Once again we were up bright and breezy ready to hit the road, I actually wasn't too keen on the motel we had stayed in the night before so didn't dawdle. The place itself was alright but sometimes the person behind the desk just doesn't make you feel comfortable, shall we say, or we could say they were just downright weird. You just feel like posting the key through the letterbox rather than handing it to them. Doesn't happen a lot and I usually actually thank the people running the place, not this one, truth be told, I sent David in with the key.
The road to Franz Josef is absolutely stunning, out of all the roads we have travelled on, this one beats them all hands down. The weather helped, beautiful blue skies showcased the snow capped mountains, and these ones were taller and the snow whiter than the mountains we had seen previously.
A view from the car window, doesn't do it justice though.
We stopped at this part of Arthur's Pass to stretch our legs, it was so warm and lovely to stroll around. As you can see from the photo below there was a river running past with crystal clear turquoise water. The red on the rock is some type of lichen.
Further on into Arthur's Pass is a walk to a waterfall called The Devil's Punchbowl. This led through forest and climbed higher and higher, in fact we had to climb stairs for 150 metres, boy did I feel that but the view was worth it at the end. The waterfall was still some height above us, and we had the mist of the water around us as we stood on the viewing platform.
In this area there are kiwis that live very close to the village and also kea, an alpine parrot which is indigineous to the South Island. There were warning signs not to feed the Kea and to watch your bags as they will go into them, looking for things to play with or to eat, sadly we didn't see one.
It was gorgeous to see and well worth the hike up to the top. After scampering down, so much easier than the upward trek, we had a picnic and continued our journey.
The skies got greyer and greyer the further south we went but this just made the scenery seem more dramatic. On arriving at a Franz Josef we booked into our new lodgings , which was a backpacker hostel called Gloworm Cottages. We had a double room there which was lovely, the staff were friendly and helpful and you can get free soup and bread at tea time and a free breakfast. There was even free wifi, but apparently they had been struck by lightning knocking their booster out so it was only available in some areas.
We quickly set off to see the Franz Josef glacier, this involved a very short drive out of town and then a trek which passed many waterfalls and strange rock formations and led us to walk along the higher, dry parts of the river bed.
As we came up to this section, I mentioned to David that it looked like ice as it was very white and sections were dark blue, but we thought this was strange as it was at the side of the path and well away from the glacier. When we were directly alongside it we realised it was indeed ice, as can be seen more clearly in the photo below. We then wondered what we were walking on and if there was ice beneath the path.
This is at the end of the path and it is unsafe to go any further, although you can take tours and hike on the glacier reaching it by helicopter.
David gave the man a high five, I decided to give him a cuddle but it looks like his hand is pushing me away.
On the walk back you can see how desolate the landscape is. On the way back we noticed more ice which had layers of stone and earth on it, which goes to show there is more ice underfoot than you originally think. The route is checked daily so we didn't feel in danger at all and were more amazed by it than anything.
On the short drive to the glacier we passed these two churches, both very small and quaint, they were close to a woodland walk which has gloworms on it. It was a very pretty walk but we were too early to see the gloworms as it was not dark enough.
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