NZ - Nasty Little Hobbitses

With too much purity for our bodies too handle, we had Macy D’s for lunch. We made it to Matamata just in time for the last tour of Hobbition. The 2 hour tour was $50 and took us to the farm where the Lord of the Rings was filmed. The site was scouted out by helicopter and chosen because it is the only place in New Zealand which had the Hobbiton features as described in the book – the lake, rolling hills and much needed party tree - and no obvious sign of human life e.g. buildings, power lines, roads, etc. Try finding somewhere without power or telephone cables – its not as easy as you think.

The tour itself took us around where the crew stayed. The army was called in to build roads due to weight needed for filming trucks. When the owner of the farm was originally approached and asked about filming on his land, he though the scout was having a laugh as he had never heard of LOTR (Lord of the Rings), and besides there was an important rugby game on so told the guy to come back tomorrow. Lucky for the farmer, they did…



After filming the site was being knocked down, but luckily for us, the demolition had to be paused due to bad weather. When the crew called to finish the work, the farmer asked New Line if he could keep the set and now its being used as a tourist attraction. With the imminent filming of the Hobbit, New Line are probably grateful as well ;)



You need a bit of imagination and to be a real fan of LOTR to appreciate the set. The guides consider themselves as real film buffs and are often tested by die-hard fans on LOTR trivia.



When wandering around, and dancing under the party tree, you have to watch out for cow and sheep poop. Upon leaving, the guide had to radio to the farm to tell them another cow had fallen in the ditch.

And so the adventure continues…

NZ - Hells Gate

As we had limited time available before our flight back to Australia we made a move the next morning for our 2nd part of our “tourist package” HELLS GATE! This was a bit more of the same - steaming rocks, bubbling mud and smelly sulphur pools. We heard that the sulphur pools were good for the skin, so despite the eggy smell, we both washed our hands in the sulphur pool – skin didn’t become instantly baby soft, so not sure it was worth the smell ;)



On our way back, there was a wood shop and the carpenter showed us how to do some traditional NZ carvings. Marc chiseled out a silver fern and Evelyn did the heart-leaf. More haste less speed being the key. Marc’s was so good, the carpenter offered to buy it for his shop, but some things MasterCard cant buy ;)

Our main reason for coming here was the mud bath. We opted for a private soak, where we could throw mud at each other in peace ;) This was basically a bamboo enclosure with a muddy bath, where the bottom of the bath was pure mud. We were only allowed 20 minutes in here, due to the properties of the mud.



By the time the attendant knocked on our door to tell us that it was shower time we were covered head to toe in mud, with Marc doing an “Arnie Predator” pose. Marc enjoyed spraying Evelyn down with the freezing cold water hose. Although Evelyn had a trick up her sleeve - as shortly before she got out the “tub” she managed to water down the mud that had set, however she had piled the mud onto Marc and when he had to have his shower it took twice as long ;)



There were two more warm sulphur pools – we lasted no more than 5 minutes in the last pool as the smell began to make us nauseous. We then decided it was about time to get out so we showered and changed, picked up some face masks for our mums on our way out and set off on our long journey to Matamata aka Hobbiton.

NZ - Road to Rotarua

Next morning barely able to walk it was Evelyn’s turn to do some driving.

We stopped off at the Huka Falls - there are some serious rapids here - the river is the largest in NZ and they use the water to create energy providing about 25% of the North Islands electricity! The river starts wide, then shoots down this very narrow waterway picking up loads of speed and power, before it opens into a wider river again, before it becomes a man made lake controlled by a dam. The dam gates open every 2 hours (next opening at 12) for ½ an hour. We wanted to see the full sha-bang, as we were sure it was a sight not to be missed.






With some time to kill, we took a little walk along the river and then headed to the Craters of the Moon. Here you get to walk around the mud pools and see the geysers steaming – and it is supposed to look like the surface of the moon - but in the end we decided that the $5pp charge was really just paying money to smell sulphur – yuk!





We made the trip back to the Dam gates and just about made it to see the water gushing out and how incredibly quick the river below fills up with the water from the dam. This tricking stream became raging rapids within 5 minutes.




Above: Before
Below: After



We then made a stop off at the Glass Blowing Company, a woodwork shop (which was seriously overpriced) and the Honey Hive, here we bought a bottle of White Chocolate liquor and then due to all the excitement Evelyn got a little confused with the road markings and as she made the right turn onto the main road she ended up driving on the wrong side of the double yellow line - which in NZ is actually the markings for the middle of the road – unlike the yellow lines in the UK which are on the outside of the lane, added to Ev’s confusion was the slip roads on either side, the indicator blinking away, wind screen wipers going full speed, Ev putting the car in the wrong gear & Marc informing Evelyn about all the above mentioned in a loud and helpful manor ;( Lucky enough Ev managed to get back in control of things before the lorry came round the corner, and didn’t do much talking for the next 50km.

Next stop was Rotarua were we booked a Maori Cultural Experience and the Te Paiu Geyer Tour, along with this we got free entry to Hell’s Gate – this is where you can book mud baths - for an extra fee...

With some time to spare we booked into the Cosy Cottage Caravan Site and got a room there – we’ve resigned to the fact that we can’t really do any camping in NZ as it’s just too cold at night and we’re not sure our bodies can take anymore battering ;) A bonus at this place is that they have some hot water springs located by the lake and they feed it through to some tubs so we managed to have a little spa before heading off to Te Paiu.

At Te Paiu we managed to learn a little more about the Maori life and their meeting places. They also went into detail about the Haka dance that the men & women do. Another interesting thing was that when they were looking to find a symbol for their rugby team it, they decided against the Kiwi bird as they are very scarce and only come out at night – they needed a stronger symbol with a more stronger meaning, this is when they then decided to go with the silver fern that you find in NZ.

The story goes like this: When the warriors go to war they always manage to travel safely at night, without there enemies knowing where they go as they don’t carry light with them, the way they do this is by they leader turning a silver fern over and the silver reflects light and when the last warrior goes past the fern they turn it over again and no one knows that they’ve been there.


The longest Maori word

We also saw a big geyser here and more smelly sulphur holes & mud pools.





At 6pm we got our shuttle to the Mitai Village for our Maori Cultural Experience, here we had a closer look at the Moari way of life and had a Hangi (feast) prepared for us. The way they prepare this hangi is by digging a hole in the ground and putting heated river stones inside and laying the meat on top of the rocks, they then cover the feast with animal skins to keep the heat in and cook it all day.

Whilst inside the dining area we had one of the Maori guys introduce himself and say that we need a leader for our group, he asked where everyone was from and from this he gave us a name – “the army of 20 nations”?? After much debate we ended up having an English guy come forward to be our Chief – “Chief Dan from England” He was only about 25!


While the feast was being prepared they took us to their spiritual lake. We were led through a wooded area and every now and then there was a sound from the trees and when you looked around there was an angry Maori warrior staring back at you.

We lined up along the river and the Maori warriors arrived in their 4 month old Haka canoe made from a 300 year old tree, this was really amazing as while they paddled up the stream they were singing a warrior song and you could feel the tension in the air.



They then led us to the small replica village were they put on a show for us and Chief Dan had to introduce himself and his army of 20 nations to the Maori Chief (who was much scarier than our Chief :) This was a really moving night and we all learnt quite a bit about their culture and also discovered that poi’s are originally from the Maori’s as the women developed them to strengthen the men’s wrists as most of their weapons are small and heavy.





We then had our feast, which was fantastic, after dinner we went on a walk, which took us back by the sacred lake that they call Fairy Springs, the reason why they call it this is because there are so many glow worms which they believe are fairy people.

NZ - Taupo

When we arrived back at the YHA we tried to book the spa – to soak our aching muscles - but unfortunately it was booked solid. So we changed clothes and off we went for the 1-hour drive to Taupo before we ceased up.

En route we stopped off along the road to take our final few snaps of “Mount Doom”, typically the sun was now out and almost no clouds in the sky.


The backside of the mountain...

On arrival in Taupo we booked into the Tiki Lodge that was advertised as having an outside spa. We’d heard great things about a lodge with a wonderful natural spring spa, but when we checked in, we discovered the spa wasn’t working and this wasn’t the place we were looking for.

So, in need of some relaxation, we then decided to hunt down the local hot springs. We finally found the place Sprokett & Heather had recommended, and just seeing this place got us excited and slightly more relaxed. We got changed in record time and then sat in the pool for about 2 hours, admiring the palm trees enclosing the area ;)



It was a much-needed dip in 45-degree natural spring water. Around the edge of the pool were ledges to sit on, with water jets shooting out for massaging. There were also mini-waterfalls that we could sit under and have the water cascade over our heads. The best bit was a platform attached to the side of the pool, submersed in water; we could lie back on our elbows so that the water just covered our bodies so we didn’t get cold. From the bottom of the platform there were water jets, giving great massages :D Heaven!!



With our skin getting all wrinkly and our stomachs growling at us we decided to get dinner. We asked a local for the nearest Chinese takeaway and ended up getting completely lost, and almost missed the sunset over the lake…

We then headed into the town centre and found a Chinese close to our hostel – this was enough food to feed a small army (and we didn’t even go large)! The “normal” size in the UK is only a third of the size of these babies. This was dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner again ;)

Whilst we ate our feast on the balcony of the hostel, we remembered hearing about a comet in the sky (though when we asked at the Lake Tekapo observatory they said there were no comets due in the next 15 years or so!!) and we soon saw it – this was quite an amazing sight, though it was beginning to fade and with the city glow it wasn’t as bright and clear as we’d expected or hoped. We’d wished we’d remembered last night when outside the town by the mountain. Still, we got a good view whilst standing in the street in our PJs ;)

NZ - Tongoriro

The drive from Wellington to Tongoriro was pretty uneventful, with us stopping for lunch in the only big town on the route, North Palmerson. This was a cute little town, but the one-way system was a bit annoying and there was not much parking. We finally managed to find a free spot, and ended up wandering around the shops for a bit, before heading to Starbucks for lunch. Disappointingly, they were out of Strawberry frappes, and the Mango just wasn’t the same ;(

So on to Tongoriro - aka - Mount Doom from the Rings. Dave, Sprokett and Heather all highly recommended this trip. It’s a full day tramp (Kiwi term for hike) covering 17kms and reaching a height of 1900m, where you can climb up Mt Doom. This section is part of a 4-day tramp, which covers the whole national park. We’re only crazy enough to do 1 day, not insane enough to do all 4 ;)

The drive up to Tongoriro is impressive. When you catch first sight of the huge peak cars pull over to admire its size. It isn’t part of any mountain range, and everywhere else around is flat. There is just this huge snow-capped mountain. It truly is Mount Doom!



We drove through a quiet little town with not much going on and were told that there weren’t any shops in the direction we were going so decided it best to do some food shopping for our hike ahead. We then arrived at the National Park Village and booked into the YHA. They had the basics here, internet, kitchen, and a climbing wall :D They also had a spa, but it was fully booked when we arrived…

Finally we took the plunge and booked the next day to get the bus to the Crossing track. This costs $25pp and all they do is take you to the start of the track and pick you up at the end… so all in all an expensive taxi. They told us that there was no guarantee that we would be able to do the 8hr / 17km walk – if the winds are too high, or it is too wet then it isn’t safe enough, but today was a beautiful calm, sunny day with amazing views of the mountain.



But the next morning we were in for a real surprise. We were up in time for a 7:15 departure, and we’ve never seen fog like it. It was so thick that visibility was no more than 20 meters. We couldn’t see the road, let alone that beautiful mountain we admired yesterday, and were about to walk up today.

Still, this weather wasn’t bad enough to cancel the trip, and the bus dropped us off at the 1st hut at 7:45. Here, at the base of the mountain, it was still foggy, wet, and now also very windy. We all ummed and ahhed and finally found the way to go. We could have done with a nice warm hut and cup of tea to contemplate our next move, as many British explorers before us may have done.



We are on a very tight schedule, as we have to be at the rendez vouz point by 15:00 or otherwise wait for the 5pm one – which would be too late for us as we still needed to get to our next destination & book a bed for the night :( and if we didn’t make the 5pm bus they weren’t going to wait for us! So we have 7hrs to walk 17km, including a climb of 1900m, stop for lunch and snacks, and figure out where we are going in this weather. We were told that once we head out, there is no turning back as there will be no more traffic at this spot after 9am. From this spot it’s about a 5km walk to the “main” road. We were also told that if anyone gets hurt we need to let as many people know as possible so that the chances of help reaching them would be better – great!



