We decided to combine days again. We woke in Queenstown on Friday (your Thursday) and took off shortly thereafter because that was one of our longest travel days of the trip. The total drive said it would be about 5 hours to get to Franz Josef on the west coast, but that also doesn’t take into consideration stops for pictures and apparently Caitlin needs to eat and go to the bathroom from time to time.
Side note - I take after my mother in the sense that I could eat a piece of bread in the morning, a bag of nuts for lunch, and then realize at dinner time that all I’ve had all day is a piece of bread and a bag of nuts. Why waste travel time by eating?
The weather was crappy so at least it was crappy when we were stuck in a car. There’s not a lot happening on the west coast (as far as human life) from what we saw and what we’ve read, but it is beautiful. It’s just usually pretty rainy and there aren’t a lot of towns.
There were some good picture opportunities when we drove through Mt. Aspiring National Park and Mt Cook National Park. What blows my mind is that Franz Josef Glacier is only 23.3 km (14.47 miles) from Mt. Cook where we were at a week ago. However, to drive to the other one it’s 479 km (almost 300 miles)!
We finally arrived at Franz Josef and it’s a small town, but it’s filled with tourists coming for the glacier so there’s some restaurants, cafés, grocery store, and even a movie theater. After checking into our place (the guy at the front desk was from Story City) we went over and checked out their brewery and ate at another joint next door that serves “pub grub”.
The forecast for yesterday was rainy but we woke up to sunshine so we took off for the hiking tracks. We did three tracks:
1. Lake Matheson Walk
Supposedly the most photographed lake in New Zealand because of it’s reflective views of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. On a clear and still day you can see the mountain range reflection in the water (google it). It was a sunny day and no wind but there were some clouds covering the mountains so we didn’t see it perfectly but it was still pretty awesome nonetheless. 1 ½ hours return walk.
2. Franz Josef Glacier Valley Walk
On this walk we were able to walk to a viewing point of the glacier terminal face. The weather in this little valley we were in leading up the glacier was pretty gross but the sun was somehow still hitting the glacier itself perfectly. In town it was sunny with not a cloud in the sky but if you looked toward where we were on this walk it was just terrible looking, weird. 1 ½ hour return walk.
Do you see the helicopter in this picture?
If you zoom in in the middle, you'll see it.
3. Tatare Tunnels Walk
The first two walks were crowded with tourists but this was slightly off the beaten track. This was more of hike as opposed to a walk with narrow paths and no guardrails. At the end of track we came to an opening of a tunnel that was carved out for water supply purposes. We could have gone in and explored the tunnels a bit more but we didn’t have a flashlight and it’s a tunnel so it’s pitch dark. 1 ½ hour return walk.
After the hikes we went back to our “pub and grub” place and then to end the night we went to the Glacier Hot Pools. These are pretty much like public pools but apparently the water is glacier water and they are heated up so it’s more comparable to a hot tub if anything.
Today we are heading to Arthurs Pass where we will maybe get some hiking in today, get up early tomorrow, and head to Christchurch to drop Doris (our car) off, and fly back to Auckland.