New Zealand 5 – From The Skies Above

We stop at  Te Anau for the rainiest wettest days we have had so far. What a shame, though when we get to Milford and Fiordland it seems so incredibly atmospheric, with hundreds of waterfalls , with no other place to go, they tumble over the edge, hundreds of them over the steep cliffs into the sea, only the wind is so strong that as the water tumbles down to the sea, it is immediately blown back up into the air.

We stop in a great little back packers place in Te Anua. The kids enjoy having older hip cool guys hanging around, all very international, particularly in the evenings when we cook our supper and we watch what other people are eating for theirs. On one evening an Israeli couple toast an entire cut loaf, pile the crisp toast high on a plate and accompanied by a tub of humous, proceed to work their way through the pile, from top to bottom. With gasps and giggles from the children – “mummy look what those guys are having for supper” and “they are not going to eat all that bread!”  But they did and quite quickly! On the table next to them sat a solitary American guy who emptied some previously cooked, but now cold, pasta onto a plate, and tipped a heap of curry powder onto his pasta from a large communal jar and tucked into it as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks, finishing the lot in seconds. We almost waited to see if he would wince from the rawness of the curry flavour, but he showed no reaction whatsoever. Our lot staring at him with their mouths wide open.

It’s so rainy here, and we don’t fancy tramping out in the wet, so we have an at home day and we head to the local cinema to watch the charming film “Paddington” and feel momentarily homesick as the camera wizzes over those great London scenes. I order a coffee and it is brought to me in the middle of the performance. Very civilised!

We take a boat out one day on a trip across the lake to see the glow worms lighting up the caves, their twinkling tails like fairy lights glinting in the dark cave above us. All the torches are turned off and we boat along the water in the cave, in the deep blackness, just the occasional drip drip of the icy water permeating through the rock, can be heard.

We wend our way up the west coast of the South Island. There aren’t enough expletives to describe this coast. We ooooh !  and AHHHH at every corner. We have spectacular weather the whole way – the Gods are with us  It’s picture perfect, the high mountains covered in snow, the sea is glistening all the way, like metal liquid. It’s not too busy, as families are making way for us as they head back to jobs and schools. We make sure that our swimming togs are readily available for daily cold swims in the sea, rivers, and lakes. Equipped with a tent, and some basic camping stuff we now have a bit more flexibility.

We turn left when we get to the west coast, and head briefly down to Jackson bay for a seafood lunch from the crab shack, highly recommended by some locals and a walk to the wind-swept beach. We sit on benches on the edge of the sea, as the Southen Alps loom ahead of us and we spot the coastline that we will be following for the next week.

We watch a foursome group tuck into their lunch and then take off in a heli! … Could we? Should we? Can we?! Quickly dismissed with a “No it’s way too expensive”

Next stop Fox Glacier. OMG! This is something.  I have seen glaciers before in the Alps, but this is extraordinary, the glacier almost comes down to sea level and the beach is a matter of a few kilometres away and it’s enormous. We walk up to the start of the glacier to see the sheer vastness of this frozen river, heading down the valley, taking every rock in its way with it. We hear the whirring  of the helicopter blades above us, The should-we? Could-we ? Can-we ? turns into a “Well we must, surely this is the place to do it” and the next thing, we are climbing into a helicopter! and whizzing up the glacier, where we land for a quick 10 minutes for photos, more oooos  and ahhhhs and a snow ball fight before heading back down again. That was quick and somewhat surreal. I am not sure whether these facts are true, but the pilot tells us that the Glacier crevasses are so deep that the Eiffel Tower could be sunk into one of them and so large and wide that the whole of Christchurch City would fit on it. We are suitably impressed.

Well that’s blown our budget!  Now we will have to eat bread and water for the next week! It was definitely worth it !