So, whilst many faffed with clothing, map reading etc, we got our socks on our hands-these makeshift gloves saved us – the wind chill was terrible and we had as little skin exposed as possible – the hands and ears are always worst effected. Dressed in our most waterproof trousers, double socks on feet, t-shirts, jumpers, and North-face jackets with hoods up tight - we set off over the heath land…



To start the path was fairly well marked, and was a muddy, gravel track. Either side was a semi-rocky terrain with heather and heath grass, from what we could tell. The crowd from the bus was fairly grouped at this stage, and we could play follow the leader, assuming the guy in front knew where he was going. There were posts, every 10 meters or so, which had luminous yellow reflectors on so we could follow those as well, if we could see that far!!

I guess the first stint of walking was about an hour, and that just flew by. Mostly because we were concentrating so hard on following the path, not losing our way, avoiding puddles, and keeping warm. Despite the lack of any view this was still exciting and an adventure. In fact, the thick cloud and drizzle created a mysterious and ghostly effect, adding a kind of tension to the experience.

We stopped off to see Soda Springs, which was just really a waterfall; with the heavy mist blowing past you could barely see it at times, and was not really worth the small detour. It didn’t help with the muddy puddles and stink of sulphur!

We continued on, and the terrain was gradually beginning to change – it was gradually becoming rockier. We then came upon the first leg of the climb – a steep scramble over rocks up the side of the mountain. Every now and again the cloud cleared and we could see the top where people were waving and whooping. It didn’t look far – 400m maybe, but that was annoyingly deceptive, as it was sooo steep.



It took at least 30mins to get to the top, and then there was a little downward climb where it flattened out. There was no vegetation here – it was just flat, dusty and stoney here, with a little path trodden down by the many people who do this hike. The mist cleared briefly at times, and this is were we discovered that we were in fact walking across the South Crater and we could see how far the crater went on for! It was times like this when the sock-gloves became a bit of a joke as when the mist cleared you had to fumble around and get your camera out, but by the time you did this the mist took over again!



When we made it to the side of the Red Crater (once again, merely guess work with our location as we couldn’t see very far) we realised how difficult things had become. This was one of the most dangerous parts of the journey, as the walk was up a steep, narrow ridge. There was little protection from the wind, which had picked up to what we reckon was 60kph. You could barely walk such was the struggle, and if you weren’t careful you would get blown over… Ev lost her footing at times and had to cling onto and shelter by the occasional rock. There were some really old people (yes, even older than Marc ;) doing this and you had to wonder how were they managing to walk, let alone climb in these conditions!

On this climb, we didn’t catch much of the scenery due to the fog, and because we were concentrating on not being blown off the cliff. What we did see though reminded us of the films - desolate, barren landscape where nothing lives and only gravel, stones and boulders exist. On a good day, you would get some amazing views from up here – our highest point at 1900mts - but unfortunately not today…


Peekaboo...

We had to slip and slide back down the other side – the ground was a black sand/gravel, and it was impossible to get any grip or footings. Each footstep just sunk 6 inches into the ground and slid down through the gravel. This made life a bit easier for us though, as we didn’t have to use as much energy ;)



Next, we came to the Emerald Lakes and Crater Lakes. We could just about see them, and as we continued on we glimpsed back on the way we had just come, and through the clouds of mist we realised just how far we’d walked so far.

Another stop at the Blue Lake, this we got to see a little better – probably due to the size of it. We also started to smell the sulphur in the air from all the surrounding lakes; this was not very pleasant and we moved on from here pretty quickly ;)



The clouds now started to clear and we could see out into the distance. Unfortunately by this time all the Lord of the Rings - Mount Doom scenery was all behind us and even though the sights ahead were still beautiful it wasn’t the rough, rocky terrain we came here to see but at least it was a little sunnier and this cheered us up a lot.



