[Various spots in South Africa] Wow, the big adventure came to an end when we touched down in Durban after a ridiculous number of hours from Christchurch.  It’s been good to catch up with family and friends while we’ve been in SA (all over SA… Joburg, Durbs and Cape Town).  Must say it’s been hard to be in one place for so long and we have definitely been having travel withdrawal.

The big news is that although our big trip is finished, we will shortly be starting a new one. We are moving to New Zealand! We absolutely loved what we saw there when we visited. Found a fantastic company to work for that has offered me a job.  The interesting bit is that it’s in Christchurch. The earthquake hit about a week after we arrived in SA, but fortunately the office is still standing, and it has not deterred us. So we will be off at the end of this month to start a new life in Kiwi land.

We have been spending a lot of time sorting and organising things while we are here in SA. Sims been to the UK and back already to pack up all our bits and ship them to NZ. Thanks J&S for storing all our stuff. We’ve also been organising police clearance certificates and a bunch of other bits and pieces that have accumulated since we were last here.

I’ve even managed to get a spot of DIY in and finally painted the last room in my mom’s house (I started the first room when she moved in 7 years ago) and got rid of a lot of paperwork that was cluttering up my mom’s cupboards (there was files and files of it). Whew, we have been quite busy.

We are both excited and nervous to be moving to NZ, but can’t wait. Bring it on !

So that’s it. The adventure is over 🙁

[Christchurch, New Zealand] It’s our last official ‘On the Road’ post !

After saying goodbye to our friends we boarded a plane at Christchurch airport heading for Singapore and then on to Johannesburg. All-in-all 30 hours of travel and then we still have to get down to Durban !

It’s been a truly amazing adventure. It will take a while for it all to sink in and I’m sure well be very busy getting back into the real world of work and bills. Once we’re settled down I’ll see what I can do about writing an epilogue and polishing up the blog a little so it can be a reference for others and a nostalgic website for us to visit.

Just a few quick stats while we’re thinking about it (for sure there will be more added later);

• 285 Days – that’s just over 9 months !
• 290 ‘On the Road’ Posts… that’s a lot of thumb taps on an iPhone!
• 270 odd comments from friends and family. Thank you ALL
• 17 Countries – if you include the UK, Myanmar, Hong Kong and Australia 🙂
• 10 000+ (30GB) photos taken… with 4 cameras (oops). It’s going to take a while to go through those !
• 4GB of pretty bad video clips
• 1256 Expenses captured by V into our expense sheet. Most of them correct 🙂
• AND a lot of Pounds, Euros, Roubles, Tugrik, Yuan, Kip, Dong, Riels, Baht, Ringgits and Dollars spent

No idea when we’ll be updating the blog. Technically I guess we are still ‘travelling’ until we buy a house, sign a lease or get jobs. So one last THANK YOU to all the wonderful people we met on the way and those that followed us on our trek.

Signing off for now… Simon and Vicki

[Pictures: CHC Airport]

So these posts are very late. It’s been a busy 10 days getting things sorted and having a great time with our friends in Christchurch.

Ingrid has been on mission to make sure we don’t leave New Zealand malnourished after our 4 weeks on camp food and sugar. She stopped in at a South African butcher and picked up some mouth-watering biltong and the biggest piece of steak I have ever seen. We also had a chance to check out one of the local supermarkets and were impressed with the selection – especially the breads, meat, fruit and most importantly biscuits. The shop also had an ‘International’ section with two shelves stuffed with SAFA ‘specialties’ like Zoo biscuits, Pro-nutro, Nik-Naks and alike. Expensive, but brilliant.

We came across some odd fruit as well. The Kiwano, according to the sign, tastes like a mixture of banana and lemon. Such an odd looking thing, but just like a Dragon Fruit it looked much more interesting than it tasted. We found it on Wikipedia – turns out this ‘Product of New Zealand’ is really an African horned Mellon, part of the cucumber family – yuk!

