Rain, Rock, and Ice
New Zealand – Wanaka Lake
Our main goal this week was to hit the west coast of the South Island. We made our way from Waitomo on the North Island to Queenstown on the South Island (skipping Wellington for now, but plan to hit it on our way back north in a week or two). For the first time in New Zealand, we encounter serious rain… like pouring all day. It pretty much started raining a few hours after we arrived on the South Island and kept on raining the whole week. We did have a few lucky breaks with blue sky – the best of which was perfectly timed for our Heli-Hike on Franz Josef Glacier.
1. Go
- Car – 1,401 km. We drove a lot this week in our trusty bird-van. Although it’s not so trusty in reminding us that we left the headlights on… yep, we drained the battery and had to get a jump.
- Ferry – 103 km. The surprising expensive, slow (3 hours), but beautiful inter-island ferry.
New Zealand – South Island trees from the Inter Island Ferry
- Helicopter – 20 km. To and from Franz Josef Glacier.
New Zealand – Franz Josef Glacier – Helicopter ride
- Foot – 63,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 32 miles)
2. See
Our first stop on the West Coast of the South Island was the little town of Punakaiki. Just 1 km south of town are some odd rock formations called the Pancake Rocks. According to the informational signs, scientists aren’t sure how exactly they were formed.
Further south along the coast are the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. It is possible to view each glacier via short hikes from their respective car parks, but what the area is most known for are their glacier walking tours. It used to be possible to access the glacier from the ground, but they have receded so much that it is no longer safe to access them from the sides of the valley. Instead, the only way to hike on the glacier is to take a helicopter. It’s not cheap, but it sure is amazing! Unfortunately, we arrived on Thursday and the weather was rainy, so no tours were going (they won’t fly the helicopters in rain or bad weather). We quickly tried to book a tour for Friday, but they were all booked up (just as well since it rained all day). We were able to book a tour for the Saturday morning. We crossed our fingers that the weather gods would bless us and furiously checked the weather report. Since we had an extra day, we hiked up to Fox Glacier before the weather got too bad, then played cards in the van all afternoon during the downpour.
On Saturday morning, we woke up to blue skies and no wind! Thank you weather gods (and pure luck)! They supplied us with all the gear to keep us safe and warm while on the glacier. The helicopter ride to the glacier was about 5 minutes. Our pilot flew us close to the steep valley walls, then swooped over the glacier. We landed on a tiny spot of ice, unloaded, and put on our crampons. The hiking was pretty slow going with our group, but this gave us the opportunity to hang in back and take lots of photos. We got to explore a few blue ice caves and watch some ice fall far off on the glacier. Then it was a quick trip back to town on the helicopter. Note: This was Pat’s first helicopter ride! Can you believe he’s been married to a Chadwick for over eight years and hadn’t been in a helicopter yet?
After all the dreary weather, we thought we should cheer ourselves up with a visit to Puzzle World! Lindsey vividly remembers stopping here nearly 20 years ago on a family trip. It was Sunday and raining out, so the indoor rooms were packed with kids and families. The outdoor maze was much less crowded but also much more wet.
3. Eat
Although we have mostly cooked in again this week, we are really enjoying New Zealand food. It’s hard to describe the food here. It’s pretty international. The one constant are pies and slices. Pies are typically filled with meat (lamb, steak, chicken) and 4-5 inches in diameter. Slices are basically cookie bars. Common flavors are coffee-walnut, ginger-apricot, and chocolate-caramel. We’ve found that both pies and slices are available at cafes, gas stations, and lunch spots (and all are delicious).
New Zealand – Preparing lunch at Lake Matheson
4. Drink
We continue to be impressed by the craft beer selection. Possibly even more impressive is the coffee. New Zealand has really good coffee. Even at gas stations and roadside cafes, they don’t have a pot of coffee already made (drip coffee just doesn’t exist here, at least that we’ve found). Instead, they have an espresso machine so you can order a cappuccino, americano, or latte. However, the most common orders are the Short Black (espresso) and the Long Black (similar to an americano, but in the reverse order, espresso poured into hot water).
5. Sleep
On our way to Queenstown we stayed at a campsite on the west side of Haast pass. We thought it was incredibly beautiful when we arrived.
New Zealand – Haast Pass Camping – Beautiful, but…
We went for a forest walk and explored the area a bit… then the bugs found us. They were so bad that we couldn’t open the van doors without getting tons inside. We couldn’t even stay outside long enough to cook. We put the stove right outside the door, then sat inside watching it until it boiled. Then we brought the hot water inside the van to use for instant noodles and tea. We just couldn’t stand to be outside any longer!
6. Move
Aside from some pretty mild hikes (including one on a glacier), this week has been pretty low key. We still haven’t found van travel conducive to getting in our steps. Pat has been running a bit more and Lindsey’s gotten in some lifting, but the weather and bugs have prevented us from doing much more.
Check out Pat’s CADENCE Week 18 post for details about this week.
7. Etcetera
It’s hard to describe how ridiculously beautiful it is in New Zealand. Just when you think it can’t possibly get better, it does. We’ve been doing a pretty good job of putting the camera away once and a while, but sometimes you just have to pull over and snap a few shots. Here is a typical view from the van:
New Zealand – Lake Hawea
Interesting factoid of the week: New Zealand has NO native land mammals. Think about that for a minute. None. Zero. Zilch. That’s no deer, no raccoons, no squirrels, no mice… no land mammals. Seems odd for a country that’s famous for it’s sheep! Of course, there are land mammals now and they are seen as pests. Without predators the populations have gotten completely out of control.
Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week (internet in NZ is scarce and not free, so we will be adding more to this album throughout the week).
Nomadic Cadence 
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