We spotted the “lunch hut” which was the ½ way point, checked our watches and discovered that we were making good time. The only down side was that even though we could see how close we were to the hut, it was still a really long way down a zig-zag path :(

And so it was that round 12.30 we managed to sit down and rest ourselves whilst having a quick snack, and get some more energy for the rest of the tramp ahead.

Back on the path again we came across another sulphur outlet and you just had to hold your breath and hope that it would go away soon, this reminded Evelyn of the stink bombs the kids at school used in order to disrupt the classes – and they were just as smelly ;)



This side of the mountain was much nicer - protected from the elements experienced on the other side - which meant flowers, shrubs and grass were growing, with only the odd boulder to hide behind. An altogether more pleasant tramp ;)



We were now 5 ½ hours into the hike and suddenly it became a muddy rainforest walk, it was also now getting a little warmer thankfully. After sloshing about in the mud, walking through the rainforest, we came to a river with many small waterfalls, which was just lovely and we knew we were getting close to the end of the hike.



And so it was that around 2.45, some 7hrs later, we caught the bus back to the backpackers…

NZ - Wellington

So, our journey through the South Island comes to an end. Having seen so much, but nowhere near enough, we vowed to come back again one day. For now though, we jump on the ferry at Picton, leaving behind the hire car and headed over to Wellington, the capital of NZ.



After the 3 hour ride, we landed in Wellington, amid confusion as we didn’t have a map!! We didn’t know where we were going, or how far we were from the city. We looked for a taxi or bus, and got ushered onto a coach heading for the train station. We didn’t want a train but got told to go here anyway as taxis and buses would be cheaper. From the train station Evelyn quickly got a cab sorted and decided that we would pay extra to catch a taxi rather than get lost on the bus system… or as Marc had suggested – walk!! Evelyn still remembers the nightmare journey we had in Perth and with all the luggage we had, Marc couldn't blame her really.

We checked into our hostel- The Wildlife House, which was a decent place. It has the slowest lifts in the world, and the trip to the 4th floor for the kitchen always took forever. The kitchen itself was ok, though a bit dirty as no-one did their washing up. The fridges were also a bit smelly. There was free internet here, though there were only a few machines working so we had to wait over 30mins to get a machine. Still, the rooms were ok, and we were right in the centre of the city.

City seems a strange way to describe Wellington as it doesn’t have that city feel to it. It seems small, quiet, and there isn’t really too much here. The main street is full of bars and restaurants, and looks a lively place to go out. At the western end, there is the cinema where Lord Of The Rings premiered, and they still show Return of the King every Sunday. It’s then a 10 minute walk to the hill-side train going up to the botanical gardens. In between there are shops and Little Cuba, but nothing of real note.



One of the highlights of Wellington is the Te Papa museum, so we went in to have a look. We spent a couple of hours in here, admiring the artefacts and memorabilia, and picking up a few facts about the Maori and NZ history. We stopped for lunch here, which was quite nice.

Next, we headed up to the botanical gardens, more because it was mentioned in the LP book, rather than because we really wanted to. When we got to the top, there were some pretty nice views, but we were quite tired from the previous night so weren’t feeling too energetic.

We forced ourselves to have a short walk whilst up here, to look at the observatory and the shadow clock (stand in the centre and your shadow tells the time). On our way back to the hostel we thought about going to the cinema, but as our timing was a bit off there was nothing on. It being a Saturday night, the bars were beginning to get lively, but we headed back for a quiet night in.



Next morning we decided that Wellington didn’t hold much interest for us as sightseers, and its probably a better place to come if you are working and want to sample Kiwi life – work and play. And as we are on a tight schedule, and would prefer to see things rather than sit in a café/bar, we arranged to pick up the car a day early and head north.

Saying that, we couldn’t leave without going up to Mt Victoria lookout. As usual we made the 5 minute journey in 15 (our usual trademark of taking the dodgy back roads). When we got to the top, there were some pretty good views out over the city. There were also some enterprising young lads selling fresh lemonade and “Russian” fudge, so we decided to buy some fudge for our drive ahead and support the kids ;)

NZ - Blenheim

Well, well, well. The world is full of co-incidences!! We drove 3 hours to Blenheim, and were feeling quite tired after the drive. Still, as this was wine country we had to have a tipple. We ummed and ahhed on where to go, and in the end Ev just picked a vineyard at random from the Lonely Planet. We chose Cloudy Bay. We then sat in the car for a few minutes deciding whether or not to go in, and of course there was only one answer (we are now wondering why there was any debate ;)

Ev headed for the bathroom, and Marc made a beeline straight for the tastings. Then Marc heard a voice calling his name. It took a while to register that it was someone talking to him, and he turned round to see who it was, and it was none other than Sprockett & Heather – Marc’s uni friends who are also travelling!!

