West Coast - Haast & Franz Josef
Blogging from this bus
Have left Wanaka now and travelled up to a place called Haast on the West Coast, where we spent one night.
The drive is absolutely stunning - even when raining. You essentially travel through a high mountain pass and the lush vegetation of rainforests.
We've had a heck a lot of rain.
The average for the West Coast of NZ is in the region of 5 metres per year - compare this with somewhere like London which has only 300mm per year (or to Phoenix which this year to date has had 0.63 inch!)and you can see that it's pretty wet.
Even for NZ they've had a very wet spring/early summer. So whilst all you folks back home are basking in the warm November sunshine, think of us.
Franz Josef Glacier (Our view from inside the Glacier)
L & R have conquered FJ Glacier
Yes Peeps that is really us, Leigh and me - we have not paid anyone to superimpose our cardboard cutouts up there on the glacier (We are saving that trick for the bungi jumping!).
And so, what day is it? Oh yes, it is Monday, 20.11.06 and this morning we met our guide at 8.30am and embarked upon our Franz Josef Glacier trip. We had heard it was not for the faint hearted, so I knew instinctively that this was for us! (ha! ha!). To our one guide there were 12 of us in the group, 5 Germans, 5 Japs and us two valiant Brits. For once, I was not the weakest link. So, a multi-faceted new experience one might say. Yoko occupied that dubious pleasure. For a start she had the most unusual way of crossing the many fast flowing streams that we had to face on the 2 mile walk to the glacier itself. She would successfully and urgently step on the first two or three rocks (within the stream itself that is, that the guide had just skillfully skipped across on, followed by the rest of us, all except Yoko that is, cos she and her loyal husband were always at the back/last)and so...
Then as we waited and observed, Yoko would veer to the right and wade into the stream, carefully avoiding any further rocks as she strode across like a trapese artist trying to maintain his balance. And then, Yoko's husband would do exactly the same thing almost as if a game of copy cat was on the go between them. With each stream the procedure was the same. Suffice to say this couple ended up wet through to their knees. From our dry-land position this was fascinating. We concluded that this is some ancient Samurai custom.
Once having ascended the intrepid JF glacier and calmed my jelly legs I was able to summon all my reserves of bravery and actually open my eyes and look around me. Crickey me...all the ice. And ice with blue streaks at that! It was a tad chilly too, I can tell you! It was especially hard on the knees on the descent as you had to stamp hard on each step to ensure your crampons spiked the ice properly so as you did not slip. Our guide had warned us to be extremely careful to stamp each step on the ascent as it was steep and slippery and if you did slip it was a long way down and you could take someone else 'out' with you. As you can imagine these warnings posed a real dilemna for me as I did not know whether to have Leigh in front of me (soft landing but how could he help me if he were in front?) or behind me as he can be a tad cavalier and not one for detail!
Btw, we are not sure what the stream wader's name really was. It would really be a coincidence if it was Yoko though! (If I saw Yoko n a pub, I'd say: 'Oi, Ono, No,No, Ono').My goodness, we are really sensible, aren't we?.
Have left Wanaka now and travelled up to a place called Haast on the West Coast, where we spent one night.
The drive is absolutely stunning - even when raining. You essentially travel through a high mountain pass and the lush vegetation of rainforests.
We've had a heck a lot of rain.
The average for the West Coast of NZ is in the region of 5 metres per year - compare this with somewhere like London which has only 300mm per year (or to Phoenix which this year to date has had 0.63 inch!)and you can see that it's pretty wet.
Even for NZ they've had a very wet spring/early summer. So whilst all you folks back home are basking in the warm November sunshine, think of us.
Franz Josef Glacier (Our view from inside the Glacier)
L & R have conquered FJ Glacier
Yes Peeps that is really us, Leigh and me - we have not paid anyone to superimpose our cardboard cutouts up there on the glacier (We are saving that trick for the bungi jumping!).
And so, what day is it? Oh yes, it is Monday, 20.11.06 and this morning we met our guide at 8.30am and embarked upon our Franz Josef Glacier trip. We had heard it was not for the faint hearted, so I knew instinctively that this was for us! (ha! ha!). To our one guide there were 12 of us in the group, 5 Germans, 5 Japs and us two valiant Brits. For once, I was not the weakest link. So, a multi-faceted new experience one might say. Yoko occupied that dubious pleasure. For a start she had the most unusual way of crossing the many fast flowing streams that we had to face on the 2 mile walk to the glacier itself. She would successfully and urgently step on the first two or three rocks (within the stream itself that is, that the guide had just skillfully skipped across on, followed by the rest of us, all except Yoko that is, cos she and her loyal husband were always at the back/last)and so...
Then as we waited and observed, Yoko would veer to the right and wade into the stream, carefully avoiding any further rocks as she strode across like a trapese artist trying to maintain his balance. And then, Yoko's husband would do exactly the same thing almost as if a game of copy cat was on the go between them. With each stream the procedure was the same. Suffice to say this couple ended up wet through to their knees. From our dry-land position this was fascinating. We concluded that this is some ancient Samurai custom.
Once having ascended the intrepid JF glacier and calmed my jelly legs I was able to summon all my reserves of bravery and actually open my eyes and look around me. Crickey me...all the ice. And ice with blue streaks at that! It was a tad chilly too, I can tell you! It was especially hard on the knees on the descent as you had to stamp hard on each step to ensure your crampons spiked the ice properly so as you did not slip. Our guide had warned us to be extremely careful to stamp each step on the ascent as it was steep and slippery and if you did slip it was a long way down and you could take someone else 'out' with you. As you can imagine these warnings posed a real dilemna for me as I did not know whether to have Leigh in front of me (soft landing but how could he help me if he were in front?) or behind me as he can be a tad cavalier and not one for detail!
Btw, we are not sure what the stream wader's name really was. It would really be a coincidence if it was Yoko though! (If I saw Yoko n a pub, I'd say: 'Oi, Ono, No,No, Ono').My goodness, we are really sensible, aren't we?.
posted by Leon Trotsky | 5:24 am
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