Wednesday 15^th January 2003
Drive up to Queenstown. Queenstown is big holiday resort and heaving with people. Finally we have found the busy NZ that everyone has warned us about. The hotel where we were going to stay (Thomas's) is right next to Real Journeys office and the wharf from which Earnslaw departs. Looks OK but not great. We have an hour until boat departs. Talk to guy from Durham at RJ office - confirms that Kiwi Experience is just one long pub crawl and can't understand why the Brits would come all the way to NZ for that. Guess it suits some people.

As we wait for our transport to arrive we nurse a cup of coffee/tea and watch the paragliders coming down from the hill behind us and para-ascenders towed behind boats in front. Jet boats also speed around doing handbrake turns for the amusement of their passengers. Queenstown is the adventure capital of NZ.

Next stop Arrowtown where we located our hostel, Riverdown, before taking a walk around the town centre. Souvenir shops, ice cream, then mini-golf. Pete takes an unassailable 2-0 lead in the NZ tour. Despite the fact that Glyn got two holes in one ! (Later reading Rough Guide, looks like we didn't actually see any of the stuff that we should have looked at, oops!)

Hostel is very small - there are just 5 for the night , an Israeli couple and a woman from Waterlooville Hants. Val is in charge, on behalf of her daughter. Val and husband normally operate Southern Comfort in Invercargill, and this is their holiday house (not really a hostel at all). They intend to enlarge it in the future. Pete takes a short walk up to a viewpoint with views over Arrowtown, surrounding mountains, and L Wakatipu in the distance.

Thursday 16^th January 2003
Pete wakes with a sore throat - oh no not two colds in less than 5 weeks! Leave Arrowtown and head for Wanaka over the Crown Ridge.

Pete has consulted the literature and has realised that Wanaka is the place where Mat and Helen did Mount Roy so he intends to follow in their footsteps. However, as we approach we get a view of a glacier between the mountains and his plan changes. We go into the DOC information office and find out how to get there and it turns out the one we saw is Avalanche Glacier. Pete needs to do Rob Roy valley track, but its 52km away and the last 30 are gravelled road. Never mind, we tore up the car hire agreement weeks ago and this has to be done.

First we check in at the Purple Cow and pick up some groceries. Then Pete sets off with his sandwiches and his cold. 8km short of the destination he is confronted with a ford in the track and a sign recommending the use of a 4WD vehicle, but it looks manageable and is crossed succesfully. There are a few more before the end by which time Pete is feeling quite intrepid - only to be deflated on arrival at the car park where there are dozens of vehicles, families with picnics, bikes, everything. Its really hot (again!) and Pete sets off applying Cancer Society factor 15 as he walks (to waste no time you see). Across a swingbridge and onto a track which rises above a tumbling river in the bottom of a gorge. This river leads up the Rob Roy valley towards the remnants of Rob Roy glacier, and magnificent views of it start to appear. Before the end there is a fantastic viewpoint, and a couple descending nearly have an accident when the leader stops to look - "DANGER Beautiful View". The track ends above the tree line and the scene is set.


Glacier ice hangs above sheer rock faces and a pencil thin waterfall descends hundreds of meters from a hanging valley. A pair of Keas are scouting for choice morsels but everyone is obeying the rules and not feeding them. We do have to keep our eyes on our belongings though. Glyn still hasn't seen the Keas on the mountain so Pete takes plenty of video. Half an hour later Pete sets off back down. The Rob Roy track is one of the most popular in the Wanaka region and with good reason. Pete feels this is one of the best tracks he has walked and definitely recommends it.

On the way home Pete picks up two pretty young women (hitch-hikers you understand!) and drops them at a campsite. They had just spent the night up at Aspiring Hut.

After dinner we take a walk by the lake. There is a big sailing contingent out on the water in all manner of craft, but the wind starts to get a bit squally and by the time we return most are ashore. Most of the adventure activities are available here, as in Queenstown, but Wanaka is smaller and more "intimate".

Purple Cow backpackers is large but very comfortable - we have an ensuite room. It is really a motel that has opened its doors to backpackers. The standard is high and the views over Lake Wanaka excellent. It is too big to be cosy but we are happy here. Unfortunately, we are kept awake 'til after 12 by people sitting outside our room, and in the morning a block of cheese has gone missing from the fridge - two firsts for this trip.

Friday 17^th January 2003
North through the Haast Pass and back to the West Coast. We stop at Haast for petrol and visit the information centre. We head north again. Mat has told us about Munroe Beach where he saw Fiordland Crested Penguins. It is not the right time of year but we think we'll visit anyway as it is recommended in the Rough Guide. Somehow we manage to miss the turn and arrive at Lake Paringa, where we eat lunch. Decide that it shouldn't take too long to go back, so we do. The walk is fine, a typical bush walk down to a fine shingle beach. Very hot and no sign of penguins - no surprise. We look under lots of bushes and wander along the beach before returning to the road and finishing the journey to Fox Glacier.

Ivory Towers is a large hostel but it is divided between three buidings each with own kitchen and lounge. Our room is on the first floor of the main building and has a tv in the room and a shower next door. Gladiator is on the tv so we watch that before cooking dinner and going into the village to research helicopter flights to the glacier. There are four companies operating locally and it is difficult to choose. We check out the nearby souvenir shop where you can see glow worms in the garden after dark for $2. Carol (the Canadian) had told us about this and despite the fact that she had thought it a joke that one should pay $2 to see what can be seen in the dark naturally we still decide to do it. After 10pm we went to the 'grotto' where we stumbled around in the dark with several other tourists admiring the tiny blue lights, beats watching the telly!

Fox glacier township has a nice atmosphere - a small village with several cafes.

Quotes from Ivory Towers Backpackers information: "We have one of those Internet things that you can use to talk to strange people in strange lands. Feed it $2 coin to start. PS Save yourself some money and go onto the veranda and talk to strange people about strange lands for nothing." "We get 5m of rain a year, and you came here on holiday??" "Today is a gift - that's why its called the Present".

Saturday 18^th January 2003

We have now seen the whole cycle from the "neve" in the mountains where the snow collects, to the glacier and where it melts carrying the white powder that causes the blue colours seen in the river gorges and finally chokes the river beds in the wide braided rivers such as those that flow across the Canterbury plains.

We then drive around to the south side of the Fox river and follow a longer track (Chalet Lookout) which leads to a viewpoint that gives a better view up the glacier. The passing of time is measured by the passing of helicopters until the cloud becomes too thick.

Back to the hostel where Good Will Hunting is showing on the video channel, so dinner is delayed. It was only sausages and pasta anyway. During dinner we sit and chat to an older English lady (Pat) travelling alone. She has worked as an NTS volunteer with Seamus in Torridon and also knows Cambridge and Lymington. Since in NZ she has spent some time working as a Wwoof'er and shows Glyn the WWOOF handbook.

Quotes from a hostel collection of quotations:
"These are my principles, and if you don't like them… well, I have others." Groucho Marx
"I don't want any 'yes-men' around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth, even if it costs them their jobs." Samuel Goldwyn