We both knew that each other was travelling, and we had originally talked about meeting in Sydney but that didn’t work out. It just so happened that they had just arrived from the North Island, and this was also one of their first vineyards. When we arrived, they were just paying for a bottle and ready to leave. If Marc hadn’t pulled off some of those over-taking manoeuvres to get past the camper vans we would have missed them!! It just all came together at the right time.

It was really good to see some friendly faces again, to catch up and swap travelling stories, and get some hints and tips for the rest of NZ. The weather took a turn for the worse as well, so it was perfect for sitting in a pub, having a natter over a pint.

As we were in the area, we all felt obliged to pop to another couple of vineyards, and we went to Saint Clair and Fromm, both of which were pretty good. Saint Clare had a café so we sat down and had a bite to eat. Then we headed to the Top 10 caravan park, where luckily, there was a spare cabin for us, and a spare slot for their campervan. Then as the heavens opened up we headed to the pub, and ended up at a pizzeria for dinner. Great evening… unfortunately we were so enjoying the company we didn't take any pictures :(

...Sprockett? Heather? Can you help us out with any?

NZ - Lake Matherson

After a wonderful nights sleep in the cottage, we were a bit lazy and didn’t vacate the room in time, so got a reminder, meaning we had to rush breakie a bit.

We headed down to Lake Matherson, which is also known as the reflective lake, as on a still day, you can see the perfect reflection of Mt Cook in the water. It looks amazing, but you have to be quite lucky to see it, and there has to be absolutely no wind. Unfortunately, there was a slight breeze (both today and last night), so we didn’t get to see it in it’s full glory ;(

It was still a beautiful place, and was a really nice walk. Lots of nice plants, trees and loads of birds singing. Its a very peaceful and relaxing place, and you cant help but come away from here smiling :-D

We eventually decided to continue our journey. This area is just another example of the wonderful natural diversity that NZ has to offer. Every area is so incredibly different, not just from each other, but from anywhere else in the world.

We are now beginning the trek to the north island, and we aim to be in Wellington tomorrow eve or the following morning. We wanted to go via the East coast where you can see whales and swim with dolphins. However, time restraints mean it will all be a bit rushed, so we decided to head to the Blenheim wine region instead, which is close to Piction and the ferry port.

So today, we must head north to West Port. It’s a fairly long drive, and had a few stops along the way.

First stop was Hokitika Gorge, a couple of hundred k’s down the road. This was a really beautiful spot, where you take a short walk down through a forest, and across a swing bridge, to the milky blue river. It’s a gorgeous, peaceful spot with lovely coloured fast flowing water, surrounded by rocks to go climbing on.

Marc went exploring, and Ev stood and watched for a while. Eventually the sand flies drove her insane and to avoid further nibbles she headed back to the bridge. When she reached the swing bridge, Marc waited on the rocks to take a photo. However, some Americans took residence on the centre of the bridge, so the photo op was gone. Marc did wait for them to go, but the sand flies go to him as well. Typically, as soon as he left, so did the Yanks ;)

Next stop was the pancake stax. These are so named because the rock formations look like a stack of pancakes. Scientists still don’t know to this day how the rocks were formed – rock eating animals, wind, rain, etc. These are quite impressive, along with a rock bridge and cove. There are some great views out across the ocean too.

Someone who had been looking at one of the cliff faces for some time had come up with a variety of pictures that the rocks had formed and when you looked at it a certain way, you too could see them… it basically consisted of a King at a feast – amazing.

