Proudly representing, a top Fox Glacier

Karamea – Not sure how we got to day 5 already! The weather is still shit outside, although instead of being holed up in Fox Glacier (we stayed at The Ivory Towers Backpackers, which was lovely!), we’re holed up at The Last Resort in Karamea. Still, the café we are in is super nice (esp considering we are supposed to be “backpacking”, more like wine-packing!), and while internet is expensive, they have it, which is not something to take for granted out in the whup whups of the South Island. The (two!) $40 a bottles of wine we’ve been demolishing is helping make the day go by nicely as well, I might add. Note to self: buy more wine at the grocery store next time. $15 trumps $40!

Kat and me in the helicopter. This is a good look for us, no? Photo by Katherine Kearsley

The last two days have been pretty awesome. On Sunday, while still in Fox, we managed to get in on a helitour of Fox Glacier. The weather was pretty iffy, but we got through a clear spot so off we went! I was wedged in the back of the helicopter between Katherine and another fellow, so wasn’t able to take many good photos, but wow. The ones I did take make me very happy!

Aoraki/Mt Cook. My mountain love, at last.

The helicopter took us up near Mt Cook, aka The Mountain Of My Dreams, that I’ve been trying to see for months and months now (but have failed bc of bad weather). Then we landed on Fox Glacier itself for a few minutes, which was neat although it WAS annoying that precious time was wasted while the pilot tried to sell us a $20 group shot photo (as if the entire lot of us didn’t have about $3000 in camera gear with us).

On top of Fox Glacier

When we first came in over the glacier, I noticed that parts of the snow seemed a little off-colour, and I remember thinking how sad it was that even up here, in New Zealand, the snow had pollution stains. It turns out that the colouring was caused by the red dust storm that Australia experienced a few months back; the dust drifted across the Tasman Sea and settled in the Alps. Much better than pollution!

The morning of the helitour we got up a little earlier than normal and drove out to Lake Matheson. In the right conditions, Mt Cook is mirrored in the perfectly still waters of the lake, and we were hoping to catch a glimpse. While we didnt see Aoraki, we still had a beautiful morning and were able to get a good view of the glacier!

Yesterday, Monday, while in Hokitika, we spent the day Jade Carving at Bonez & Stonez. At first I was a little wary as Steven (the owner) warned that invariably jade frustrated the carver, and that there will come a time when you have to walk away from your project and clear your head. All the while I was carving, I kept thinking, “be one with the pounamu. Patience is a virtue. Haste makes waste.” Hokey, yes, but it worked. Not once did I lose my cool with the stone, I didn’t break anything, and in the end I have a bit of a masterpiece to call my own.

Lost in my work, and frankly terrified of breaking the pounamu! Photo by Katherine Kearsley

Katherine took heaps of photos of the day (thankfully, as I didn’t bring my camera!). While at $120NZ it was a bit on the pricey side, considering similar pieces of pounamu sell in the shops for $160+, and this is something you yourself made (with Steven doing the tricky bits!), it’s a totally worthwhile endeavor and you will be amazed with what you have created. If that’s still too rich, you can choose to carve bone or paua shell instead.

We left Hoki (which has amazing fish and chips, I might add, although be prepared to wait for your order) a lot later than expected (the carving took nearly 10 hours, not the 5-6 originally expected), so we had to cancel on the Wild West shooting range we had planned. Just as well, for as it was we had to come over the hill into Karamea in the dark. Christ, it’s been a while since I was that nervous in the passenger seat. I can just imagine how Katherine felt as if the hill (which is really a small mountain) is super windy, with lots of sharp twists and turns with massive drops off the one side into gulleys below. I would expect this road to be treacherous in broad daylight, but it was 100 times worse in the dark with random bits and pieces of local wildlife running across the road, and with abandoned construction sites to boot. We made in once piece to Karamea around 11pm, about thirty minutes before the rain began. We were meant to go kayaking and caving today, but the abundant rainfall has left the river too high to be safely traversed, and had we gone into the caves we’d have ended up soaked. So, we are taking a loss on the kayaking and will go caving in the morning.

On a side note, Im having trouble loading up my pictures to Flickr, so the bulk of my photos will have to wait until Im home in a few days and can upload from there.

Related posts:

1. South Island Road Trip — Castle Hill & Arthur's Pass
2. Queenstown, Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo
3. Aoraki / Mt Cook
4. Island Bay
5. Winter in Christchurch