at this campsite, I soon discovered, was not one at all. There was a whole family, and they're bloomin' cheeky. Chris thought I'd gone into the car to get a drink. Nope - I was setting up the dinner table the other side, Chris was setting up the fire, and one of the Weka's was helping itself to the contents of our van, the diet coke to be precise... how rude!
The rain eased off and we were able to get a decent night's sleep before we headed off the next morning towards our next destination: the East Coast.
We had seen the weather forecast and heard it was rubbish all over NZ, but particularly the West Coast. With this in mind, we decided that we would aim to move back to the east coast, via the famous Frans Josef and Fox glaciers. We opted for Fox Glacier (not a mint in sight), as you can get closer to this without needing to take a tour (which is quite expensive and timely). The rain had eventually subsided so we were finally going to be able to get out the car. We drove up to the car park and then it would be a short walk to the foot of the glacier. I was unable to see this properly last time as the weather was so appalling. I'm now thinking I may be a bad omen for these glaciers. We were able to see even less this time - the rain had made the river swell up so much that they had closed even the entrance to the glacier as being too dangerous to access without a guide. I did see one group get out their bus ready to embark on their guided trek up the glacier. I was promptly relieved that we hadn't paid for such a tour. In the time it took Chris and I to eat our lunch, go to the toilets, take a few pictures of the river and then see the signs saying we could go no further, the group were already on their way back from the glacier 'tour'. We're not particularly slow eaters, they'd probably had a good 20 minutes of exploring before the guide evidently thought it too dangerous to continue.
You could see why they'd struggled to get far and why they'd closed the base. We saw the river carrying what we though were rocks, but upon closer inspection they were huge blocks of ice (neither of which seem that safe). Apparently ice the size of a campervan can fall from the glaciers in these conditions.
So we eventually headed off to our DOC campsite for the evening, a place called Goldsborough. There used to be gold in the river, but we couldn't find any obvious signs. The sun had finally come out, so I attempted to hang up my sopping trousers in a tree, and then we set up a fire. We'd got loads of firewood but unfortunately, thanks to all the rain, we couldn't really get the campfire going, but parts of it looked impressive for a few seconds at a time!
It was a lovely surrounding, and I got to see many of NZ's bird's that I hadn't seen yet. Such as a Tui - a black bird with a white tuft under its neck. Also saw a Fantail - a small bird with a black & white tail (much like a fan, I suppose). And a Weka. I thought these were rare and shy - I saw one in Fjordland and almost mistook it for a kiwi until I looked up what it was in a bird book. It is a brown feathered, flightless bird, with a shorter beak than the kiwi. The one in Fjordland was very shy and timid. The one at this campsite, I soon discovered, was not one at all. There was a whole family, and they're bloomin' cheeky. Chris thought I'd gone into the car to get a drink. Nope - I was setting up the dinner table the other side, Chris was setting up the fire, and one of the Weka's was helping itself to the contents of our van, the diet coke to be precise... how rude!
The rain eased off and we were able to get a decent night's sleep before we headed off the next morning towards our next destination: the East Coast.
posted by wobblepop at 4:26 am
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