[Fox Glacier Village, New Zealand] Longest amount of driving thus far-360km from Queenstown to Fox Glacier. We opted for pancakes at McDonald’s for breakfast instead of weatbix, mainly because we knew there was free WiFi there. Except the unlocked WiFi from the other day had now been locked and limited to half an hour access. Pancakes chomped we headed off for some supplies and onwards to Fox, stopping first at Arrowtown and then at a bungy spot further down the road. Arrowtown looked quite charming if that’s the right word for it. An old gold mining town that has been nicely restored. We cruised through town but did not really stop.

Our next point of interest was the LOTR filming location for the pillars of the kings scene. We pulled off the road at a likely spot disturbing a family of Californian quail ( I looked them up in the bird book the Ewegs lent us) but could not get close enough to the edge off the gorge. So we carried on down the road until we saw the AJ Hackett bungy centre located on an old bridge over the Kawarau river. Another slick operation. Nice modern building built into the cliff side with a viewing platform so you can watch people hurl themselves off the bridge. We watched a few people do this very calmly without any screaming before we got bored and moved on.

We took the Crown range road to Wanaka. It was quite a climb up over the pass in our little van. We could smell the clutch struggling a bit. The plaque at the top said it was the highest paved road in NZ.

Wanaka looked like a smaller more chilled version of Queenstown. We might have stayed to explore it but we had a glacier to get to. We found out later that some of the countries best rock climbing is in Wanaka. Will have to check it out at a later date.

Sim and I swapped over at Wanaka with me behind the wheel for the 140 odd km through the southern alps to Haast on the west coast. It was a beautiful drive first along the edge of lake Hawea then along lake Wanaka before heading through the tree filled Mount Aspiring national park. It seemed to be a popular route with cyclists and hitchhikers alike.

The national park was really a treat to drive in. The road followed the Makarora River upstream then at some point we crossed a watershed and the water was flowing the opposite way and we following the Haast River. Both rivers had the beautiful blue green colour we are so fond of and we stopped to admire numerous waterfalls along the way. At one point we crossed over a bridge at a point on the river named the ‘Gates of Haast’. It was a picturesque steep cliffed gorge with the blue green water thundering through some rapids. We will have to look up the history on that one some time.

Arriving in Haast we were finally in Westland, the rugged, sparsely populated western coast of South Island. Haast had nothing to tempt us with except a fuel station which must do very well as it’s the only one in a 120km radius. We filled up and drove on stopping only at Knights Point lookout to check out the stunning view and sample the sandflies.

When we got to Fox Glacier Township (not the same thing as an SA township), the guide shop was still open so we popped in to find out about the weather prospects for the next 2 days. Sim had phoned Fox Glacier Guides up a couple of days ago and booked us on a heli ice climbing trip. The idea is we get flown up the glacier in a helicopter which will then land on the glacier dropping us off for a day of ice climbing before picking us up again later and flying us back. How cool is that? The critical thing though is the weather. If the weather is bad, the chopper can’t fly. Since it’s a rather expensive treat for us (£600 ouch) we want to make sure the weather is optimal so we have set aside a couple of days that we are prepared to hang around. So the good people at Fox Glacier Guiding have made some back up bookings for us to make sure we get what we want. The staff have been brilliant and it makes a big difference when you mention you have been climbing for the last 15 odd years as these guys aren’t just doing a job, they are climbers getting paid to do what love. Anyway, we had a chat with one of the guides and looked at the weather for the next 2 days. Tomorrow is not looking so great but who knows with the weather. We will have to check in tomorrow morning to get a better idea.

P. S We have discovered the twin joys of the West coast. When the sun goes down and the blood sucking sandflies go to sleep, the blood sucking mosquitoes come out. They are pretty slow moving though and we still spent quite some time squashing them against the inside of the van roof before we went to bed.

[Pictures: River gorges, bungee bridge, more gorges with white water, pretty waterfalls and sea views]

Last little snippet of a Loony Bungy jumper

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi