New Zealand Vacation - Day 2
Arthur’s Pass - Punakaiki - Franz Josef Glacier - Fox Glacier
You’ll have to excuse the slower updates the past couple days. For the first time since I’ve known her, Andrea has become obsessed with a video game and has been monopolizing the iPad playing Where’s Waldo.
Alarm went off at 7am but had to snooze for a while. We had lost 3 hours in the last 2 days so it was just too early for us. Finally rolled out of bed at 8:00 and got the day started. Grabbed breakfast on the go and made it to our first stop for the day within 2 1/2 hours: The pancake rocks of Punakaiki. The drive there was just amazing for stretches, especially once we hit the coast, it has a surreal feeling due to the meeting of the sea with the forested mountains. A haze envelops the countryside and clouds coming in off the ocean slam into mountains and spill up and down the mountain face.
The pancake rocks themselves have been formed over thousands of years, a slow stacking of limestone and mudstone, under constant bombardment from wind and rain. We unfortunately came just after low tide because at high tide, the waves from the ocean force themselves up through nooks and crannies in the rocks and create geysers in some spots, but the rocks themselves are still quite the sight to see. Our visit was pretty short, and we had to backtrack for a while to hit our next destination, the Franz Josef glacier. Along the way, we ran into a group of bikers that seemed intent on passing me as many times as possible. Got passed by 35 bikers, only to have them all pull over in a town soon afterwards so I could pass them and they could start the exercise all over again.
We showed up at around 3:30pm and missed the guided walks they have to take you on to the glacier itself. Instead we first took a short hike up a small hill to get a spectacular view of the glacier and the mostly dry riverbed below it. After that, we headed straight for the glacier along the riverbed. We were able to get within 50 metres or so of the glacier face but they won’t actually let you climb onto the ice without a guide. We still had a great walk and got some great shots. Franz Josef glacier is retreating, like all worldwide glaciers, in fact they have a marker for the extent of the glacier in 1750, a few km further than it extends now. But the rate of ice loss is pretty low by worldwide standards.
We continued along the mountain road towards Fox glacier, about 30 km away, and got to our motel by early evening. Took the advice of the owner and went for dinner at a restaurant near Lake Matheson. A lake renowned for its mirror images of the surrounding mountains. We took a short hike to the lake but despite its seclusion, it was too windy and the ripples disrupted the reflection. We got back to the restaurant, enjoyed dinner and watched as the clouds that had been masking the tops of all the nearby mountains dissipated just for us. Ended up getting a spectacular view of Mount Cook, which is the tallest mountain on the South Island, and possibly all of NZ. Went outside to take pictures and soon half the restaurant emptied out to do the same. Was a good way to end a great day.
