Road Trip - Arrowtown - Fox Glacier - Greymouth

• Joeash2008's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Greymouth

Trip Start Jan 20, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Mar 10, 2008 Next
Entry

  Greymouth, New Zealand
Tuesday, February 12, 2008

So last time we updated we were in Queenstown, where we were also trying to hook up with my two girlies from college, Mairead and Suzanne. But as neither of us had a mobile we were trying to communicate  by email, very hard to do when you are travelling around. As things transpired, we just missed Maired on the way back from Milford Sound, as she was just heading there, so we must have passed on the road!! So, unfortunately, we missed Mairead but she then informed us that Suzanne was on a 3 day trek up in Glenorchy, which is just past Queenstown so we reckeoned we would hang out in Queenstown til Sunday and see if we could catch up. But again, as Suz was halfway up a mountain she couldn't check her emails! She the likelihood of us meeting was slim to none. But the luck of the Irish seems to be with us over here, I was sitting on a bench on Shotover St. in the middle of the town, waiting for Joe who was in the I site and Suzanne walked past!!!! You could have knocked me down with a feather. She was just down from the mountain and was heading to the supermarket with her friend Otto before heading out of town to Arrowtown. What are the chances of that? We decided to up sticks and head out with her to Arrowtown for the night. So, a barbie and a few bottles/boxes of wine later, we chatted on to the wee hours of the morning, which was great as we hadn't seen her in so long! Thanks a mil Suz for the great night, it was brilliant to see you again and we'll be in touch soon!

So the next morning, we wandered around Arrowtown and down to the river to see the Ford of Bruinen, which was a film location for LOTR, and we wandered around the little gold-mining town, it was really pretty. But, we had to head on the road again as we had to make Fox Glacier by nightfall! As we drove North, the weather got progressively worse and worse, at one stage it got so bad, that we could barely see the road in front of us! It reminded us so much of home, the stinging driving rain and wind, but yet it was still warm enough for shorts! So as neither Joe or I fancied putting up a tent in that weather, we booked into a motel for the night in Fox Glacier. We were due to fly up to the Glaciers in the morning so we hoped that the weather would clear but unfortunatley, no helicpoters were flying the next day so we had to make do with seeing the Franz Josef Glacier from the ground. We moved on again as there wasn't much to do in these little towns bar seeing the glacier. But again the weather was really bad, so even when we were driving we didn't get to see much. We reached Greymouth, early enough and as our itinery got a bit messed up in the glaciers, we decided to head up the coast to a little town called ............................................................ ............................. Westport!!! And yes, it is actually named after Westport in Co. Mayo, but sadly it lacks the same charm as our lovely little town in the West. A lot of these towns are real traditional one main st sort of towns, when you've seen one you've seen them all!! So we stayed in a motel again and lo and behold when we got up the next morning, the sun was beaming down. So we took our time heading back to Greymouth, where we are getting the Tranzalpine train across to Christchurch. The drive back down was gorgeous and we went to a seal colony at Cape Foulwind, yes that really is what it is called. Apparently, when Captain Cook sailed around there, he encountered 'very foul winds', so hence the name, I can't believe it stuck! The seal Colony was gorgeous, and because of the time of the year, there were loads of little seal pups hopping around the place. They were absolutely the cutest things I have ever seen and we have some brilliant video footage of them but unfortunately no great photos! 
We also went and had a look at the Pancake Rocks and blowholes at Punakaiki, which were pretty cool. The funniest thing that we have probably seen on all our travels, well, the two funniest things were one, the strange road signs lining the road along the west coast, one was the picture of a penguin and under it was 5km, another one was a picture of a bird, seal etc. But the funniest of them all was a picture of a snail, with 2 km under it. I mean, what were you supposed to do, stop for an hour while the snail crossed the road?!!! The other thing was the one-lane bridges with the train tracks down the middle with no lights!! I mean, who had right of way and what would happen if you were on this bridge and suddenley you saw a train coming towards you!!! It was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen!!

On another note, I and I alone have been killed with the sandflies on the west coast! For some reason they don't seem to like Joe's blood, just mine. My hands and feet and some other parts of my anatomy are covered in bites that are the itchiest things ever!!! And Suz, yes you were right, you do have to mind your bottom when going to the toilet!!!! And we were also attacked by a super bug fly thing who decided to hitch a lift in our car. And then proceeded to make us nearly crash by flying around the car while we were driving on a windy narrow road with no shoulder. It was huuuuuuuuuuuuge, I freaked out and started screaming and then Joe got freaked out at me but thankfully, we managed to find a place to pull over and I ran as far away from the car as possible until Superman Joe came to the rescue! The bugs here are weird and bloody massive and I will never complain again about our little tiny spiders in Ireland! Thank God, we have finished camping and it's only hotels from here on out!

So, we are about to head on the Tranzalpine, it is one of the top six train journeys in the world and it goes right over the Southern Alps, so we can't wait!  We'll take lots of photos and video, so hopefully ye'll be able to see for yourselves!

Lots of love,

J & A

Greymouth hotels Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Franz Josef Glacier	Freezing cold river from the glacier!	It does exactly what it says on the tin!	Joe a little bit tipsy!
Joe at Punakaiki	Joe at the Ford of Bruinen	Little seals playing at Punakaiki	Me and Suz!
Me at Punakaiki	Me getting my feet wet!	More water!	Otto and Suzanne
Pancake Rocks	Punakaiki!	Seal Colony	See, it does rain in NZ!
Suz in the sweet shop!!	Suzanne	The Ford of Bruinen LOTR	The one-lane bridge with the train tracks!!
The two girls at the Ford of Bruinen	The two lovers!!!	Top of Franz Josef Glacier	View from Pancake Rocks
Westport - just like home?!	Westport on a fine day!

Previous Entry Next Entry