Today will be a cool day literally as we are heading off from Hokitika to 'Glacier Country' home to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers - and another much anticipated highlight on our big trip! After a couple of hours drive and a quick leaflet stock up at the i-site we arrive at a rainy Franz Josef and have a quick cup of tea in Betty (whilst waiting for the rain to abate). We have found that with our Scottish Flag stuck to Betty's window it is often a good conversation starter usually when we get parked up for the night and are meeting the neighbours. We were a little surprised to get out of Betty, all set for our walk to be accosted by our car park neighbours in a Maui camper van (the Waitrose of the camper van hierarchy) proclaiming "Our flag is bigger than yours!"
After a good chat with the friendly Scottish couple, we set off on our walk through the u-shaped valley to the snout of the glacier and gradually the weather and clouds slowly lift revealing an amazing view of blue ice and crevasses. It certainly brings back my old St. Andrews glaciology lectures!
We nip back in to the township to get a few supplies and see a sign outside a bakery proclaiming 'Saturday is doughnut day!!!' and discover the most amazing cake shop of our trip so far. It is decorated in bright pink wallpaper and has every possible type of home baking there is - cup cakes, fairy cakes, victoria sponge and 16 different flavors of doughnuts! Passion fruit custard is our choice!
20 minutes down the road we reach Fox Village and try to book onto a trip to the Fox Glacier for tomorrow. The weather is looking a little suspect so we will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings - fingers crossed all round!
We drive down to the Mt Cook lookout point
and on our way back see a camper van in distress. Now there are certain camper van rules that must be obeyed such as waving whilst on the road etc etc and so after our initial "stuck in the mud incident" (when we were rescued ourselves) it is only right to see what we can do to help, especially as it is a fellow Apollo van (much smaller than Betty - being a Toyota Hiace). The little Apollo is stuck in the mud after its driver pulled off to take a quick photo, without checking ground conditions first. After a valiant effect Betty couldn't pull the wee van from the mud, so we duly went to the nearest garage to summon help. The friendly garage man swiftly pulled the wee van out with his big 4x4. A good days work is done.
We finally made it to the campsite after what has been quite an eventful day. Who knows what tomorrow will have in store for us?
Mrs M.
After a good chat with the friendly Scottish couple, we set off on our walk through the u-shaped valley to the snout of the glacier and gradually the weather and clouds slowly lift revealing an amazing view of blue ice and crevasses. It certainly brings back my old St. Andrews glaciology lectures!
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| Our first glimpse of Franz Josef Glacier |
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| Closer to the snout. The ice is covered in fallen skree from the valley walls. |
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| Blue ice in the glacier. |
20 minutes down the road we reach Fox Village and try to book onto a trip to the Fox Glacier for tomorrow. The weather is looking a little suspect so we will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings - fingers crossed all round!
We drive down to the Mt Cook lookout point
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| Mt Cook Lookout - Mt Cook hidden in the cloud. |
We finally made it to the campsite after what has been quite an eventful day. Who knows what tomorrow will have in store for us?
Mrs M.
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