New Zealand: East Coast to West Coast in One Day. In a Car. / Feb 22, 2010
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So after we’d had our fill of whales, we took off on the road again and headed to Franz Joseph Glacier on the West Coast of the South Island. It was quite a hike from Kaikoura on the East Coast so we unfortunately didn’t have much time to stop along the way for pics, but of course we had to grab just a few.
So this is where we should have taken Angela and Webster’s advice to visit Fox Glacier over Franz Joseph, but we had already made our lodging arrangements and booked our hike, so we were kinda locked in. Fox Glacier is much less crowded and much less steep than FJ – a big draw for Anne. Unfortunately, we’ll have to hit Fox and their gorgeous blue ice on another visit.
The stunning glacier, just one of, believe it or not, over 3,000 in NZ. Especially wild to note that the glaciers are the only ones in the world basically next to a rain forest!
Don’t let that forced smile fool you. I (Anne) was not exactly thrilled at the heights involved with said glacier hike! Buy her a beer (preferably a Crushed Apple Cider from NZ’s Monteith’s Brewing Company) and she’ll tell you about it sometime.
Click on the photo below to see one of the other hiking groups making their way up the steep rocks to see where the shot of Anne (above) was taken. If you look hard, you can see little specks of red and white from the clothing of those hiking up the south face.
Back on solid ground (yea!), we headed for our next (and sadly, one of our last stops), Glenorchy, just outside of Queenstown. We didn’t do any of the film tours, but heard from locals that they filmed many scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy around Glenorchy. We can see why. More pics from there to come, but first we had to get there so it was back in the car for Anne and Bill…
Driftwood sculptures at Hokitika beach…
and Bruce Bay. So cool!
The gorgeous Lake Wanaka on the way from Franz Joseph to Glenorchy.
Could seriously live right here and be eternally fulfilled. Thankfully we have amazing memories and a few cool pics, too!
Just some shots around the garden of our B&B in Glenorchy.
Our view of the sunset that evening from our little private deck. It almost looked as if the mountain were about ready to erupt.
Thanks for joining us today. We’ll have more for you very soon!