The plan on the weekend was to pop out to a beach and have a braai. ‘Popping’ out with two kids and two guests seemed a daunting task to us by the Ewegs’ took it in their stride. Two (to continue the theme) car loads of stuff including fishing rods, chairs, prams, bicycles and the weber headed off to Governors Bay. The temperature was above 37C aided by a nasty berg wind – so the perfect day for a cool bay. The bay was busy, but not in the UK/SA sense of the word. Unfortunately the braai was a no go. NZ has some very strict ‘No Fire’ policies. John and both girls had a ball in the calm water – too cold for us wimps. We are going to have to get wet-suits!

John was kind enough to loan us a car for the week so we got to check out Christchurch. We spent an entire day cruising the neighborhoods of the city just getting to know the place. It’s small but has everything we need. Lots of green space and the ‘old’ centre make the place picturesque. Most importantly we scouted the gear shops. Outdoor, Climbing, snowboarding and mountain biking – plenty of choice and a comparison of the snowboarding gear shows it’s the same price as Backcountry (when it’s on special). Happeeeeness. The local climbing gym is great – I loved the textured walls and the grigri fixed to every toprope.

Later in the week (while John’s car was in for service) we decided to test the public transport. As expected it works brilliantly and is complete with online system that tells you exactly how to get around. After a short stop at a great little coffee shop / roastery we headed into the botanic gardens and museum. The museum was fantastic, free and truly first class with some interesting oddities – like Fred and Myrtle’s Paui shell house. My favorite exhibit was the Antarctic exploration one, pity it’s temporary. The bus ride back home was different. The bus driver instantly picked up V’s accent and greeted us in Afrikaans. We couldn’t help smiling as he whistled ‘In the Jungle’ and ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ all the way home.

A huge braai at an old associate of V’s with a bunch of friendly Kiwis and a couple SAFAs capped a brilliant week. New Zealand has been great and we’ll have to write a little more about it but we just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Ingrid and John for just being so awesome. Tomorrow we board a plane back to SA and our wandering is officially over 🙁 … For now 🙂

[Pictures: Wierd fruit and SAFA essentials. Punting on the Avon! They think they are in Cambridge and near the botanic gardens. Some ‘old’ looking street]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

Photos »

[Christchurch, New Zealand] We’re even impressed with ourselves about this one. 9 months travelling out of our little packs has provided us with some amazing experiences and memories that will last a life time. Unfortunately the list of places we would like to see again, those we didn’t quite get to and some that were not part of the plan has grown exponentially.

AND Happy Birthday Brother. Hope you had a great one!

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

Finally got around to uploading videos and photos. [UPDATE: Photos tagged to 4 Feb] Still have to tag all the pics but if you are really bored check out the sub-galleries under ‘New Zealand’ or just skim the posts to find related photos.

For a laugh you can click the ‘Videos’ category to the right (or click here) to get a page with all posts that have poor quality video clips (we last uploaded videos before we got to Railay, Thailand).

Fixed the silly Menu text popping through images but have still got a bit of work to do on the blog (eg. That iPhone wordpress app update really made a mess of image alignments).

Sylvie (one of the group at Uncle Tan’s) was kind enough to upload and provide a link to the photos they took on the river safaris. You can view them by clicking here

Don’t miss the amazing critters that Jeroen shared with us from the dives at Sipadan. The guy an amazing photographer – lots of pics Click Here BTW the comments are mine, we have no idea what half the critters are called.

AND the pics that our Dive Master Shannon sent us Click Here

More soon

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Christchurch, New Zealand] We’re running out of things to report. I guess because we are nearly finished our travels (for now). We fly out to SA next Sunday and that will be the ‘official’ end of our ‘traveling’ and the start of the ‘sponging’ 🙂

New Zealand weather is odd. Yesterday was cold, today V was out washing the van in her Bikini. We gave the ole little Vanette a solid scrubbing inside and out mainly to save the ‘Cleaning Fee’ from Rental Car Village. We have £10 left in our adjusted trip budget (more on that as soon as we get to updating the sheets).

We returned our little house. Sad to see it go. The receptionist at RCV barely glanced at the car to check for missing items, damage, fuel level etc. I was hoping they would at least comment on how clean it was after all that work. There is so much trust and honesty here. It continues to amaze us. What’s really funny is that if you return the car after hours the car manual has instructions on how to get into their service yard and where to leave the keys!

The Eweg’s have very kindly loaned us a car to use for the week so we’ll be able to get out and about in Christchurch if we don’t get stuck on the net or in front of a TV. We have loads of photos and video to upload, blog things to sort out and an awful lot of Net and TV time to catch up on.

[Pictures: Farewell little Vanette]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Christchurch, New Zealand] It was the last day of our New Zealand road trip today 🙁 We left Nelson around noon and made a beeline for Christchurch. Tomorrow we have to return the van. The trip is only around 400km but the windy roads and New Zealand’s 100km/h speed limit meant it took more than 6 hours. We breezed past a lot of cool looking spots without stopping. Blenheim and Kaikoura especially look interesting. There are lot of good beaches dotted in between rocky patches on this part of the coast. We also spotted the odd seal lounging around but other than that we spent the afternoon concentrating on the road ahead in the iffy and wet weather. Once again we passed a lot of cyclists. Road touring is very popular in New Zealand and they do it even in the wind and rain – these guys are hard core.

We eventually got back to Christchurch (as civilized as it gets on the South Island). The only stretch of what we would call ‘highway’ so far, 2 lanes and even a centre barrier, it lasted less than 20km. Passing on the inside here does not seem to be an issue. We guess that is because there aren’t many roads with more than one lane! Christchurch was cold compared to Nelson and had us reaching for our fleeces and zipping our longs back on before we got out the van at a KFC. We have been testing KFC’s since Asia. These seem good but expensive with a small (thankfully) portion size. About double the price of the cheapest ones in China.

It was a long drive (for us) and we were relieved to be back at Eweg Haven. This time the tea on tap tastes great! – helps not to be sick. We could have used at least another two weeks to do a proper job of the South Island. We’ll have to save the north eastern corner and coastline for next time and there are a number of places we need to go back to. Mt Cook, Queenstown and the Glaciers for sure. North Island we’ll treat as another country to add to the list of ‘Places to visit’.

[Pictures: None today but not to worry – we will be uploading tonnes next week]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Nelson, New Zealand] We have to be in Nelson tomorrow to see a guy about a thing so today’s mission was to get a look at some of Marlborough Sound (an actual Sound, not a Fiord that was incorrectly named). We headed out of town via another gear shop that had some technical climbing and ice gear, which is always fun, and picked up a copy of the NZ quarterly climbing magazine (just for the photos). Once the road out of town left the coast the bends and climbing started. It was very slow going made even slower because it was hot enough to use air-con.

We pulled into a small parking area near Goat Hill after spotting another DoC sign and a large collection of bee hive boxes. The DoC is amazing in this country. No matter where you are the DoC has setup marked trails, loos, donation box and picnic spots. The signs always indicate walking time and distance. This little empty trail to a lookout on Goat Hill even had a comment book. Not so impressive? Well it had been there since 2009 and there was a working pen! The short trail offered some stunning views of Okiwi bay and few islands popping out of the turquoise sea. A magic spot. :gps:(GPS)::-41.10195::173.64149:gps:

We stopped for quick lunch at Okiwi bay. A tiny little bay side village. The serviced camper van park had a warning sign up on the main road 20km back stating that advanced bookings were essential. The place was empty. It really has been a bad year for Kiwi tourism. Good for us as we have never been turned away from a park. We decided to continue on to Elaine Bay. It was a very slow drive as the road got even more windy along impressive bluffs lined by forestry. Plenty of spots to stop and snap photos. The only traffic was the occasional logging truck flying around a blind corner on a steep hill – yikes. Logging must be a major industry in the area. The steep hillsides stripped of trees were impressive (impressive that they can operate on such steep slopes). When we eventually got to Elaine bay, V was feeling pretty I’ll (the roads were that windy). The basic DoC campsite overlooks a small collection of houses and fishing boats. Looks like a very peaceful spot to camp and a lot fun if you fish but not really our speed. We didn’t hang around long before hitting the road back to the campsite in Nelson -V didn’t enjoy that part at all 🙂 We didn’t get very far in Marlborough Sound, but what we did see looks magnificent.

Tonight is our last night in our little Vanette. It’s been great to be sleeping in the same ‘room’ every night for the past 4 weeks. Not having to pack up and find another hostel has been great. We can highly recommend doing New Zealand like this.

[Pictures: Beautiful views of the sound]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Nelson, New Zealand] From our campsite we could see the water taxi’s loading up. It’s funny to watch. They have a boat on a trailer hooked up to a tractor. Once full of people they drive the whole lot down the main road and out onto the beach. The tide runs a long way out so at low tide they have to go a lot further. Getting the guys out of the water is a similar process. The tractor and trailer park in deep enough water and the boats just drive on.

The taxis are running people out to trail heads or secluded beaches in the Abel Tasman national park, we decided to walk out along the coastal trail to see what all the fuss is about while many others opted for a sea kayak – another popular way of exploring the park. The trail is stunning and winds it’s way along bluffs passing into rocky coves and sandy beaches surrounded by pristine dense forest and turquoise oceans. We will have to come back with some gear and do the 4 day hike one day (if we can ever get a slot – these popular trails and huts fill up years in advance). We turned back after walking for just over an hour and headed back passing a lot of day walkers and hikers (this is a busy part of the trail).

Heading south we stopped for a few minutes at Kaiteriteri beach. The campsite here is so popular that they allocate sites with an online lottery system. The beach is beautiful and with the now very hot and sunny weather it looked like a scene straight out of Thailand… Until we put a toe in the water 🙂 It was a short drive to the next largish town, Motueka, where we stocked up on supplies for the last time. V overheard some Afrikaans in the store so I guess we aren’t the only visitors.

We cruised on down through the industrial looking Richmond and then finally into Nelson itself. We spent a couple hours wandering around Nelson city centre which does a reasonable job of trying to look very old and English. V had a little shopping to do and we wanted to check out the gear and bike shops (Nelson is somewhat of an outdoor adventure sport hub). We thoroughly enjoyed town. Lots of little cafes and a pleasant ‘street’ / ‘cafe’ vibe. This place seems a lot like Cape Town with better weather (today). After working up a bit of a sweat walking around we located the award winning ‘Penguino’ ice cream shop. V had their signature Boisenberry and I tried their Chili Chocolate from the odd selection including cucumber and mango lassi. It was excellent but a chili burning mouth with ice cream was an odd experience.

From town we headed back along the water front to the campsite. The huge beach front was packed (more than 4, less than 100) with people on mountain bikes and kite-boards or just out for a stroll with their dogs. Seems like a wonderful spot. We got a campsite right on the beach front in a massive park that is almost empty. Another good meal but this time we treated ourselves to a bottle of a local merlot. The first wine we’ve had in months went down wonderfully and possibly a little too quickly 🙂

[Pictures: Abel Tasman NP coastline. Kaiteriteri beach. Penguino yummy and our campsite at Tahuna beach]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Marahau, New Zealand] That was a rough night. The wind had the van rocking so much it felt like it was going to tip over. Sand made it sound like we were being sandblasted and rain was being forced inside around the window rubbers by sheer air pressure. We hardly slept.

The plan was to take in the Wharariki beach arches, Cape Farewell (Northern tip of south island) and Farewell Spit (the longest natural sandbar in the world) even if the tide wasn’t right but the rain and wind had us waiting in the car park for an hour before we decided to give up and head back towards Collingwood. We were both more than a little annoyed. By the time we were approaching Takaka our moods, and the weather, were improving. We pulled in at the Paynes Ford car park to check out the crags. Some friendly Italian climbers let us have a look at their guide book. The area has over 200 bolted routes on great feeling limestone and the vast majority are moderate grades (just right to challenge my old bones). What a spot. After checking out a few of the crags we left wishing we had brought our gear.

