- Starting the trip, the Bay of Islands, and the Muriwai Gannet Colony
- The Coromandel Peninsula
- The road to Wellington
- Northeastern South Island — Wine Tasting, Abel Tasman, Nelson, and Havelock
- Kaikoura — marine life everywhere!
- Christchurch, a stay on the farm, and the TranzAlpine Train
- Starting down the West Coast — things are starting to get real!
- A glacier’ing we will go!
- Queenstown
- Milford Sound and Fjordland National Park
The next day was a long day of driving. Of course, by this time, everyone had gotten to know each other pretty well and, with three women and one man in the van, the conversations would inevitably turn to how men screw over women. In this sea of estrogen, Glen was left to carry the sins of “mankind” on his shoulders. Of course, it was all good-natured, but Moira always loved to instigate. We made a short stop in Hari Hari, the site of Australian adventurer pilot Guy Menzies’ crash landing. Like other adventuring pilots in 1931, the challenge was to do a solo trans-Tasman flight. Menzie nearly made it to his target of Blenheim, but poor weather drove him off his course. Since it was high tide, there was no beach to attempt a landing on, saw he tried to set it down in what he thought was a meadow. It turned out to be a marsh and he crash-landed upside down. Luckily, he lived and set a new speed record for the trip. I thought it interesting for the town to have a memorial for something like this.
From there, we pulled into the village of Franz Josef, that conveniently sits at the base of the Franz Josef Glacier. It is a nice little town, mostly dedicated to adventuring. Our goal was both to hike up to the glacier as well as to take a helicopter ride up to the glacier. Given a front that was coming in, we decided to do the hike and then make the call whether to stay here or move down the highway a ways to go to its sister — Fox Glacier. Well, the front came in during our hike, so we hiked in the pouring rain. It still was amazing to come right up to the glacier face and see the blue-ice crevasses there. The other thing that is weird is seeing a glacier end in a tropical rainforest. It is a bit weird.
By the next day, we made the decision to head over to Fox Glacier and we were rewarded with an absolutely gorgeous day. We had a beautiful flight and landed on the neve (or packed snowfield) of Fox Glacier. We were pretty convinced that our pilot was a former military guy because it was a pretty exciting ride!
Early the next morning, we stopped at Lake Matheson. This is one of the best places to get a clear view of Mt. Cook (Aoraki) and, hopefully, a beautiful shot of the reflection of the mountain in the lake. It was a gorgeous morning with the remains of low hanging fog and lots of dew. We did the 2.5 mile lakeside loop that brought through the forests and Reflection Island. A great way to start the day as we started heading to Queenstown.
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
