DAY 1
So off we went for a two day exploration of the West Coast. To get to the West Coast from Christchurch there are two ways, Authur's pass, the directest route, and Lewis Pass, the long one everyone takes in winter due to black ice on Aurthur's. Now the locals had been giving a definite impression that Authur's was scary and looking at pictures of the viaduct online, that certainly seemed correct. After you get out of the Canterbury plains its right into the mountains all the way to the West Coast. The plains were nice because the nice flat stretches let me adjust to the car before hitting the reputed hard parts. But the mountains proved to be no problem at all though! The roads are very very winding and very narrow with 180 degree curves back and forth all up and down. The speed limit on all hi-ways here is 100 km, unless marked for the taking curves, which while in reality about 60mph, seemed a lot faster given the width and nature of the roads. Luckily traffic is pretty light in this country, so I could putz at speeds I was comfortable with. So our first amazing sights were Authur's pass itself.
Now if we had stopped each time there was something beautiful and picture worthy on this drive we would have never made it to Greymouth, our hotel destination! There were amazing rivers, waterfalls, and lush rain forest covered hills all around. Before we got to the point pictured above, there were also hills that reminded Greg of Scotland with these awesome rock formations called Castle Rock. Unfortunately the camera was acting up at the point so can't share that view.
We continued on through the mountains, enjoying the great views while I navigated the crazy roller coaster roads and were in high spirits. The drive took about 4 hours so we arrived at our Greymouth accommodations around 2pm and promptly checked in, dropped off unneeded gear and headed out again to grab some Domino's Pizza before heading out to Pancake Rocks, these really kewl rock formations on the coast north of Greymouth. Celia talked me into trying Chicken Feta pizza and I have to say I'm totally hooked and craving one even as I write this. :)
Pancake Rocks on Dolomite Point are one of those little natural mysteries here in New Zealand. They are limestone, which isn't really anywhere else on the coast and formed into strange layers like stacks of pancakes. No one knows how they formed, but they are just amazing to look at. The whole place had an enchanted ancient castle/temple feeling though none of it is man made. We really enjoyed exploring this area. Greg got a lot of really awesome shots, these are just some.
After exploring this amazing natural wonder we drove about five minutes north of here to do a little cave exploration. Punakaki Cavern was definitely on Greg's to do list and I actually had never been in a cave at all so it was lots of interesting fun. The cave itself wasn't terribly large but had several different areas to explore and also the added fun of glowworms! When we turned off the torches, that's flashlights to us back home, the glow worms lit up the ceiling of the cave like stars. It was very groovy!
After all this exploring we were pretty tired and rather filthy so it was back to the hotel which had great comfy beds and nice hot jacuzzi to make a perfect end to a great day!
DAY 2
We got up pretty early the next day to head out toward our next West Coast destination. Three hours down the coast from Greymouth is the Franz Josef Glacier, an amazing place with glaciers and rain forest. This seemed pretty strange to me because when you think of rain forest you think of humid warmth and glaciers you think arctic cold, but they are weirdly right next to each other. I have decided in my granted limited experience that so far rain forest is my favorite terrain on the planet. I just love the feel of it for some reason. Maybe its all that super oxygenated air, not sure, just know it make me happy. The road down to Franz Josef was even more narrow and winding then Authur's Pass but went through ever more amazing terrain of road clinging rain forest. Some of the weirder things about NZ country side hi-ways are they pretty much have no road shoulder and one lane bridges. These things are everywhere! I think we crossed about a dozen of them on the way to Franz Joseph. They are narrow, a bit unnerving and frankly strike me as foolishly dangerous for public hi-ways where people drive like nuts. Its not just my opinion on that one, there are signs and commercials on tv constantly about how speed kills in this country.
We arrived at Franz Josef around 1pm and stopped into the visitor center to check out the various tramp, that's hiking paths to us, that lead to the glacier. After getting directions to the glaciers main car park we headed out. Now the road to the car park was rather weird because it had at least a half a dozen one lane speed bump things, and not single concrete raised things, but rough stone in cement double risers. These were really irritating to drive on. But once past that we parked and headed out to see a glacier.
We opted on the Glacier Valley walk which promised to give a nice walk through the rain forest and then out to the glacier itself with a round trip time of an hour and a half. Unfortunately this is the moment when the camera died. Completely, totally. We bought new batteries in Greymouth, but by time we got to Franz Josef it was obviously a lost cause. That camera gave us trouble this whole trip, but I was hoping it would hold out until we got home. But being the resourceful people we are, we did not accept defeat but instead emptied the backpack, put in the laptop with its handy-dandy webcam camera, grabbed the battery from the other laptop and headed out on our hike. The webcam wasn't great so these pictures don't do the experience justice at all, but at least we tried. Celia also got some video on her Ipod which I hope to upload with some other ones she's taken sometime in the next few days.
The glacier was really an amazing and unique thing. On the way there we went through some really beautiful forest, then out onto the dry rocky river bed part of the trail. On either side were rain forest covered hills with many waterfalls cascading down. One point there was a section where you could sit on a big rock in front of a multiple water fall and see the hills, glacier and listen to the falling water. This was the perfect spot! The ice is actually blue in color and at the bottom there was a river rushing out from underneath it. Really, an amazing day! :)
After the hike, which actually took us more like 3-4 hours, we were all pretty tired, so we headed back into Franz Josef village and grabbed some dinner which we ended up eating picnic style on the road side then headed out on the long drive back to Christchurch. It took about 6 hours to get back but wasn't too bad of a drive. The only real issue was possums! These suicidal little cute buggers were all over the roads and I almost hit a half a dozen of them! Luckily I didn't though and we made it back to the beach house safe and sound around 11pm. Overall it was a really great two days and I wish I had gotten over my fear of driving here a long time ago! Cheers! :)
