Driving to Franz Josef Glacier

Wednesday, 11^th January 2018

 

Woke up to yet another day of rain – my idea of going for a morning walk on the beach was blown away – so we took our time having our showers and getting coffee and fruit ready for our meager breakfast – we were off by 9.30 am as today we had another long drive through the west coast highway to Franz Josef Glacier some 230km! We were hoping that the weather would be somewhat drier but we had no such luck and to add to it all, we had fog and mist that we could hardly see the mountains. 

Before getting out of Haast, we filled up the car once more with petrol and we thought we could get some coffee here – but no such luck! However we did walk down to the beach and saw the great waves – one of the guys on the beach told us that he had seen some dolphins swimming – but we couldn’t spot them! So we continued our drive and indeed it was scenic enough but the mountains were covered with low hanging clouds and then the rains came – even heavier than yesterday – and of course I was the designated driver today as well!! I’m thankful that the rental car is brand new clocking only 1500 km when we picked it up at Queenstown airport.

 

Our first stop was at a Lookout post over the dunes on one side and the mountains on the other – Ship’s Creek – stunning views from the lookout tower and several walks either into the dunes or to the swamps – but as soon as we started walking, we got bitten with sandflies so back to the car to get our Deets insect repellent.

 

After this stop we drove some 20 km and finally we found our breakfast – or brunch – place – A salmon farm with a café. We had the most superb Egg Benedict with smoked salmon and a great cappuccino!

 

After our breakfast and some walking around we continued on our trip and had another stop at Lake Paringa – such a beautiful lake with beautiful reflections. This was a free camping site as well and there were a few tents and campers around. An interesting warning was that if there was a lot of rain , the lake waters could rise high into the grounds and campers should take note of that – well in this case, campers alongside the lake did not expect this to happen!!

 

Back in the car,  we finally made it to Franz Josef Glacier! And amidst the clouds we could finally get a glimpse of the glacier, high above! But it was still raining so we made our way to the Top 10 Holiday Park where we were booked in for 1 night. Our plan was to be able to go up to the glacier the same afternoon but it was raining constantly so no such luck. We did some grocery shopping to have some stuff for breakfast and after walking around the township decided to stop for a beer for Gerry and a ginger beer for me. In the meantime we were getting puckish so we thought we would do just like the Kiwi’s and have an early “tea” – seafood chowder, which really warmed us up!

By the time we had our meal, it stopped raining and we thought that now we had a chance to go up to the Franz Josef Glacier. We drove to the base and there we saw that because of the swelling waters, we could only get a far as 750 meters from the tip of the glacier. Unfortunately the rain started all over again and by the time we got back to the car, we were completely drenched. The weather gods have not been really kind to us!!

 

When we got back to the holiday park, we arrived at the same time as our neighbours who turned out to be also Dutch and the men started talking and found out that that both had been sea faring! So while I was writing up my blog, they enjoyed a beer together …….. 

 

It was early to bed as tomorrow we’re off to Westport and that is some 275 kilometers drive up the west coast – will prayers help to get good weather tomorrow?????