The hike we went on was good and short. It was a good amount of uphill, which is part of the reason we didn’t go any longer. It was raining on and off but overall it was a really nice little hike
After coming back from the hike we went to see the Pancake rocks and blowholes. They are literally the reason that people go to Punakaiki. The rocks were ok, they are goofy looking and cool, but the best thing is the blowholes. We were there about an hour and a half before high tide and it was really cool. Toshi took some crazy photos – I now realize I should have taken video but it’s so hard to know when it’s going to start! That was really fun.
After that we headed to the glaciers. It rained most of the drive down which was about 4 hours long. The town of Fox Glacier is small and Toshi said not nearly as nice as the Franz Josef glacier town but it was ok. We were staying in the cottage associated with a hostel. We had our own bathroom and then a shared kitchen with the other two couples that were staying there (they were sharing a bathroom). It was nice to be able to put some things in the fridge but then to have our own space. We aren’t much for common rooms and pretty much just kept to ourselves but the room was big and the bed was comfy which is really as much as you can ask for.
The next morning (the 13th) we got up to go on our all day glacier hike. I wore my hiking boots, wool socks, running shirts (sleeveless, purple with sleeves), blue fleece and my rain jacket along with my green pants. They gave us thick socks, overpants and I took an extra jacket just to be sure. Everyone else had wet feet but my boots are awesome and therefore I didn’t have wet feet until near the end of the day – but I’ll get there in a second….
There were 16 of us in the group and we were divided in half once we got to the car park of the glacier. Toshi and I along with 6 others went with Margaret and Rich. Margaret was our main leader and Rich was there just to help out. You start out the hiking by a 600 meter long section where you are not allowed to stop because of rock fall. What a great way to introduce you to the glacier right? So we did that and that include walking through two small rivers that were not even really ankle deep. Most people got wet feet there but not me! Thank you boots! Then you get to a good stopping point and you put on your crampons. You can’t walk on ice without them so we learned all about them. It’s a very weird feeling because you have ot pick up your feet extra far otherwise they touch the ground. We also got walking sticks with pokey things on the end to put in the ice to help us with our balance.
Shortly after getting on the ice we stopped so everyone could learn tricks for going up and down the ice. Down is really scary. Then the trek began. It was raining like crazy and I was glad for all the gear and that I had decided to get an extra jacket. It had started out warm but as soon as we got on the ice it was cold and windy. Nice to have all those extra layers! As we hiked up Margaret would stop and carve out sections to help us get up. Seemed good but as we went on farther it seemed to take her longer and longer and it was cold (I was ok but most were colder and wetter than I was). Everyone had wet feet and overall it was not the best. After much hiking up we stopped for lunch. Margaret had brought a tarp and we all got underneath it and sat on the edges. Some people changed their socks at lunch, I just changed my gloves since my socks were still dry! Overall not the greatest lunch experience but the real fun came after lunch.
(January 17th) After coming out of the tarp from lunch we found that we were fogged in. The fog was incredible and due to all the rain the rock falls were happening much more often. Richard who had gone up with us told Margaret that she needed to keep us moving because we were going to need to get down soon. Margaret wanted to get us to our highest point so we kept moving. We moved faster after lunch and soon we made it to the ice falls where we weren’t able to go any farther. We took some pictures up there with the glacier in the background and then it was time to hurry down. By this time there were only two groups left on the ice – us and the ice climbers. Although we had gone up that morning with 15 all day people, the other 7 had already turned around and gone down because they were cold and went. We were troopers! After making it to the top we were told that we were going to need to run down – not literally since that would be unsafe but as fast as we could. I was still pretty warm because I wasn’t as wet as most people and at this point I was only one still with dry feet. The way down was fast, we never stopped moving and Toshi was especially grateful since he was so cold and went. I at was grateful for the extra jacket as well as my awesome shoes that were keeping me dry.
We made it down off the ice and soon were to the point of taking off our crampons. We were told we needed to take them off as soon as possible so we could get down quickly. We carried them in our hands until there was a safe spot to put them in our backpacks. We then got to the place where we could safely put them away and we did. Margaret told us that the rock falls were bad and because of the rain it was really loud. She asked us to stay close and take off our hoods so we could hear her in case she told us to run. The biggest challenge was getting back over the rivers that we had come through earlier in the day. They were much worse due to all the rain. We had to take a detour for one so that we could go through a place that was not so wide. Margaret, Richard and one of the other guides got across the rivers and helped us across them – it reminded me of walking in the caves, the current was so strong! I was glad for their help. Because of the two rivers I finally had wet feet. I had made it the whole day until then but the first river was nearly to my knees and the second was past my knees so there was no hope.
We finally made it back to the parking lot and there was a bus waiting for us! What a day!! Our guides were pretty proud of us for making it all that way and for being the only group to make it all day long. It was exhausting but amazing too. It made Toshi realize that maybe it’s time to retire his orange jacket.
When we got back to the cottage we hung up our stuff and turned the space heater on to try and dry everything as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Toshi only brought his orange jacket, fleece and long sleeve jersey as his only long sleeve layers and they were all soaked. His jacket was sort of dry enough a couple of hours later for us to venture out for dinner.
We had dinner at a nice place in town although our waiter was not the best and forgot my soup byt one of the other waitresses fixed it. The soup was pumpkin and was tasty. I also had pasta, which was big and I had the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
January 14th – We slept in which was much needed. We both woke up with sore throats and tired after the previous very long day. We turned the space heater back on to let things dry. We decided we didn’t need to do anything but lounge around for a while.
After checking out we drove the 3.5 hours to Wanaka. I did some of the driving, which Toshi really appreciated. I think I did a good 2 hours of the driving :-) The first order of business was lunch. We had lunch at a place recommended in one of the guide books and although the service was a bit slow (expected from the book) the food was tasty and we sat outside. The funny thing was that people were walking around in shorts and t-shirts but although it was sunny it was windy and not very warm! After lunch we stopped at the iSite because the GPS couldn’t find the address I put in for our B and B. Turns out I had written down Baker road instead of Barker road – oops, not a mistake I would expect to make! After getting that all squared away we headed out of town and up into the hills where our B and B was.
We drove up the driveway and got there be greeted by the husband of the house – Phil? – who was sitting in the garage. We went and knocked on the door and… ? …. Showed us inside. There were two bedrooms but since we were the only boarders for the night we got to pick rooms and chose downstairs because that meant no lugging luggage upstairs. Toshi was tired so we laid down for a bit and I read while he napped. We then headed in for dinner. Nothing really sounded good to me, we had a large and late lunch, but we ended up getting kabab sandwiches and sitting on the beach. Not a bad dinner if I do say so myself! After hanging out with the ducks a bit on the beach we headed back out of town and back to our home for the night. We watched some Lord of the Rings and went to bed.
After coming back from the hike we went to see the Pancake rocks and blowholes. They are literally the reason that people go to Punakaiki. The rocks were ok, they are goofy looking and cool, but the best thing is the blowholes. We were there about an hour and a half before high tide and it was really cool. Toshi took some crazy photos – I now realize I should have taken video but it’s so hard to know when it’s going to start! That was really fun.
After that we headed to the glaciers. It rained most of the drive down which was about 4 hours long. The town of Fox Glacier is small and Toshi said not nearly as nice as the Franz Josef glacier town but it was ok. We were staying in the cottage associated with a hostel. We had our own bathroom and then a shared kitchen with the other two couples that were staying there (they were sharing a bathroom). It was nice to be able to put some things in the fridge but then to have our own space. We aren’t much for common rooms and pretty much just kept to ourselves but the room was big and the bed was comfy which is really as much as you can ask for.
The next morning (the 13th) we got up to go on our all day glacier hike. I wore my hiking boots, wool socks, running shirts (sleeveless, purple with sleeves), blue fleece and my rain jacket along with my green pants. They gave us thick socks, overpants and I took an extra jacket just to be sure. Everyone else had wet feet but my boots are awesome and therefore I didn’t have wet feet until near the end of the day – but I’ll get there in a second….
There were 16 of us in the group and we were divided in half once we got to the car park of the glacier. Toshi and I along with 6 others went with Margaret and Rich. Margaret was our main leader and Rich was there just to help out. You start out the hiking by a 600 meter long section where you are not allowed to stop because of rock fall. What a great way to introduce you to the glacier right? So we did that and that include walking through two small rivers that were not even really ankle deep. Most people got wet feet there but not me! Thank you boots! Then you get to a good stopping point and you put on your crampons. You can’t walk on ice without them so we learned all about them. It’s a very weird feeling because you have ot pick up your feet extra far otherwise they touch the ground. We also got walking sticks with pokey things on the end to put in the ice to help us with our balance.
