New Zealand: part 4 - disappearing glaciers

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New Zealand: part 4 - disappearing glaciers

16/02/2020 It's another 3h30 drive to Punakaiki. A long but beautifully scenic route!

There are some small hikes along the way and off course for some of them you have to pay ...

And very soon we're driving through heavy rain! Cyclone Uesi is hitting the South island today and we're just driving in his tail.

But that doesn't take the fun away! By the time we take a detour to the Cape Foulwind lighthouse, it's quite heavy!

And we get to wear our gorgeous rain-capes 😂

By the time we reach Pancake Rocks, we almost get blown away!

Gigantic blowholes!

And while Captain Cook was good in charting these rough coasts, we're not sure where the google car was driving when recording this road 😎

We're calling it a day as we are soaking wet. The house at Barrytown has a beautiful view over the ocean.

As the evening evolves the weather gets worse and the sea even rougher! Quite happy not to be on the boat right now 😌

It's a great moment to catch up with writing, school, drawing, selecting pictures, planning the following days and reserving our flights for Tasmania. That's what happens when you have too much time in the car 😀 We decided to leave LouiseAnna where she is and add 10 more days Tasmania before heading back to the Gold Coast 😇

We started the Indiana Jones movies with the girls. He flies off to an other country. So Louise says: "Oh, is he going to an other island?" That's what happens if almost every new country during the last year and a half is an island 😃

17/02/2020 We left Barrytown after a lazy morning while waiting for the rain to stop. A long the road there are even more waterfalls than yesterday!

And mudslides !

A quick stop in Greymouth for some shopping and lunch in a yummy brewery 😊

And off to Hotikita for an early check-in, short walk around the house, some school work, laundry, movie night and a good night sleep.

18/02/2020 Just a series of small hikes today. The first hike is the very wet forest we discover on the other side of this tunnel.

It's actually a whole series of tunnels and more caves to explore. We're not feeling too adventurous though today 😊

The second stop is the Hokitika Gorge. It's supposed to have amazing blue glacier water. Today however it's more of an impressive greyish flow!

And the last stop is lake Mahinapua.

Close to Okarito we added another hike as they promised us kiwi's and it was late in the afternoon.

No kiwi's but the girls don't need much to enjoy themselves!

We really really looked hard though!

Some birds only showed us there butt's.

And other birds were nagging us with a sound but no view! Or was this the kiwi sound?

As always the view is just magnificent!

19/02/2020 We're off to do the hardest walk we did in New Zealand. It comes straight after the Bora Bora walk. Anna said it was really special and gorgeous, but a it too long 😬😍 Today we drove up towards the Franz Jozef Glacier.

We walked up the Roberts Point track. Starts off nice from the car park.

And after the first of five swing bridges ...

... comes this promising second panel! 😱 Well, too late to turn around, we promised some ice!!!

The walk goes over boulders, through rivers, along steep walls and scary swing bridges ...

It's funny because for the easy walks we can do it in a third of the proposed time, however for these more experienced walks you kind of have to run to make it in time. In stead of 5 hours, we needed 7. Still ok though 😍

This bridge is soooooo long and sooooooo wobbly!!!

Fake gold in the rivers!

Look, Obelix left a stone hearth in this river!!!

And when there's a bench, ...

There usually is a great view!

The last steep climb.

Well, almost the last one 😊

But then the reward!!! We're so lucky to still see this last part of the glacier.

When you see how fast water is melting...

It's a beautiful lookout for a pic nic!

But all good things come to an end and we need daylight for this hike!

It's the first time they saw a glacier. 13.7 km in 7 hours was really worth it! I fell during the walk down and twisted my hip and knee, scraped my arm and most of all hurt my self esteem 😇😊 But the girls were great and my husband "donkey" carrying everything! 😈

20/02/2020

As the weather is not fantastic we want to go on a small walk and we're quite happy to drive a bit further 😋 We're off to see Fox Glacier.

Besides hot springs and "Hephalumps", Fox glacier is not worth it... We saw some many disappointed faces return on this walk...

And this is why...

It's gone!!! 😱😱😱

Very sad. We explain why there's no ice anymore to our girls. The helicopters flying over every 3 minutes just prove our point ...

On the way back the weather clears and just look at this view. Lucky we came anyway as this seems to be rare...

... to see the snowy tops!

21/02/2020 Another 4h drive today. We're off towards Queenstown. We pass through Haast for lunch. The road from there on is just gorgeous again. A bit different than before.

Some waterfalls along the road seem to be very easy and close access.

Finally we get to meet the sheep!

We pass along Lake Wanaka and Hawea and realised we have missed a beautiful area in our preparations. Rather than spending more time around the glaciers, we would suggest a few days around these lakes. Even a whole week. The walks around here look amazing!!!

View over Queenstown.

We stop for a small detour in Arrowtown. Very cute, touristy like, but still worth a passage. And a better place to have dinner than Queenstown, but hey that's what you know once you've been there right 😌😎

We chose to go to Queenstown, so we had time to actually see the town. Check-in was kind of a bummer. This must be the worst place ever!!! You get an air freshener with the room to get rid of the cigarette smell! The sheets have stains on them, it's really horrible! BUT it's also carnaval evening and by any wonder, this is the only hotel that was quiet because a rugby team needed to prepare for a game the next day! So you know it's not always bad...