20/11–Moving on, Greymouth, Franz Josef and Milford Sound

We’ve been moving along at a fair old pace in the South Island. After the long march at Abel Tasman, we left Nelson and did an overnight at Greymouth. Little did we know that in little more than a week after our stay there, tragedy would strike the when 29 miners died in an underground explosion.

 

The next stop was Franz Josef, where we stayed another night. Just long enough to do the obligatory walk of the Franz Josef Glacier.

The drive up to Franz Josef was something of an event in its own right as we were greeted by some stunning scenery and winding alpine roads. For its size, New Zealand has some quite startling changes in climate and vegetation between regions, and the regions around Franz Josef were covered in rainforest, in stark contrast to the more temperate North and North East coast.

The Glacier itself in a magnificent thing. Its terminal end has been retreating over the past 15 years or so due to the earth’s warming, leaving behind a barren moonscape of broken rocks in its wake.

Having approached the glacier from this rubble strewn end, we were able put on our crampon’s and walk up on to the old boy, which gave us some more great views of the valley below. However, Si Phong seemed to be more interested in the great views of our guide’s behind. According to her and the other females on on the Magic Bus, “Callum” was a proper piece of eye candy. I guess the glacier probably retreated an extra couple of meters that day on account of all of extra heat coming from those ladies.

At this point, we’d been travelling for about a week through New Zealand with barely a day off the coach. We’d made a couple of friends on the way, such as Sao Mai from Quebec, who we were to spend plenty more time with down the line. Despite the good company and the beautiful scenery, it was starting to feel like a bit of a grind, so it was with much relief that we hit Queenstown, where we fully intended to slow things down a bit by staying seven nights before a more relaxed itinerary back up to Christchurch.

Queenstown is set in some fantastic scenery of its own, but most people will travel from there for a day trip in to the Fiordland National Park area in order to visit Milford Sound. This is not a short drive by any means. In fact, the Milford Sound excursion sounds positively insane at first glance…a ten hour return coach journey just to spend 2 hours on a cruise boat at Milford Sound. Say what?!?

However, we figured that the only way that such a ridiculous excursion could be so popular was if the 2 hours on the boat was absolutely knock out. And spectacular it was!

Things weren’t looking too hopeful on the way out from Queenstown to Te Anau, as the drive was shrouded in mist and freezing rain, prompting everyone to stop up on extra fleeces at the cafe stop. But as we progressed in to Milford, the clouds miraculously cleared. According to the driver, It was the first clear day in over a week.

Milford Sound is best viewed by boat, as it highlights the way that the mountains rise straight up from the sea. This was some proper Land that Time Forgot stuff right here, and the only thing missing was a flock of Pterodactyls plucking the odd unfortunate tourist in to the air.

Despite this, it was a slightly frustrating experience for me to be viewing Milford Sound from the top of a tour boat. I was fully aware that one of the reputed Finest Walks on Earth, the four day Milford Track, starts from lake Te Anau and crosses the mountains in to Milford Sound. This would have been a far more satisfactory way to get to and see Milford Sound, though our particular itinerary could never had accommodated this. Hmm…maybe there’s some unfinished business with this southern isle.