Glacier Country

The Road To Glacier Country

I needed a good rest and Westport looked like just the place to get it. Not a huge amount to do there but I figured I only needed one night to recharge my batteries and get back on the road.

It was a bit late when I got there - again the drive took ages - and I needed to restock on food so after the usual info centre stop I went for a good old shop around the local supermarket. After spending an absurd amount of time squeezing everything into my cupboard and fridge (yep, just one cupboard in my van) I realised it was really quite late and set off in search of a cheap campsite.

I didn't find a cheap one - there's only 2 and they're both quite pricey - but beggars can't be choosers and I'd already decided that I'd happily pay for power every night just for the warmth of my plug-in fan heater. Well, that night the money wasn't well spent - I woke up absolutely freezing at 4am with no noise coming from the heater. It had died. I was so cold that I didn't even want to get out from under my duvet so I just stayed there in a semi-sleep until it was light, then rang the rental company who told me they'd give me my money back if I bought a new one and kept the receipt. I bought one from town and then decided that while I was there it was about time I updated my internet stuff - 4 hours later I left the internet cafe with photos uploaded and diary entries almost fully up to date. Yes, that's how long it takes to do these things so sorry if I go for long periods without any updates. It's also a pretty expensive business at almost £3 an hour in many places.

Time was really getting on again and I still hadn't seen the town's attractions, so I decided to see those and stay one more night. A quick 15km drive took me to a place called Cape Foulwind, home to a lighthouse an, more importantly, another seal colony. Apparently the males are pretty rampant beasts - the same ones service the females here as well as at Abel Tasman and Kaikoura on the east coast. Impressive stuff. Another little factlet, this time about the females - at Abel Tasman most of the mothers undergo a daily 100km round trip to get food for their pups. That's commitment for you. Seal colonies are usually found in safe havens as their pups are defenseless most of the time; the downside to this being that there's no food to eat in the area. I certainly hope the seals at Westport don't decide to up and leave as they're immaculately signposted at ervy turn from about 20km away - I guess they're pretty well settled.

Another night in Westport so I went for the holiday camp right by the seal colony. Now, do you think it's a good idea to sleep in a fairly flimsy campervan in a place called Cape Foulwind, right by the sea? Well it wasn't too bad at all actually, surprisingly enough, although it was pretty rough in the day.

It's quite a long way to Franz Josef, my next stop, so I took a look at Punakaiki and Greymouth to break up the journey. Punakaiki boasts pancake-style layered rocks along the seafront, as well as beautiful ocean views. Greymouth however was really just a small hick-ish town with not a lot going fo it as far as I could see. The drive itself was spectacular - I couldn't go for more than 15 minutes without stopping and taking pictures - and before I knew it I was on the Glacier Highway heading towards some snow-capped mountains...

Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers

More brilliant naming conventions here. The Franz Josef glacier is known as Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere in Maori, but a German explorer didn't like that much and dedicated it to the Austrian Emperor instead. No doubt the Maoris loved that one. And the Fox Glacier is even better - Te Moeka o Tuawe in Maori but when Sir Edward Fox, then prime minister, visited the glacier in 1872 he liked it so much that he put through a petition to name it after himself. What a modest and shy chap.

A glacier is simply defined as a large body of ice that moves slowly over time. They're usually formed between high, snow-capped mountains and over time they melt and then reform, giving the impression that they're 'moving'. The Franz Josef Glacier is pitched as the fastest moving glacier in the world, moving at a rate of 10 metres every year. That might not sound a lot but in the last 250 years it's moved 2.5km - there's a sign on the way to the glacier showing where the ice wall used to be.

I paid for a half-day hike up the Franz Josef glacier and just checked out the Fox Glacier and nearby Lake Matheson the next day. I really enjoyed the hike, well worth the £35 I spent on it, and our guide (bizarrely a chap from Swindon) was excellent and very informative. And near the township of Fox Glacier you can go to Lake Matheson and see New Zealand's tallest mountains - Mount Cook and Mount Tasman - reflected in the water. Very nice indeed.

One last chance to do a skydive so I rang the company on the evening of the 10th and they told me to check with them at 7:30am as rain was forecast all week and they wouldn't take anyone up if the weather was bad...

Skydive!

Obviously some good news - when I rang the company at 7:30am I was told to get a shifty on and get to the airstrip as soon as possible as some dodgy weather was coming in. So in no time at all I threw on some clothes and made the very short journey over there; before I knew it (after signing a declaration and filling in some next-of-kin details) we were cramped up in the tiniest of planes, me strapped to a Hungarian instructor and an American girl strapped to the Kiwi that runs the joint.

I really wasn't nervous at all, just a tad uncomfortable in the back (those straps intrude where they shouldn't) and excited about jumping out, but at the same time trying to remember everything that we'd been told to do in a quick hurried sentence before take off. We flew around above the glacier and the two big mountains - Mount Cook and Mount Tasman - for about 10 minutes and then all of a sudden, before anyone could possibly say 'no, stop' I was wearing gloves, goggles and a hat and we were jumping out of the plane.

I wasn't sure how it would be in terms of breathing, and it really was quite weird. At first I tried to breathe through my nose, as instructed, but I found that a bit tricky; then I tried breathing through my mouth which really is a bad move as you get that classic wobbly cheeks syndrome and it doesn't work at all. So, back to breathing through the nose again, and then almost holding my breath completely as we passed through a cloud which didn't seem to do anything at all - no sensation, no difference at all. Surprising. And then the parachute came open, I could breathe normally again and the views hit me - absolutely stunning, a few dodgy stomach moments as the instructor sent us round in a few spinning circles, and then pretty soon we coming into land. I lifted my legs up as I'd been told for the landing, stood up and wondered where the last 30 minutes of my life had gone.

I bought a small selection of photos but didn't go for anything spectacular like my own free-falling photographer or DVD - and the whole thing cost me about £140. But what an experience!! Totally worth it, not sure if I'll do it again but I wouldn't rule it out.

I left the airstrip and couldn't believe that it wasn't even 9am yet, so I checked out the Fox Glacier and Lake Matheson (previous entry), went to the internet cafe and then left for Haast.