Glacier blues

 
November 16th

By now we were on the western side of the Southern Alps, and as we headed out of Makarora, we soon hit the coast road and our first sight of the Tasman Sea – which under a cloudy grey sky looked just like the North Sea. The Franz Joseph Glacier was our main destination today, and I was looking forward to another helicopter ride, this time to the top of the glacier for an opportunity to hike on the icefield. Both the Franz Joseph and nearby Fox glaciers are currently growing by some 50m a year due to high snowfall in the area. But with the top of the mountain masked by heavy cloud, all helicopters were grounded.

The alternative was a tiring four hour technical hike up and down – hikes in NZ are never flat – a steep, rough track that wound its way through a dense forest of wet, moss-covered trees, ferns and craggy rocks. In its own way, this was quite beautiful – and I fully expected elves, goblins and orks to appear from the tangled undergrowth – but it wasn’t the fabulous white wilderness I was hoping to be in. In fact, there were just three view points through the greenery, the first overlooking glacial meltwater flowing out to the sea, and the second two – Rata Point and Christmas Lookout – overlooking the glacier itself. But with much of the mountain shrouded in cloud, I didn’t even see the snowy, white glacier to its best advantage. My only real disappointment of the trip. We consoled ourselves with cold beers and hot potato wedges in Franz Joseph village before driving to our overnight stop. This turned out to be the coolest beach house at Okarito Lagoon – with a lovely open plan living room, a cosy log stove and a huge dining table with the two biggest dining chairs I’ve ever seen. Like Alice through the Looking Glass, they made anyone who sat in them seem tiny.