As we drove away we passed a beach, so we stopped, and jumped out for a walk along the sand. This is where Ev got her birthday card, as Marc wrote a message in the sand, aah how sweet :D

Our final stop for the night was West Port, the place itself is fairly none descript, with nothing of note there really. It’s a quiet little town and there was no one around. The hostel we stayed at was a nice, cute place and we were the only ones there. And it was more like someone’s house than a hostel. The best thing about West Port was the supermarket – this little shop in this little town sold South African goodies :D Evelyn was so taken by surprise she insisted on buying one of each of the items… being pronutro, chocits, tennis biscuits!!

We didn’t hang around for too long the next day, and as it turned out we couldn’t anyway. As soon as we shut the door to the house to leave, we were locked out. We wanted to leave some money for internet use (we’re honest people), but couldn’t get back in, so we stuffed a couple of $$’s through the gap of the open window ;)

So, we headed off to Blenheim (the wine region close to Picton), our last stop on the South Island. En route we visited the grossly over-rated Murchinson swing-bridge, which is advertised as being the longest swing bridge in the world. It costs about $5 pp to enter – For our money we took about 2mins to cross the bridge (with Marc inevitably bouncing the bridge to scare Evelyn). Right, what’s next then!! The owners try and make it a bit more interesting, and you can pay an extra $5 to take the flying fox back to the other side, but it’s a bit tame after seeing the Zambezi one ;)

As we were here, we made the most of it, and explored the area on this side of the bridge, going on a couple of little walks. There is a bit of history about and the little info boards explained that the area got flooded in the early 1900’s and wiped out a village, there’s also an old “gold mine” which is nothing more than a hut, and a few abandoned tractors. There was also a really bad quake here and you could see the gap that the quake created.

When we went back to the bridge & started to cross back over we decided to wait a bit as there were people crossing from the other side. But soon a big fat German woman (speculating nationality, but with a stern look like that, she had to be) and her family decided to be impatient and cross from our side, as she passed us she said “we can fit passed them, we’re not fat!” So whilst Helga was crossing we watched a boy impersonate Superman on the flying fox.

NZ - Franz Joseph

Today was a more fun, and Marc suggests that based on UK time, today still really Evelyn’s birthday ;)

We had an early start and headed to the info office for 8am. As per usual, we weren’t quite as early as planned, so were a bit rushed – we checked out of the backpackers and Marc booked a place in Fox Glacier just down the road. We arrived and queued for our equipment – shoes, socks, talons, gloves, jacket, bum bag, tea-cosy head-piece – and got kitted out ready climb ice!!

We jumped on the bus and headed to the glacier. The glacier itself was a couple of kms from the car park, so we had a nice little walk through rain forest before stopping at a waterfall for a few snaps.



Then we caught our first sight of the glacier, and it’s huge!! Its probably not quite what we expected, though not sure what we were expecting. It’s hard to appreciate the geographic wonder of this creation, as it looks like a big white rock, covered in dirt. It isn’t cold, it’s not snowing, we’re on the ground – well 200m above sea level!! From pictures we’ve seen, the glacier looked a pure, brilliant blue, whereas what we see is a dirty white. This is probably because the clean stuff is higher up, on the untouched, rarely explored, glacier. Also, there is no rain to wash the dirt away, which we’re glad of, recovering from the flu ;) It rains here on 250 days of the year!!



It’s worth mentioning that the glacier is continually “growing”. When it rains/snows at night, at the top of the glacier, at over 3000m above sea level, it’s cold, and the water freezes. During the day, when the temperature rises, the outer layer of ice melts, and runs down the glacier – this creates a river which comes out of the centre of the glacier. When night draws in and temperatures again drop to freezing, the melted water re-freezes further down the glacier. It then rains/snows again… At night it grows by 1.5m, in day it shrinks by 1m, so is gradually heading to sea, and is continuously moving (creating rock flour)!!

The amazing thing is the longitude of the glacier is the northern hemisphere equivalent to the south of France!! Remember, this is the middle of summer and 200m above sea level. You may find a glacier in France starting at 3000m!!

Anyway, the proper tour begins here, and we are sectioned off into groups 1-4, 1 being a real challenge, 4 being a stroll in the park. We opt for group 2 but as it’s over subscribed we volunteer to drop to group 3, as after all we are recovering from a severe illness!! In hindsight, we judged this right as it was still pretty tough going. Our guide was an Italian woman, who really cracked the whip. We were always the first to arrive places, despite normally leaving last!!


At the bottom of the glacier we doned our talons whilst ignoring the instructions of the guide and instead watching the Kia mountain parrots. We could already tell that some of the girls in the group didn’t like our guide, who was quite unsympathetic to the nerves of the girls…



We started our climb, which began with some ready carved ice steps. All the guides continuously cut away at the steps with their axes to keep the shape of the steps as they melt, erode with use, and get washed away by the oncoming melted water. You begin to respect how physically demanding it is being a guide. By the end, we were exhausted just from the walking and climbing, let alone carrying an axe and smashing it at the ice every 5 minutes!!

We went up a few levels getting used to the talons, concentrating on not slipping, and getting good foot holds. We picked up our own “picks” that were really just to help us keep balance and check how deep the holes were. Of course, the boys swung these at the ice to see what destruction could be caused, which was not. The odd chipping fell loose, but the ice is solid!!



We were hoping to cross a bridge an over ice canyon, as advertised, but the route had been changed today (they change as the glaciers move, and also to give the guides some variety).

Unfortunately, no-one had told our guide about the change ;) We walked straight passed the new route and headed up this really tricky slope. The guide spent 5, maybe 10 minutes cutting away some really steep steps, setting up a rope to help us climb (it couldn’t be done otherwise), and then we all struggled scaling this mini-cliff, only for the guide to find the route ahead eroded and impassable ;) So back we all go, and going down was just as hard as the climb ;)

As we climbed the views got better, and the ice slightly cleaner. We stopped occasionally for snacks and drinks, and it was only after stopping for longer than 5 minutes did we start to feel a bit nippy. The rest of the time on this oversized ice-cube, we were hot!! It’s incredible that just because it’s big, it can retain enough cold to prevent meltdown, when given the air temperature, it should be melting!!





We eventually found some pure ice, in the form of tunnels. The tunnels are all naturally created (melting, water erosion, and re-freezing) and continually change place and shape. Here, the ice is such an amazing colour, and you just say “awesome”. The ice, the views, the colour, the size, the creation. Of course, the Japanese tourists in the group ahead went one step too far, and took about 200 snaps of the crevice before climbing through. This really annoyed our guide, as she was on a strict clock watch, and she then got a bit shirty with anyone in our group taking photos!! Ev got called to the front of the group for being “too slow” by taking too many photos ;)




We also climbed down an ice hole and out the other side, which was good fun, though slightly scary as we didn’t know where to put our feet. The foot holds were designed for tall people so you had to really stretch and trust the guide that it we dropped down, we would find the hole ;) It was a very tight hole, and reminiscent of Cango Caves in SA ;)

We climbed to a height of about 1000m above sea, so we’d climbed 700-800mtrs, and got some great views. The climb back down the glacier was more treacherous than the climb up. The ascent had sapped a lot of our strength, and the path was a lot slippier and wet after a days melting. There is also the usually complacany that we are on the way down, and almost back, so it’s easy now… One girl slipped over and twisted her ankle slightly – she was ok – and that was just as we began the climb down!! There was quite a few more almost falls and slips, and generally it was the person in front who would support you as you came crashing down on them from behind. Luckily, they always managed a successful catch otherwise it would be the classic dominios effect ;)

Needless to say we were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the bottom, and taking our talons off was weird. You get used to wearing them after a while. We now had the long walk back to the bus stop ;(



Luckily, Marc booked a really nice place to stay this evening – the perfect place for resting weary limbs. We drove back to Fox Glacier, 30km south, and stayed at Fox Glacier Lodge. We were booked into the cottage, which was lovely, with loads of character, a nice hot tub, and views of the glacier in the back ground. It had all the extras – fridge full of goodies, food for breakfast, kettle, DVD player, and electric blankets to keep the bed warm :-D





For dinner, we headed to the restaurant next door, The Plateau Cafe & Bar. This did one our the best meals we had in the whole of NZ. Ev had the honey & mustard sweet potato starter and beef medallion for mains and Marc had the pumpkin soup starter and salmon for his mains - delicious! The perfect end to Ev’s birthday (UK time ;)