Shortly after getting on the ice we stopped so everyone could learn tricks for going up and down the ice. Down is really scary. Then the trek began. It was raining like crazy and I was glad for all the gear and that I had decided to get an extra jacket. It had started out warm but as soon as we got on the ice it was cold and windy. Nice to have all those extra layers! As we hiked up Margaret would stop and carve out sections to help us get up. Seemed good but as we went on farther it seemed to take her longer and longer and it was cold (I was ok but most were colder and wetter than I was). Everyone had wet feet and overall it was not the best. After much hiking up we stopped for lunch. Margaret had brought a tarp and we all got underneath it and sat on the edges. Some people changed their socks at lunch, I just changed my gloves since my socks were still dry! Overall not the greatest lunch experience but the real fun came after lunch.
(January 17th) After coming out of the tarp from lunch we found that we were fogged in. The fog was incredible and due to all the rain the rock falls were happening much more often. Richard who had gone up with us told Margaret that she needed to keep us moving because we were going to need to get down soon. Margaret wanted to get us to our highest point so we kept moving. We moved faster after lunch and soon we made it to the ice falls where we weren’t able to go any farther. We took some pictures up there with the glacier in the background and then it was time to hurry down. By this time there were only two groups left on the ice – us and the ice climbers. Although we had gone up that morning with 15 all day people, the other 7 had already turned around and gone down because they were cold and went. We were troopers! After making it to the top we were told that we were going to need to run down – not literally since that would be unsafe but as fast as we could. I was still pretty warm because I wasn’t as wet as most people and at this point I was only one still with dry feet. The way down was fast, we never stopped moving and Toshi was especially grateful since he was so cold and went. I at was grateful for the extra jacket as well as my awesome shoes that were keeping me dry.
We made it down off the ice and soon were to the point of taking off our crampons. We were told we needed to take them off as soon as possible so we could get down quickly. We carried them in our hands until there was a safe spot to put them in our backpacks. We then got to the place where we could safely put them away and we did. Margaret told us that the rock falls were bad and because of the rain it was really loud. She asked us to stay close and take off our hoods so we could hear her in case she told us to run. The biggest challenge was getting back over the rivers that we had come through earlier in the day. They were much worse due to all the rain. We had to take a detour for one so that we could go through a place that was not so wide. Margaret, Richard and one of the other guides got across the rivers and helped us across them – it reminded me of walking in the caves, the current was so strong! I was glad for their help. Because of the two rivers I finally had wet feet. I had made it the whole day until then but the first river was nearly to my knees and the second was past my knees so there was no hope.
We finally made it back to the parking lot and there was a bus waiting for us! What a day!! Our guides were pretty proud of us for making it all that way and for being the only group to make it all day long. It was exhausting but amazing too. It made Toshi realize that maybe it’s time to retire his orange jacket.
When we got back to the cottage we hung up our stuff and turned the space heater on to try and dry everything as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Toshi only brought his orange jacket, fleece and long sleeve jersey as his only long sleeve layers and they were all soaked. His jacket was sort of dry enough a couple of hours later for us to venture out for dinner.
We had dinner at a nice place in town although our waiter was not the best and forgot my soup byt one of the other waitresses fixed it. The soup was pumpkin and was tasty. I also had pasta, which was big and I had the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
January 14th – We slept in which was much needed. We both woke up with sore throats and tired after the previous very long day. We turned the space heater back on to let things dry. We decided we didn’t need to do anything but lounge around for a while.
After checking out we drove the 3.5 hours to Wanaka. I did some of the driving, which Toshi really appreciated. I think I did a good 2 hours of the driving :-) The first order of business was lunch. We had lunch at a place recommended in one of the guide books and although the service was a bit slow (expected from the book) the food was tasty and we sat outside. The funny thing was that people were walking around in shorts and t-shirts but although it was sunny it was windy and not very warm! After lunch we stopped at the iSite because the GPS couldn’t find the address I put in for our B and B. Turns out I had written down Baker road instead of Barker road – oops, not a mistake I would expect to make! After getting that all squared away we headed out of town and up into the hills where our B and B was.
We drove up the driveway and got there be greeted by the husband of the house – Phil? – who was sitting in the garage. We went and knocked on the door and… ? …. Showed us inside. There were two bedrooms but since we were the only boarders for the night we got to pick rooms and chose downstairs because that meant no lugging luggage upstairs. Toshi was tired so we laid down for a bit and I read while he napped. We then headed in for dinner. Nothing really sounded good to me, we had a large and late lunch, but we ended up getting kabab sandwiches and sitting on the beach. Not a bad dinner if I do say so myself! After hanging out with the ducks a bit on the beach we headed back out of town and back to our home for the night. We watched some Lord of the Rings and went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment