Methodological Madness

This is the third part of the travelogue. The first part covered up to Te Anau, and the second part covered up to Wanaka.

Thursday: Wanaka—Franz Josef

This is another driving day. It’s turning out that every second day of our trip is a major driving day, with about three or four hours on the road.

We departed Wanaka for the West Coast of the South Island. The only road that connects the West Coast with the southern part of South Island is through the Haast Pass. In this part of New Zealand, almost everything is named after Julius von Haast, who surveyed the area:

• Haast Pass
• Gates of Haast, a bridge on the Haast Pass
• Haast, the township
• Haast River, one of the two river valleys followed by the road
• Haast Range, a mountain range to the west of Haast
• Haast Glacier

We stopped at Haast township for a brief break (it’s just a couple of streets).

One of the more notable things during this drive is the roadworks just after Haast township. As you may or may not be aware, New Zealand is painfully diligent in their road maintenance. We had to stop for ten minutes to allow the road resurfacing trucks to finish their work. The contractor was a local concern called Ferguson Brothers Industrial. Much amusement was had when we discovered their initials on all their traffic cones and other equipment.

We made a more substantial stop at Tauperikaka / Ship Creek for lunch. Then it’s off to the Fox Glacier, where we walked up to the terminal face, before settling down at the Franz Josef township. Dinner was quite pleasant at a local bar.

Friday: Franz Josef Glacier

Following the theme of joining early tours, we woke up at 6 am to begin a 7-hour guided tour of the Franz Josef Glacier, which began at 7:30 am. The tour involved scaling up onto (the first level of) the glacier with proper equipment, and requires a degree of physical fitness.

I originally thought that heading down would be much more difficult than heading up, simply because of the very steep terrain. But I was pleasantly surprised that that was not really the case.

The tour is pretty dangerous but it’s worth it. I don’t have any photos here, but hopefully Anna will supply them.

We got back to the township in the mid-afternoon, where everybody had a nap. Another pleasant dinner at a local cafe.

The next and final part of the travelogue covers the rest of the West Coast.