After climbing back up the insane pass we had tackled yesterday we took a narrow dirt road off towards the Abel Tasman National Park and an interesting sounding sinkhole called ‘the hole’. It was slow going on the little road. Lots of traffic in both directions and plenty of idiots hauling caravans up and down the rocky track. We found the explanation for the traffic. A week long music/hippie festival not unlike Splashy Fen complete with tee-pees, hula hoops and circular gatherings of guru guided pow-wows. At $80 per person to catch only the tail end of the festival these hippies must being doing quite well when they put some shoes on and get back to the real world 🙂 BTW: This part of NZ is hippie central with village streets lined with organic food stores and the endless bead and art shops.

We cruised through the festival and eventually arrived at the Hole’s park area. The walk out took around 40 minutes on, as per usual, a perfect DoC trail. The Hole viewpoint offered views into the distance of dense forest. At the Hole itself we could not safely get a decent look at the drop-off, but it drops 178m! The largest such hole in the southern hemisphere (apparently) with some hectic caving opportunities a the bottom. Need to join a club and get back out here one day. Should be excellent. Walking back out we came across a couple we had passed on the dirt road. They had walked BAREFOOT from the festival. Got to respect that. One thing about hippies – they always make me smile.

Being the carpets that we are we got suckered into giving a lift to a young lady form Chile who was on her way out of the festival. Not that we have anything against hitchhikers, more that with no seats/seat belts in the back we could be fined. Anyway, we gave her a lift as far as we could and continued to Marahau on the coast. The campsite at Marahau is very popular being on the doorstep of the well loved coastal trail in the Abel Tasman but like every other place we have been to it was not full. I suspect it has been a terrible year for New Zealand tourism – amazing that the staff are still so happy and helpful.

[Pictures: Some climbers enjoying Paynes Ford and there is a beeeg hole just over that boulder]

– Posted from my iPhone via 3G

[Wharariki Beach, New Zealand] We knew it was coming. A full and boring day behind the wheel. We started off by back tracking to Westport and that took one whole Skeptics Guide to the Universe episode (thanks ‘Link1’ open WiFi point at Karamea). From there the only thing of interest to us while heading around the monstrous Kahurangi National Park was the countries biggest bridge swing on the upper Buller gorge. A bit silly we thought, they don’t have free viewing platform so we just kept driving and the SGU kept playing. Eventually the epic forests and mountains turned to beautiful orchards and vineyards not unlike the Cape valleys, just more tidy.

Eventually we hit Tasman bay and turned left to once again start climbing up and over more crazy passes to Takaka. We stopped at a viewpoint and took a short walk along a forest trail but other than that we hardly left the car all day. From high on the pass stunning views had us peering into the distance over Tasman and Golden Bay. Not the best photo weather, but what can you do? We past a few interesting spots and barely slowed down since we will come back along this section tomorrow – caves, sinkholes, viewpoints, the Abel Tasman national park, and the countries largest and most popular sport climbing crags along Paynes Ford.

By the time we got to Collingwood we were almost out of petrol (again – averaging 10l/100km) and the wind was picking up (from strong to gale). The last 30odd km out to Wharariki beach were dodgy with our little van being blown around like a sail boat. Once more we found ourselves at the end of the road, this time at the northern most tip of south island. It was only around 430km in the day but due to the steep and windy roads we were in the car for 9 hours with possibly and hours rest. Tomorrow we will have to take it easy and stop occasionally to smell the flowers.

Wharariki beach (the end of the road again) has some amazing arches but they are only accessible at low tide (1:10am and 14:00) so it looks like we may miss them (this time). We were met at the campsite by the current manager. An excited young lady from Belgium who loves the place and is particularly impressed that everyone goes to bed at 10pm. We like that arrangement too 🙂 The campsite looks like Hobbiton would look if a tornado was passing through – gale force winds – tonight should be interesting.

[Pictures: A view of Tasman bay in the distance. Finally found a use for V and Hobbiton in a gale]

– Posted from my iPhone via 3G while pretty drunk

[Karamea, New Zealand] Not in the metaphorical ‘end of the journey’ sense, but literally, today we drove north until there was no more road. The weather didn’t clear this morning but it did stop raining long enough for us to sort the van out and get back on the road with a damp smell just behind our heads. We blitzed through Westport (the only settlement of substance today) and carried on up the crazy coastal road that has been hacked into the sea cliffs.

