Icy Giants

From Greymouth we went on to Hokitika, a charming little beach town where we spent some stormy time at the ocean before going out to a little lake in the area where we went for rainy walks. The next day we didn't want to wait around any longer and went down to Franz Josef Township that is situated at the foot of the famous Franz Josef Glacier. And sure enough, once we got there it cleared up and the sun came out for the first time in what felt like ages.

So the next beautiful morning, cloudless and clear as it could get, we went out on the ice. The glacier tour started in town where we had to fill out a massive amount of forms before even getting to the place where we would get our gear: jackets, gloves, overtrousers, hats, boots, socks, spikes and the like. Then we hopped onto a Heli and went up into the mountains. We turned around a mountain corner and suddenly the glacier appeared in front of us. It was blindingly white, rising in front of us like a wall - simply breathtaking. We landed on the ice and the following three hours were like a trip into a different world. We climbed up the glacier, zigzagged through mazes of icy walls high as skyscrapers, jumped over deep canyons and crawled through cages of ice. Down in the cages the ice shined in spectacular shades of blue while on the surface it was glittering in the sun, building bizarre formations that were constantly changing under the forces of melt water. It was an amazing experience, being on this singularly beautiful glacier and actually getting lost in its sheer size and grandeur. After three hours that felt like 5 minutes (we could have gone on forever), we were picked up by the Heli again and had to say goodbye to Franz Josef Glacier. We defrosted ourselves (it actually wasn't cold at all on the glacier...) in the Hot Pools in town and spent a perfectly relaxed evening out in the sun.

Unfortunatelly the next day it was raining and the clouds kept the mountaintops a secret once again. We went to the glacier valley anyways and took quite a spectacular walk up to the glaciers terminal zone - or as close as we could safely get. It was somewhat mystical, with the clouds hanging deep in the valley that looks like a rocky desert. The surrounding mountains are covered with lush rainforest though, and that is what makes Franz and Fox glaciers very special. No other glaciers in the world penetrate so deeply into a temperate rainforest - and this obviously makes for some great scenery. We spent the afternoon in Fox Township where we went for some walks through the valley and got our feet wet. When it didn't clear up the next day either, we just went into the glacier valley again and visited Fox' terminal face. Fox gracefully winds through the mountains with some twists and turns. It is surrounded by some of the Southern Alps highest mountain tops, like Mount Cook and the enormous Abel Tasman glacier high up in the mountains. Even on that grey day the scenery was stunning and the sheer forces of nature that could be found in the valley (as the Fox glacier is retreating quickly) make you feel quite small.

From Fox we went down to Haast and took a side trip to Jackson Bay at the end of the road. As we went down there, it cleared up, so we got to enjoy the beautiful landscape around us. The highway winds through beautiful lowland, offers nice sidewalks through estuaries and leads along the pristine coast with its turquoise waters and long beach for the last part. Jackson Bay is a nice, calm and sheltered area. But after a short walk across the small peninsula we reached the open wild Tasman sea. Looking down to the southwest we knew the next thing to come would be Antarctica. We are getting closer to the most southern point of our journey.

After a night in Haast we woke up to perfect weather - no cloud, not even on the mountain tops, and the warm sunshine on our faces for breakfast - you don't need much more to be happy. We went down the Haast Highway that leads back inland, right through the mountains over the Haast Pass. It was awesome since we actually got to see the Alps in their whole grandeur for the first time on our trip. So we took our time and spend the whole day for the trip down to Wanaka as we stopped at every corner for pictures, short walks or a cold drink in the sun. We saw stunning scenery, with beautiful waterfalls, sheer cliffs, deep gorges and a steadily changing landscape from lush rainforests to alpine grasslands. The crystal clear blue waters of the alpine Queenstown Lakes invited for a swim (a short one as the water was freezing) in front of the scenic backdrop of snowcapped mountains and rolling hills. In the end it was just that - a perfect summer day. And one that we used preparing ourselves mentally for the next morning - when we went skydiving...