tubedriven

Jess is a Wanderer headed over to the horse racing at Glenorchy for the afternoon. A perfect time to meet people, enjoy a picnic and put on a few bets in the sunshine.

The drive out to Glenorchy from Queenstown is pretty stunning. I think I’d rather have done it on a bicycle so I could actually stop and admire every time I saw a spectacular scene in front of me. In the car, there weren’t that many safe spots given that the road is long and windy. Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful place and the town itself is just as scenic.

Back at the races, the place was buzzing with such a great atmosphere. People had gone all out packing sofas and armchairs into the back of trailers and parked up for the day. Others had tents and were out for the weekend.

A band came on later in the evening after we’d lost all our money and there was a sausage sizzle raising money for the local primary school. All in all, a great community event and even though I did leave poorer than when I’d arrived, it was money well spend on a great day out. See ya next year? Maybe!

27 May 2007

It is hard to believe that it is Memorial Day weekend and I am not home! The unofficial/official start to the summer and I am walking on the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand! What is wrong with this picture?

I left Wanaka and started north along the western shore of Lake Hawea, which is just another beautiful drive. It is hard to describe but try and picture a huge lake without any homes, neon signs , coffee shops, billboards or any disruptions to the pristine lake front. The water looks cold as I am sure it is, and the tussock laden hills just add to the picturesque vistas.

After a while, I started up the east side of  Lake Wanaka, which is the same lake that I spent the night on the south side. Soon I was driving in the hills and mountain s and there were more S curves and U turns going around the mountains. It was just another beautiful drive as I reached Haast on the west coast in about 2   hours. Now, I am driving along the Tasman Sea with mountains on my right. I am getting word-weary in trying to describe this place. Take my word for it or come and see it for yourself! It is beautiful!! In a country of 4 million people, there is a lot of real estate in between the cities and it is gorgeous.

First, I passed through the  area of the Fox Glacier, but I kept going because my destination is the town of Franz Josef and the eponymous glacier! It is so wild to drive into a town and see Franz everywhere. Hotels. Motels, restaurants, everything in town has the name emblazoned all over!

I immediately signed up for an afternoon walk on the FJ Glacier leaving at 12;30 PM. I told the desk clerk about my family connection with the Franz Joseph name and he couldnt believe it. While I couldnt prove it, on the spot, I persisted and he finally gave me a five dollar discount on the price of the afternoon walk. Dropping the FJ name has clout in these parts!!!!

Grandma D or Doris to those who know and love her asked what the origin of the name was. Apparently an explorer named Haast came through the area in the late1800s and discovered the glacier and named it after the Austrian Emperor out of respect. Not that Haast did badly for himself as he has a town, river, street, hotel, etc. named after him about 1 hour south of FJ.

There were eight people on my hike and the first thing is getting outfitted. The hike company provides, waterproof boots, socks, gloves, hats, Gore-Tex jacket, ice cleats and because it was such a beautiful warm day and supposedly a dry one, they decided not to issue waterproof overpants to the hikers.

A Kiwi named Greg is our guide and we board a bus for a ten minute drive to the staging area for the hike. After a twenty minute hike through a rainforest, we come to a clearing and we can see the glacier in the distance. He asks the group How far is the glacier?

Answers range from 400 meters to 1000 meters, where in fact, we are 1 kilometers from the icewall. The glacier is so huge, it completely distorts any perception of distance. We marched over rock-strewn moraine, several streams, thank goodness for those boots!

And donned our ice cleats at the base of the glacier. There is a river flowing under tha glacier, huge mountains on each side and this massive block of ice in front of us! It is 400 meters wide at the bottom and 11 Kilometers wide at the top, which is 6 kilometers deep.

The glacier is moving at a rate of 30 centimeters a day  in the direction we came from!( I quipped, It makes for a shorter trip home) There were guide ropes to grab as we started up a stair case that had been carved into the ice. Glaciers are not pretty as they are covered in rocks and dirt and one wonders what the attraction is to glaciers. Very soon, looking back down the glacier, people standing on the river bed below looked Lilliputian!

We climbed up stairs for an hour, alternating between pulls on the guide rope and stepping up the stairs. There were not 8 inch risers, there were more light 15 inch risers and everybody was huffing and puffing, including yours truly.

When we reached a level plateau, Greg , our fearless guide said, It is a nice day, you are a nice group, I want to show you the crevasse! We started down these crevasse with thirty foot walls on either side and the ice was intense blue and the opening was tiny. I had to turn sideways to squeeze through the narrow V opening and had a few anxious seconds as I didnt think I was going to make it. As I squeezed my way through, I wish we had those waterproof overpants as everyone got soaked from the walls of the crevasse. I recall the experience of the Great Barrier Reef and was thinking of the incredible contrast of ocean and ice. That is a remarkable contract. Higher in the icefield, the ice is cleaner, less moraine and more compacted blue ice. It was overcast at this point, but the blue color was unmistakeable. The ice forms are jagged in shape, with rippled surfaces and seemingly endless rivulets of water running down the glacier. I tis wet up there! Damn those pants! The group was very good keeping up with the guide and we managed to take a loop around the ice field to get a sense of the largesse of the ice mass.

Soon, we started down and going down is probably more treacherous than climbing up!

This is where those ice cleats really come into play and help with the traction on the big downward steps. The guide was doing a lot of manicuring and shaping of the steps as the warm air and traffic changes the shape of the stairs in the matter of an hour or two.

We took longer to get down than to get to the first stage of the glacier, but we were all glad to reach the river bed and remove the ice cleats. The walkway was strewn with boulders, rocks and stones of every imaginable size and just walking back is a series of steps from rock to stone to boulder interspersed with streams!

That waiting bus was very welcomed as the fatigue of the journey sets in when you see the end of the trail! At this point, the group was awfully quiet as we were exhausted form our five hour trek up, down the Franz Josef Glacier. I just wish they would get the spelling right!

There you have it, another extraordinary day in this Odyssey! I have flown over Glaciers, seen Glaciers from boats, but never had the thrill of climbing on them. This was another trip highlight!!!

Sunday Morning, I drove two hours north to the town of Greymouth on the west coast of Southland. This is where I drop off the car to board the Tranz Alpine train across Southland to Christchurch. A sit was early in the day, before noon, I decided to take a drive further north to Punikaika, a destination famous for the pancake rock formations and the blowholes. Scientist havent been able to definitively explain why the rock formations look like pancakes piled on top of one another. But it sure makes for interesting viewing. The seas were quite rough the blowholes were quite active in their spouting. That was worth the extra driving. I finished the day with another 2   hour sightseeing drive up to Westport over to Reefton and back to Greymouth. Just more magnificent scenery along a river, through mountain gorges, past beautiful farms and back to the hotel.

The train leaves at 1:45 pm, so I have time for a hike from the town in the morning. Ill be hiking in the morning, so you Journey well too!

Posted from New Zealand:

there were bison in our campground!!

there were faces!!

they werent too happy…

its a rainbow!

ok well thats enough blogging…we’re in idaho falls now staying in an amazing room, and had a feast for dinner so i am off to sleep..off to clacier and canada…will update sometime…hope you all are well ?

Posted from USA:

Alice Springs, Australia

A public holiday today and another cloudy day, in-fact its been cloudy since the beginning of our holiday. We have organised a late checkout today as we don’t have much to do before boarding the Ghan at 5.00 pm tonight. We decide to take up the offer on a discounted breakfast then I need to drop my hire car off at Double Tree on Hilton. There was no rep there so I just did a key drop then caught a taxi back to the hotel.

After watching a few movies we checked out and decided to go back into town so we could visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service but it was closed so we caught a taxi to Lasseters Casino to fill in a couple of hours before the Ghan baggage check was open.

Having lost some money we caught another Taxi to the Alice Springs Station and there it was The mighty Ghan stretching out in all its glory. We were both getting excited now as this part of the journey was what we had been waiting for ever since we booked it. The Ghan staff welcomed us with a cold drink then organised our dinner sitting and tour preferences and it wasn’t long before we boarded and got the first glimpse of out cabin (it was very nice with a large window and all the amenities you could ask for including a 240V outlet.

We made our way down to the Queen Victoria saloon bar and snagged a table and two chairs before the other passengers started to pour in. I got us both a cold drink and we began to relax as we waved Alice Springs goodbye. I doubt we will return to Alice it was less than impressive and our two day visit was more than enough.

As day turned into night we were escorted to a table in the dining car and were seated next a lovely retired couple from Melbourne. We had a great time exchanging stories over a very nice three course dinner with matching wines.

After dinner we headed back to the saloon car for a nightcap before returning to our cabin at 9.30 pm where our beds had been made up and chocolates placed on our pillows. Its not long before we get to sleep, apparently the train stopped twice and Deb didn’t sleep all that well but I sure did.

Alice Springs, Australia

Today is Sunday and we have a full day in Alice to see all the attractions. We head out to the Desert Park, 8 km west of town. Its a cloudy day and not to hot as we wander through various guided talks then head to the Raptor Show. What those birds did in front of the audience was amazing and Deb who has faster reflexes than me got some great shots.

Next we headed to the other side of town to the National Road Transport Hall of Fame which comprised of the Old Ghan Railway Museum and the Kenworth Truck Museum, both charging separate entrance fees. We went through the Ghan Museum first which was a total rip-off with a whole lot of old rail junk thrown together in some stuffy rooms,a loco and a couple of carriages outside in the baking sun, The carriages however were an interesting view and gave an insight into what the early Ghan would have been like.

We then deliberated as to whether we pay another entrance fee of $30 per head to see some Mac trucks which were housed under a large hot tin shed. I got the answer I as expecting, “no thanks” so we headed off to a local Sunday market at Palmview which was very small and then into town to get some lunch at the Todd Tavern.

After lunch we dropped in at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station wanting another $30 entrance fee, we declined and walked around the buildings taking a photo or two then wandered down the shady riverside grounds which were full of locals. Once down on the dry riverbed there was a sign depicting the original ‘spring’ which the town was named after.

Back in the car we headed up to Anzac Lookout with some very nice dedication plaques posted on the side of the track. From here we were all tourist-ed out and headed back to our room for a swim and an afternoon nap and then booked a table at the Barra on Todd for a very nice dinner (no Barramundi).