More small little villages with names like Fairdown, Granity and Hector had very little to look at besides the usual general stores, cafes and endless arts and crafts (although I did see more half-pipes). At Summerlea the road turns inland around an immense bluff. The road started to wiggle and climb. No idea what possessed them to build it just for a handful of villages. The views of tree covered mountains as far as we could see was again beautiful but it was a very long and slow ascent and descent.

Karamea (population 650, no cell signal) is the last village on the road. If you want to go further north you have to start hiking the Heaphy trail. We passed through following the tar road until we hit the gravel. We were heading for the Oparara arches but the road just kept going and going with nobody in sight. It was a little concerning. We came around a bend to find a bustling visitors centre car park complete with picnic tables, loos and information boards. You have to love this country!

The Oparara arch is the largest limestone arch in the country (~200m long) and was only a short walk from the car park. It honestly was not too impressive. I guess we have been spoilt. The forest walk was atmospheric – trees heavy with moss with a tannin stained river bubbling below. We checked out the other (smaller) arch in the area and two caves complete with glowworms before heading back to Karamea. Sounds like the caves further up (Honeycomb Caves) are more interesting but access is restricted to guided tours.

Thankfully there was a petrol station in Karamea. All that dirt road meant we were almost out. We noticed a ‘Domain’ campsite sign and followed it along some municipal buildings. It lead to a perfectly manicured rugby field with a few ‘campervan sites’ dug into the bush along the touchline. The ‘facilities’ were too basic for us and our collection of damp gear so we opted for the fully serviced campsite on the way out of town. A really pleasant little spot protected from the wind and with the help of a little sunshine we were able to sort ourselves out. The best part was the discovery of a high speed and unprotected WiFi hotspot – the first time in NZ. No cell signal, but high speed WiFi? We internetted ourselves almost to death – it’s been over 3 weeks without WiFi! Hope we didn’t use all their bandwidth 🙂

[Pictures: Me and the Limestone arch at Oparara, not too impressive (me or the arch)]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Punakaki, New Zealand] After yesterdays awesomeness today was bound to be far more subdued (besides the fact that we can barely move our arms and legs). We drove over to ‘the other local glacier’ (the Frans Josef) and stretched our legs walking up to the nearest view point. It was another spectacular view and the valley does look much deeper than the Fox glacier but cloud hid the top section. The terminal face looks very impressive. Massive.

Frans Josef township (ie village) was very quiet. Seems NZ tourism has take a big dip this year. We went in search of the indoor ice climbing wall marked in the LP guide but figured out that it is gone and the only building that could have been a climbing wall is now a freshly painted National Kiwi Centre. We grabbed a few essentials (milk, bread, biscuits, biltong!). The shop obviously caters for campers; at the checkout there was a box of single knives for sale for those nanas that have misplaced one from their rental vans. We grabbed one to replace the one I lost 🙂

We cruised through one horse towns and some slightly bigger ones occasionally stopping to snap a view but the weather was far from ideal. Harihari is a single street town with a monument and road side display commemorating the flight of Guy Menzies. The first person to fly from Australia to New Zealand. He crash landed in a marsh just outside of town. One thing I have noticed is that almost all of these tiny villages have a half-pipe. Must bring my board next time !

Pukekura, according to the 2007 LP guide has a permanent population of 2. We can believe it. It’s claim to fame is a road-side diner/museum/shop called ‘Bushmens Centre’. Morning tour buses and hard-core bikers frequent it and you won’t find a much more politically incorrect place in NZ. They used to serve up possum burgers but laws now prohibit it. Every surface in the place is covered with notices or objects that (depending on your sensibilities) are hilarious or insulting. It was an experience for sure and the ‘Bambi toasted sarmi’ wasn’t too bad either. For a bunch of gun toting rednecks they are militant environmentalists when in comes to 1080 poison. A chemical used by the DoC to reduce the possum and pest populations. I must read a bit more about it – the rhetoric in the cafe made us skeptical of their argument.

