To get from Queenstown to Franz Josef, you need to drive north on State Highway 6. On the way, you pass by Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, through the northern tip of Mount Aspriring National park through a mountain pass called The Gates of Haast, and then drive another 100 km up the west coast until you get to Franz Josef Township. I have made some beautiful drives in the past in Oregon and California, but this drive wins in the beauty category outright.
I firmly believe that if Frodo remembered to bring his digital camera with him, he would have taken pictures similar to the ones Ryan and I took. And with that in mind, I think it’s best if I simply show you the pictures I took as I drove, as opposed to trying to describe them to you.
When we arrived at our hostel, I got a bit of a surprise: Eric and Jess were in Franz Josef as well, and were staying in a hostel just down the street. I met them for drinks at the local pub. I found out they were just down the street when I discovered they had followed me all the way there, debating if it was me. Apparently, the conversation went something like this:
Jess: “I think that’s Dan but I’m not sure, his hair is a bit crazy.”
Eric: “It’s definitely Dan. He’s got his earphones in and there is a spring in his step. That’s him.”
Jess: “I’m still not sure…(tries to sneak closer)…”
Contrary to belief, I don’t play my music that loud, so when I heard them talking behind me I turned around and gave them one of my famous bear hugs; it was good to see them. And with all due respect to Ryan, it was good to see some other friendly faces. I tried to convince them to come and take the glacier walk with us tomorrow over drinks: Jess was up for it, but Eric was running low on funds and declined.
The next morning, Ryan and I woke up bright and early and walked to the glacier guide station in town. Sadly, Jess ended up not coming either: she flaked out last minute when she thought it was going to be raining. Ryan and I weren’t about to let a bit of rain deter us from an outdoor activity; we are Oregonians after all. After checking us in and issuing us the necessary gear, waterproof pants, long Gortex jackets, gloves, boots, and crampons, we pilled on the bus and drove towards the mountains.
Franz Josef Glacier is set at the back of a narrow valley which goes almost all the way to the ocean, and is bordered on two sides by lush rainforest. It is a bit unique in that it is one of only three glaciers on earth which are surrounded by rain forest: warm, humid air from Australia blows in off the Tasman Sea and cools once it hits the mainland, it then cools even more when it crosses the Southern Alps, resulting in record rainfall and snowfall in fairly close proximity to each other. The other two rainforest-surrounded glaciers are Fox Glacier, which is fifteen minutes drive south of Franz Josef, and a glacier in Argentina. It would have been nice if there the sun was shining when we did the hike, but I’m not going to complain since it didn’t end up raining, and the clouds were high enough to still get some really spectacular views and photos.
Hiking on the glacier was unlike anything I have ever done before. When I climbed Mt. Adams in Washington state in the middle of the summer there were patches of snow on it that never melted, but that doesn’t even come close to Franz Josef. A glacier is one big block of beautiful blue ice, so big in fact that it is constantly moving (albeit slowly) under its own weight. The ice is also layered, each layer corresponding to a layer of snow that has melted and refroze. The whole experience was spectacular; one of the coolest (no pun intended) things I have ever done.
In addition to being a breathtaking experience (both literally and figuratively, it was a pretty decent hike), it was also a very educational one. I got a crash course in geology and plate tectonics (a very large active fault line runs right through town, and is clearly visible from the cracks in the mountains themselves) to go along with my photographs. As funny as it sounds, a glacier behaves a lot like a Milky Way bar if you put it on the edge of a table and smashed it with your hand. I’m not going to go into particulars as to why in this blog, but if anyone wants to do that and send me a picture of the candy bar and your hand afterwards it would make my day.
We left for Nelson the next morning. Thankfully, the worst of our Tourette’s had passed, and the drive went smoothly. It is mostly flat farmland once you get north of the Southern Alps, and since it was dreary and raining for the entire trip there wasn’t much to see that you couldn’t see in Oregon on a winter day. However, we did make a pit stop in Greymouth and hunted for jade on the beach for an hour to stretch our legs a bit. We even found some, along with some other cool rocks; polishing them up will be a fun project when I get back to the states.
We pit stopped in Nelson for the night, and left for Able Tasman National Park the next morning. We had booked a three day kayak tour on a tip from Tina. She and her husband Jeff had done the same tour and gave it rave reviews: according to her, if you do it in the fall you are very likely to run into baby seals, and apparently they get so curious that they swim right up to your kayak and say hello. I was sold immediately by this statement, though part of me thought it was too good to be true. I was willing to give it a shot though, if only just to see Able Tasman National Park from the water; the park has a reputation of being a very well kept secret amongst the south islanders.
