Visit New Zealand - Day Six

I meet the Magic Bus outside my hostel at 8 am and sit next with Vanessa, Wags and Trigg. We stop off at Hokitika (left), which (it being a Sunday) is completely dead – it actually looks like a ghost town! We wander to the supermarket then have a look at some traditional greenstone art at the town’s carving centre.

Our next stop is at Ross, an old gold mining town featuring a church which is allegedly New Zealand’s oldest building, an old miner’s shack and the old town jail, a replica of the largest nugget of gold ever found in NZ (the Roddy Nugget), and some village stocks! You can even ‘pan for gold’ in some plastic tubs if you really want to, for $6.


We arrive at Franz Josef town (above) with enough time to have some lunch and a relax before going on a half-day hike up the Franz Josef Glacier. The glacier was named after the Austrian emperor in 1865, but the Maori name for it is "Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere" — which translates to "the tears of the avalanche girl". The legend is that Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Tawe, to climb with her. An avalanche swept Tawe from the peaks to his death. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears froze to form the glacier.

The half-day hike gives you about two hours on the ice and is graded as 'moderately difficult'. At the Glacier Guides HQ, I buddy up with Wags and Trigg and we kit ourselves in plastic trousers, raincoat, wool socks, hiking boots, gloves and hat before being driven towards the glacier. I feel like a prize fool, but at least everyone else looks silly too. From the car park we walk through regenerating rainforest and continue along the glacier valley (right) with our guide calling stops to explain the features of the glacier and its surroundings. We have to wade through the river and scramble up a rockface using a rickety ladder and a rope which is a bit scary, but the valley itself is beautiful with cascading waterfalls along the sides.

When we reach the terminal face (left) we all strap on our Ice-Talonz and begin to make our way up the glacier, using a steep and slippery 40 metre staircase that has been cut into the ice. The view from here is amazing enough, but we go further, crossing ravines, crawling through ice tunnels and squeezing through stunning blue ice crevices. Truly beautiful, and I only manage to slip and fall over once (thankfully in a safe location).

Back at my hostel (right) I have a long hot shower to soothe my aching legs and blistered feet, before meeting Wags and Trigg for dinner and drinks at the Blue Ice Cafe, where you get a handle of beer free with any pizza. The boys are impressed with my skills at chugging ales and stouts, but after four or so handles I'm rather tiddly and embarrass myself by revealing how blonde I really am (a saga involving washing my clothes, which I won't go into here). Before I get any more wrecked I retreat to bed - sleep is well-deserved after the afternoon's excursion!