Hokitika is one of the larger towns on the coast but is still tiny – at least they have cell phone reception – our first for the day! The main tourist street is lined with Greenstone (jade) jewelery stores. V had a look around one but the stuff is just crazy expensive. We pushed on up the coastal road passing through Greymouth and noticed a turn-off for Taylorville – had to pop in for a photo of V’s own little town. A tiny village that time forgot with nothing going and nobody around. We had a quick look around and noticed a number of front lawns immaculately presented. Another odd little spot. Back on the road, the coastline was incredibly rugged and appeared treacherous and menacing in bad weather like today. In spite of the windy road and bad weather we arrived safely at Punakaki (still no cell phone).

The camp ground is very near to the beach and had more character than some but the rain was pouring and the wind howling. We had to wait a while for high tide – the recommended time to see the blowhole 5 minutes back up the road. The area is known for the blowhole and the ‘pancake rocks’ – odd geological formations that look like huge stacks of pancakes. The blowhole wasn’t impressive (we want a small one that produces a huge geyser) but the pancakes were cool even in the rain.

Cooking and just moving around in the wet and wind wasn’t fun. Seems our little tent for the rear of the van is not designed to handle heavy downpours. Tomorrow will be a very damp and muddy start. Hope it’s sunny!

[Pictures: Frans Josef glacier rushing towards us. Bushmens – odd spot. Hokatika town centre and V at home. Stone pancakes in the rain]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Fox Glacier, New Zealand] When I got out of the van the moon was hanging high in the dark sky. It was early, but most importantly, the sky was clear. We walked over the street to Fox Glacier guides by 7:30 and got confirmation from Richard the dispatch guy that the good weather was expected to hold for the day – our flight out to the glacier was scheduled for 9:30. Excellent. Jonathan, our guide for the day, set about kitting us out with the required gear. Packs, gloves, caps, sunnies, boots, gaiters, crampons, helmets, jackets, harnesses and the coolest things of all – ice axes. The rigid boots are not the most comfortable things to walk around in (something like snowboard boots) and all the gear was top notch and well maintained. We got word that a flight slot had opened up (some people were late) so we stuffed our gear into the packs and headed out to the heli pad just down the road.

V had never been in a helicopter before and was just too excited. Our ride was a decently sized machine. A 6 seater, so V and I got to ride up front with the pilot. It never fails to amaze me how smooth these things are. The ride up the glacier was stunning but very short (We have lots of video from today – will upload when possible). We past the terminal face and continued over the lower sections where the guided day walks play before being deposited much higher up the 13km long glacier on a roughly flat and pristine piece of ice not far from the upper ice-fall. The ‘pad’ was busy with a large group of Heli-Hike clients being flown in for their 2 hours on the ice (We were on the ice at 9 and were not scheduled to leave until 16:30). After the last chopper left we were able to kit up and finally stand with confidence. Ice is slippery (no kidding) and crampons are amazing!

Taking in the surroundings we trudged up towards the upper ice fall leaving the Heli-Hike groups behind. The ice on the upper fall moves around 5m per day so no two days are alike. First up a short ‘bouldering’ session to get us used to the crampons and picks. Not too difficult but we immediately felt that our toes, calves and forearms were going to take strain today. With the basics under our belts in no time Jonathan led us on up through the gullies towards the ice falls. After scrambling and climbing our way through beautiful blue ice tunnels we stopped at a short (8m) off-vertical wall for our first toprope session. What a blast. After just having a whack at it we got some technique pointers. It’s amazing how little ice the picks and crampons need to provide a solid hold, but to learn to trust it is another issue. I also had a go at placing a couple of ice screws to simulate leading. My forearms where absolutely hammered after that attempt.

We carried on up the glacier as the terrain became steeper and much bigger – so much so that we were required to rope up on some sections. Another cave and hole got us out to a bigger and much steeper ice wall with a decent bulge in the middle and a slightly overhanging top section :gps:(GPS)::-43.50995::170.10144:gps: .”Jonathan has too much confidence in us” we thought. V had a good whack at the route while I found myself a loo with the ultimate view over Fox Glacier 🙂 V and I both had a hard time with the climb on our first attempt (forearms burning) but after some more coaching we nailed it. Nothing quite like the “Thunk!” of the axe going over the top lip.

