NZ : Glacier Highway. Man, that shit is glacial.

We stopped on our way down to Franz Josef to say a quick farewell to the Greymouth boys and to marvel at the setting concrete on the driveway we had helped with the day before.

The road South led us along Glacier highway, where we were able to marvel at the vast expanse of mountain range on all sides.



We rolled in to Franz Josef village early evening and set up at Chateaux Franz, deciding last minute that we were going to do a 17km hike the next day. We made full use of the hot tub on offer and got ourselves set up with some hearty food for the evening. Pete, a loose family tie of Jan's came round for the evening to share dinner and watch a scary movie, he was in the process of training to be a glacier guide and lived nearby. Pete kindly offered us a room for the following night which was very well received post-walk.

Starting out early on the Saturday morning we tried, and failed, at our first hitchhiking attempt to get to the Alex Knob trailhead, grizzling at all of the cars passing us by. We reached the track 2km later.
We started the track with a little bit of apprehension, we'd been warned a couple of times that "this track is only for experienced trampers," but as per usual we laughed in the face of danger.

The trail was rocky and there were often fallen trees to negotiate. Tree roots as high as our waists meant hauling ourselves up and over unelegantly. The route zigzaged steeply up to Rata Lookout, our first view of the glacier. It was then a more gentle grade to Christmas Lookout where we had fantastic views and more photo ops than you could shake a stick at. Once we reached the upper bush edge, the track continued steeply through mountain daisies to the Alex Knob summit where we stopped for a frosty lunch and gawked at the sign telling us that we were at 1,303m (higher than Mt Snowden.)

The views from here were astonishing and confirmed that there was no need to pay through the nose for a scenic flight, as helicopters were flying past, parallel to the height that we'd just climbed. The whole track was estimated to take 8 hours and we made it back down in 5 hours 50mins with time to spare for coffee and Doughnut-Saturday at the European Bakery. Yum!

That evening we headed to Pete's house to stay with him and two other glacier guides, Will and John. When we arrived we found the boys swinging over a ditch from a length of rope supported between two spindly looking trees. It was a delight staying out in the cottage in the woods where we were able to have hot showers, wash our clothes and even had dinner cooked for us, eaten in front of a roaring log fire.

We'll mention little of the disappointing next day - Copland Track FAIL.

Mother Nature -1 
Jan & Sooz - 0

Severe weather warning foiled our plans to do a big tramp up to Welcome Hut on the Copland trail.
Against better judgment we started only to find creeks with burst banks and an impassable flooded track. A swift U-turn saw us faced with a ferocious river which had risen around 1ft since we had crossed it less than an hour beforehand, resulting in a 2 hour diversion to the nearest swing bridge. Arriving back at the car saw us savaged by sandflies, cold, wet, miserable and eating our emotions.

Following this mammoth disappointment we sulked over to Fox's glacier village to climb in to bed and read books whilst the weather raged outside. After dinner and a film we retreated to bed for an early night before our full day glacier hiking.

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.