Franz Joseph to Greymouth

The story continues at Franz Joseph Glacier.

We drove to the parking lot at the glacier and walked to Peter’s Pool (a small lake) where we could see the reflection of the glacier in the water. Very nice.
After that we checked out the little town and also met a spaceship-car, Aries, and talked to the Danish girl there. We swapped some DVDs and then we drove to find a place to park for the night.
We found a gravel-road and went out on that one. Perfect! No one around, we could see the glacier from there and we also got to see a magnificent sunset. 🙂

On Tuesday-morning we drove early to the glacier, and started our walk to it. We met Phil, a 50+ guy from Christchurch, on the way and he walked with us to the glacier. He had just been on a 5 month long travel in USA and Europe. It was a 40 minute walk and this glacier was much more amazing than Fox. We could walk right up to it and I even went up a few steps so that I actually had been on a glacier. 🙂
We walked back to the car and then drove to a camp-ground called Rainforest Motor Camp. We checked in there (10$ each) and then did some laundry and took a shower.
A-M went to the jacuzzi and I called a company in Westport about a camera.
We made some dinner and after that we went to the bar for a few drinks. We sat down at a table and there was Sarah and Ross from UK, a very nice couple that we talked to the whole evening.

Wednesday-morning we woke up and the sun was shining again. So much better to travel when the weather is nice. 🙂
We had a nice drive to Hokitika and went to the information-center. They gave us a map to the Hokitika Gorge and Lake Kanarie.
I had a look in a few camera-shops but there was nothing of interest.

After shopping some food we drove out towards the gorge.
It was a drive inland on mostly gravel-roads and there were cows everywhere.
We talked about knocking on the door to a farmer and asking if we could see the milking of the cows, but we never did. 🙂
When arriving at the gorge we steeped out on a swing-bridge and saw the blue/green colour of the water. It was clear and we could see the cliffs under the water-surface. Beautiful!
We spent 20 minutes there until the sand-flies got us to leave….

We drove towards the lake and found a nice spot to stop at for the night. Unfortunately the sand-flies also liked the place so it was us, the car and about 10000 of them.
We made some dinner and then watched a movie. There was also some (a lot!) killing of flies going on before we finally could go to sleep.

When we had woken up the day after, we saw this enormous row of cows coming our way. We didn’t want to get stuck behind them so we drove off quickly, but then saw that they where going in to the paddock just behind us. We stopped and talked to the guy that was in charge of the cows and after talking to him a while A-M asked if it would be possible for us to come and see the milking of the cows that afternoon. The guy said it was no problem at all, so we decided to come and visit them at 3 that afternoon. Perfect. 🙂

We drove to the lake and had breakfast in the sun. We also saw some ducks and two of the Paradise-birds that is common in NZ.
http://bird.kiaora.jp/archives/paradise050714.jpg
We spent the day at the lake and then went to our farm-adventure.
When arriving to the farm we got aprons and when we came in to the milking-area we understood why. There was two rows with cows standing there with their bottoms towards a lower level in the floor. This is where the guys are working and we got to go down there. Well I wasn’t that calm about having about 50 cow-bottoms surrounding me (we all know what comes from there….) so I went up again, quite happy about seeing the action from there instead.
A-M was more brave than me and she also got to help out putting the milking-equipment on a few cows. 🙂

They sell the milk to Westland, which is a big industry in NZ, and they have a factory in Hokitika. They collect the milk every other day. One cow can produce about 5-6 litres.
There was also 4 dogs at the farm, lots of calves and a cat so we had entertainment a long time. After the milking we got to ride on a sled behind a 4-wheel out to feed the cows in the paddock they now had been moved to.
This was the end of our farm-tour and we thanked the guys for letting us be there. We drove to Hokitika, did some food-shopping and then left to drive to Arthur’s Pass.
We stopped in Kumara for the night.

On Friday-morning we started the scenic drive to Arthur’s Pass. Everybody has been saying how beautiful it is there and both of us sat and waited for the wow-feeling. Well I can’t say that I really got it. Maybe we had seen so much beauty already that this is just not adding up to it?
We arrived in Arthur’s Pass and this is really a small place. 🙂
We took a drive a bit further on but decided to turn back about 24 km pass the town.
We did get some nice photos though.

After visiting the information-center (yes, that is a tradition in every town :p) we went to a cafe and had some lunch.
We sat in sofas at the fireplace and we even got to charge our stuff there.
Nice!
Then we thought it was time to leave for the west-coast again.
We did the drive back and now we saw the beauty of it. There is a high bridge built in the valley and that was quite an impressive view.
We also saw some mountains with snow-covered tops and it makes such a difference to see them that way and not without the snow.

It was a nice drive back and we arrived in Greymouth at about 7 and after driving around a bit we had to drive out of town again to find a place to stay for the night.
We found a spot right by the road, but it wasn’t the calmest place. There was traffic the whole night but I got a few hours of sleep anyways. 🙂

Saturday-morning came and we drove in to town. We did a quick stop at the info-center and then went to a Laundromat to clean ourselves and our clothes.
After this it was camera-hunting again. There was about 6 places with digital-cameras so this had to be it.
At the last place I found the newer model of the camera I been looking at, a Canon Ixus 700. I got a very good price on it (incl. a 512 MB card) so I bought it. Feels good to have a working camera again. 🙂

Hugs to you all!

I uploaded just a few photos this time but more to come!
http://www.backpacking.se/PhotoAlbum.asp?TravelId=3785&SubMenu=2