This turned out to be a fantastic decision. We are well into the fall season, but from the weather we had you’d never guess: the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the ocean was calm for all three days of our trip. On day one, Ryan and I picked up our kayak and paddled from Marahau to Anchorage, where we spent a night in the hut. On day two, we paddled from Anchorage to Onetahuti beach, ditched our kayaks, and walked to Awaroa and spent the night in the hut there. On day three, we hiked from Awaroa to Totranui, and then caught the water taxi back to Marahau. Since New Zealand is not in the tropics, it’s not technically a tropical paradise, but Able Tasman sure looks like one: lush green forest, golden sand beaches, and beautiful blue-turquoise water so clear you could see the fish. I know I have said in previous entries that sometimes you just need to be there, pictures just don’t cut it; this statement was never truer than when Ryan and I were paddling up the coast of Able Tasman National Park. I can remember on the morning of day two looking out over the pristine bay at Anchorage at about nine in the morning, sun on my face, bare feet in the golden sand, enjoying a large green apple, humming the violin intro to the theme of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and grinning at how lucky I was to be there in that moment. Take it from me, and take a moment to savor the moment if you are lucky enough to have one of those moments, because they don’t happen often, if at all.
And toward the end of the second day, I learned that some things that sound too good to be true are from time to time, true. We had explored every bay, inlet, and island in between Anchorage and Onetahuti, and were getting close to Onetahuti beach. We had seen a few seals, a lot of cormorants, and even some dolphins playing off in the distance, sadly too far out to paddle out and say hello. There was one last island to explore, and this one was supposed to have a registered seal colony on it. We had explored islands like this before, but there hadn’t been too many there, so I didn’t have my hopes up. We paddled north around the island, and found the colony: a small, shallow, rocky bay close to open water; an ideal place to live and to rear pups. And unlike the other colonies we found, this one was packed with seals, both full grown and pups. What was more, all of the pups (I would guess at least 20) were in the water playing. It was a great big seal pup party on a beautiful day, and Ryan and I were the only kayak for miles. Technically, we were supposed to stay twenty meters offshore at all times since this was a registered colony, and we did…initially. The current was taking us slowly into the bay, and we just didn’t do anything to stop it. At first, the pups were a bit nervous; a great big orange thing had drifted into the middle of their playground. However, once they realized that we weren’t going to eat them, they became curious and swam right up to the boat, sniffing the boat and the paddles. It was amazing, and cuter than a room full of kittens. Ryan and I were snapping pictures like mad.
And then things transitioned from amazing to completely surreal: I was snapping photos, when all of a sudden I hear a “WHOMP WHOMP” behind me and feel the boat shake. Then I hear Ryan:
“Dude, THERE IS A BABY SEAL ON THE KAYAK!!”
I turn around, and stared flabbergasted into the large brown eyes of a baby fur seal. I started snapping photos like crazy, though it’s difficult to turn around completely in a kayak. The seal looked around, sniffed Ryan, then sniffed me, looked around some more, then casually hopped back into the water. The entire encounter lasted all of twenty seconds if that, but it was by far the highlight of our trip. We hung around for a few more minutes, but it was getting late and we needed to get our kayak to shore so the water taxi could pick it up and take it back to Marahau.
The rest of our trip, while still fantastic, paled in comparison to the seal encounter; a few moments stick out though. The night we got to Awaroa we enjoyed a bottle of wine, some Colby cheese, and chocolate with a couple of other backpackers staying in our hut, drinking the wine out of bowls and a Poweraid bottle we had cut in half to make two cups. Then on the morning of day three Ryan and I had to make a tidal crossing and neglected to take our shoes off, so we had soaked hiking boots for the rest of the day. And later that day Ryan and I enjoyed a beer at a resort that had closed for the winter. I think there was only one bad part to the entire trip: the sandflies were murder; Ryan and I are still itching our bites. We got back to Nelson the night of day three.
And so concluded the south island leg of our adventure. It would have been cool to party with the students in Dunedin, hike around Mt. Cook and Lake Wanaka a bit, as well as going south to Invercargill and across to Stewart Island for some camping, but I guess now I have a reason to come back, as if I needed one.
After one day of R and R in Nelson, we are off to the north island. I’m eager to see how much misadventure I can pack into my last week in New Zealand. To be continued…
-DK
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