We awoke around 8.30 to the sounds of other guests chatting to the host and eating breakfast. Feeling slightly awkward, we tiptoed out the room to join them and contemplate what activities we were wanting to do while we were here.
Our priority was something involving the glacier, and we had 2 options we both fancied. Firstly, the ice climb, which involved a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier, then climbing a wall of ice, using all the tools ice climbers generally use. This sounded pretty neat, but we’d heard from one of Yo’s friends who’d already done it that it was truly exhausting, and she was reasonably fit (as in, fitter than me, probably not Yo). It was also $499 NZ per person (£250), so £500 for a five hour excursion was quite eye-watering, but potentially worth it. The second option was the glacial hike. Like the first, it involved a helicopter ride to the top of the glacier, then a 4 hour guided hike through some pretty awesome sounding scenery. This was $325 NZ, so around £160 per person. Expensive, but also probably worth it. This is what we’d saved up for the past 5 years, right?
We decided option two, simply because of the sound of how tiring the ice climb was. Our host (Poppy) graciously offered to book it for us, and they were fully booked until the next afternoon. So that was day thirteen sorted, but what about today?
We also wanted to do some white water rafting. This was initially penned for Queenstown, but when we decided to skip staying overnight there we pushed it to Franz Josef. Ecorafting was the only option here but it had pretty good reviews, as well as offering rapids from scale 1 (easiest) to 5 (extreme). They all came with a guide, so we lumped for the middle of the road. Poppy again booked it for us, but they were fully booked until the day after tomorrow! Wed snagged that spot, but again, didn’t eave us with anything to do today.
There were plenty of walks around the local area, but we’d done plenty of those so far, and whilst everyone had been fun and enjoyable, I felt we needed more ‘extreme’ activities whilst we were here next to the glacier. Horse riding, gold panning, quad biking were all considered and discarded (except for gold panning - we pencilled this in for when we leave Franz Josef as the good ones were a couple of hours drive north towards out next destination). Poppy and her husband had both been gold miners before opening their B&B, and had some inspiring stories and pics) to tell of how them pulling large nuggets out the ground as well as gold dust, and regularly getting payments of $60,000 NZ from the brokers (though their fuel bills were also in the region of $50,000 NZ). Back in those days, gold was $2,200 NZ per ounce, but it had since plummeted to $1,500 NZ per ounce, and with their machines and fuel bills they felt it was time to get out - so they bought a property and opened a B&B and helicopter tour place (which her husband ran). They still own the machines and such, so they say they’re basically waiting for the price of gold to rise again, sell up, and move back into the business.
Finally, we settled on kayaking in Okarito, just down the road. It was freedom kayaking, so we could go wherever we wanted, and promised adventures down the rivers of the local rainforest.
When we arrived, we discovered it was right beside the coast, and to get to the rainforest we had to kayak along an open tidal lake. Immediately we were told we’d come at the wrong time - the tide would be working against us going out, and the winds would be against us coming back. Unperturbed, we shook off their concerns with a ‘well we’ve been canoeing on the Norfolk Broads before, we’ll be fine’ kind of attitude, and booked four hours.
Going out, the tide was indeed against us, but manageable. It took us awhile to learn our stride, and meanwhile, a german couple who started out after us managed to zoom past - to our horror we noted that whilst the guy at the rear was paddling, the woman up front was too busy looking after a baby. We were out paddled by a single rower!!! We really did suck, it seemed.
We were told there would be lots of rare wildlife out on the lake and rivers, and indeed we did see the white heron, estimated to only have around 150 of them in New Zealand - but whilst we heard lots of other wildlife, we didn’t really see them. Personally, I blame the Germans blitzkrieging ahead and scaring them all off.
After much paddling, we reached the rainforest and entered a different world. No wind, no tides, the paddling was easy. We rowed under fallen trees bridging the banks, portaged sections of the river that were too shallow (really that was me sitting in the back, prodding Yo with my paddle as she dragged the boat over the high sands / rocks).
We got some nice pics:
Paddling back, we discovered their warnings about wind to be absolutely true. Gosh, it was hard work. I was sat at the back of the kayak, paddling for all my worth and it felt like we were crawling along at around 2mph. During the rainforest section the german couple had pulled up along the bank for something to eat and we’d overtaken them - but not any more. To my utter amazement, once again we saw the single rower steam past us and disappear into the distance. I don’t have a clue how he did it, apart from the fact that we must’ve sucked. Yo thinks he was desperate to get back as he had a crying child in the boat, but I was also desperate to get back just to get out of the wind - and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference to me!
Exhausted, we finally reached the boathouse and climbed ashore. My fingers were cramped and struggled to open and close, my left arm had a deep ache / throb which threatened to linger for days, and I felt proper tired. We’d booked white water rafting for two days time, and in the back of my mind I was already wondering if it was a mistake. It was paid for though, and was something high up on our priority list, so there really was no backing out.
Back in the rental office, we were given a free complimentary cup of coffee and to my surprise discovered we really were out there for the whole four hours. Honestly it didn’t feel that long, but I guess the paddle back did take an eternity after all and i wasn’t just imagining it! It was hard to believe I’d just spent the last four hours paddling without any break - no wonder my arm hurt!
Afterwards, we headed back to the B&B, had a shower to get rid of the salt spray and headed to Fox Glacier township for something to eat. We settled on a good old-fashioned Saloon:
Nice, but small portions for the price. I had ribs (supposedly a double rack, but got less tan a single racks worth in the UK), whilst Yo had cannelloni (again, tiny portion). For that reason alone I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It tasted great, but I came away feeling a little robbed.
With a fed belly, all I wanted to do now was head back and sleep, but it was about 7pm, and whilst my body told me to sleep, my heart said it would be too much of a waste. We settled on a walk around Lake Matheson, which the guide book said would take around 1.5 hours, and offered brilliant still water and reflective shots of the glacial mountains.
It was very popular, there were lots of tourists there, mostly of asian origin. One young couple in front of us clearly didn’t want us walking behind them so giggled and did a funny speed-walk to put some distance between us. Bemused, we thought the only suitable response was to enact the ‘Roller-kitty’ march, and soon caught up with them using our well rehearsed goose-step.
I was tired, but it was still a great walk, and I got some very pretty views of the lake and reflective mountains:
Walk complete and me properly zombified, the only decent thing to do was to retire for the evening - though ti wasn’t over yet! To our horror as we got back to our rooms we discovered our host had left the window in our room open, and there were no less than fifteen mosquitos in the room! We tried to sleep, but they were after blood and refused to leave us alone. We cocooned ourselves, but I found that method difficult to stay comfortable. Frustrated I jumped up, turned on the lights and went on a killing spree. T-Shirt in hand, and tried whipping it at them while they stood on the walls and ceiling, but the wind must have given them advanced warning, because they were always one step ahead - plus it made a loud whacking noise as it connected to the wall, which at 11pm probably wasn’t the best way to stay friends with our host and other guests. In the end I settled for a much more effective technique. I bunched the t-shirt into my hand, and slowly moved it over the top of them, encompassing them in a fatal cotton coffin. I became a killing machine smearing their entrails all over the walls and ceiling, and got them all in the space of fifteen minutes. Much more relaxed, I drifted off to sleep.
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