Besides being fit (obviously) and having a little extra gear we reckon the biggest thing in ice climbing is understanding ice in its various forms and the terrain. Jonathan fed us a lot of information, from geology to anchors, but we were having so much fun that most of it did not stick. I do remember him explaining that in hot weather like this the screw anchors for topropes would need to be checked every 20 minutes (ice has a habit of melting). A good reason not to hang around for long on the rope.

The cloud started working it’s way up the valley as we started back down. Jonathan spotted a beautiful ice cave and set up a line for us so that we could get through without falling into the gushing stream below. Once again we have been impressed with the professionalism of the guiding in New Zealand. Safety was always first. Jonathan spent some time ‘preparing’ the tunnel for us by knocking off dangerous looking overhangs and cutting steps in critical spots. V even got to have a go knocking a big chunk off – who needs global warming to destroy glaciers when you have a huge mountaineering axe 🙂

The penultimate feature that we found to play with was an insanely deep hole carved out by water. The water was still gushing in down one side. We could not tell how deep it was from above (probably more than 20m) so the plan was to lower us into the hole and let us climb out (or haul us out if things went wrong). As usual I was first up. I don’t usually have a problem with heights or tight spaces or water or ice (in scotch) but at around 7m down the waterfall was raging at arms reach and the ice walls had turned clear (I think that means that it is very hard ice). Any deeper and I would have gotten wet from the waterfall and I was nervous about climbing the hard steep ice so I had a look around (it was maybe another 10m to the bottom) and signaled up that I would start climbing out. It was an awesome climb out and it’s always good to have some form of motivation under you. V’s lil arms had given up on her for the day so we carried on down towards the heli-pad (a flat piece of ice). Jonathan found one more stunning blue-ice cave for us to play in before we had to return our cool sharp pointy gear (we are going to have to get some of our own I suspect).

There was one final little treat in store for us. The helicopter that was collecting us had a ‘scenic flight’ customer on board so we got to see a lot more of the glacier. The pilot went almost up to the cloud layer before circling back around. He came in close (very) to some huge boulders that were part of a recent rockfall and took his time getting out of the valley so it was a much longer flight than the ‘Taxi’ ride in. It was the perfect end to yet another perfect day. Ear to ear grins on both of us once again (I think they are more or less permanent now). We’ll suffer tomorrow, but it was well worth it (even at the price).

Thanks Jonathan (and Fox Glacier Guides). It was an incredible experience and we both loved it. Yet another thing to add to the list of cool sports we enjoy. We’ll be back, but probably with our own gear hehe.

[Pictures: Our snazzy ride, Mt Cook in the background. V playing around on some features. Jonathan setting a toprope and V looking back up to the icefall. We have loads more awesome pics and vids to come]

The heli ride onto the glacier

V having a whack at the Glacier

Us climbing through an Ice Tunnel

Sim in the Moulin

The Ride out

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi

[Fox Glacier Village, New Zealand] We were truly optimistic this morning and presented ourselves at the Fox Glacier Guides offices at 7:30 even though there wasn’t a blue patch in the sky. Our friendly guide and the dispatch operator from yesterday informed us that the weather was not going to work today after pouring over various online weather resources. Lucky we have a backup booking for tomorrow. So it was straight back to bed for us.

We had plans to get up and possibly hike up to the glacier face or drive up to Franz-Josef to check out that slightly larger village but it started raining and hasn’t stopped. V’s been snoozing all day and I’ve been listening to podcasts. I reckon it’s for the better. We are both still in pain from the mountain biking and have not been able to sleep in for weeks.

Tomorrow the weather is expected to be calm and sunny – let’s see how good the forecasting is in NZ. The only problem I see is if the helicopter drops us high on the glacier in the morning and then is not able to collect us in the afternoon due to weather. It’s too far and dangerous to hike out so it could be quite an adventure.

[Pictures: Hi Mom. The view out the back window]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi