Kerry from Derry

Oh my God! The pain......the pain (that was me after the celebrations when it was time to get up and head off again on the journey to Franz Josef).

But sure enough we all managed to drag ourselves out of our comas and on to the bus by 7 (lots of miles to be covered today). Today the destination was Franz Josef - one of the 2 main glaciers in NZ, the other being the Fox Glacier which is just down the road or 'around the corner' as us Irish might say - for the rest of you that means a good hour or two down the road. I don't recall much conversation on the bus that morning - just the sweet music of a snoring symphony with the odd groan thrown in.

The journey took us past the by now familiar stunning scenery of the West Coast and on to a town called Hokitika which has one of the best jade carving centres in NZ (apparently the only place where you can carve yourself for free if you're lucky enough to find a bit of jade). And before I get any complaints I don't literally mean carving yourself - read on to the end of the sentence and it becomes clear! Lunch consisted of the healing properties of a pie or two and a big mug of tea - right as rain again and raring to go.....back to sleep.

A few hours later we arrived in Franz Josef - the town itself is tiny but my god the scenery is amazing (was surprised that I hadn't been sceneried out by now). Again Franz Josef is one of the big tourist things to do in NZ and something which you will always see in the guidebooks or ads if you've ever seen any. I had decided that I was going to do the heli-hike the next day so went off to pay for that and began to get a wee bit excited, I had never been in a helicopter before or on a glacier for that matter so this was going to be something to remember.

Below is again something which I have plagerised just for information purposes - it will give you an idea as to what the glacier is all about:

The spectacular Franz Josef Glacier descends to just 250 metres above sea level amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rainforest.

Of all the accessible temperate glaciers in New Zealand, the Franz Josef Glacier is easily the steepest and fastest moving.

While many glaciers world-wide have been retreating, the Franz Josef Glacier still flows almost to sea level, through a temperate rainforest of ancient podocarp trees and other evergreen species.

This combination of ice and temperate rainforest is a unique feature of New Zealand's glacier country, and is an ecosystem found nowhere else in the world.

South Westland is situated at 43.5 degrees south, an equivalent latitude to the south of France. Cannes, for example, is the same distance from the coast as Franz Josef, with mountains of similar altitudes. Obviously there are no glaciers that extend down to sea level in France, so why does it happen here?

Running through Franz Josef is the Alpine Fault. Along this faultline the Southern Alps have been pushed up, and continue to rise in close proximity to the ocean. The weather that flows on to the West Coast is forced to rise over the Southern Alps, thereby cooling and dropping most of its moisture as rain and snow. This process causes up to 30 metres of snow to fall on the neve (or catchment area of the glacier), every year.

Snow that is compacted on the neve forms blue glacier ice that is funnelled down the Waiho Valley. The ice flows under its own momentum, forming a 'river of ice'. Although the terminal face of the glacier is continually melting, this is replaced by glacier ice flowing down from the neve. This is aided by basal sliding, caused by a layer of water beneath the glacier which is formed by the weight of the ice pushing against the valley floor.

The glacier slides forward at rates up to 10 times faster than most valley glaciers, presenting the visitor with a spectacular and unique icefall of crevasses, pinnacles, ice caves and canyons.

OK - I hope you'll remember that!

So on to the heli-hike the next day......it was amazing! You get kitted out in talonz (claws that attach to special heavy duty leather boots) which are meant to keep you upright on the ice, and of course the good old sunscreen.

So on we get to the helicopter and away we went - the pilot swooping left to right and down close to the glacier, don't mind saying I had the old stomach in mouth feeling a couple of times but that was just the pilot having a laugh with us virgins. Helicopters are sooooooooo much better than aeroplanes.

Anyway, down we go onto the glacier and land about 3/4 of the way up - next on the agenda was a 2 hour hike around the ice. Our guide led us up and over and into parts of the ice which you'll never experience on a normal snow covered mountain - carrying an axe to cut steps in the ice so we could make our way across particularly tough bits. We did have a girl with us who cried the whole way as she was so scared - bloody pain in the backside - meant we had to move a lot slower - and then we had the ones at the back who didn't keep up because they were so snap happy and then blamed the guide for leaving them behind (they were about 30 secs behind the rest of us) but of course the moaning was because they too were peeing in their panties!

The glacier itself was truly beautiful - blue ice, blue pools and blue ice caves which you can climb through, made for a pretty picture or too let me tell you - I will try and post some at some stage if I can, promise!

Again something which I would highly recommend! Oh - and the helicopter on the way down was just as good as on the way up.

Rightso - what can I say about Barrytown.....

Well the reason we stopped off to stay here is because the bus drivers need a rest and so did the rest of us - the timetable means that we spent 2 nights here so effectively the opportunity to have a lie in rather than getting up at 6.30am...and here was me thinking that kind of thing would have stopped when I quit work! With this particular company the general pattern of events dictated that Barrytown equals PARTY town - hence the Baz Vegas label and I have to say it didn't disappoint.....for the next 48 hrs. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves here and there were a few funny sights to be seen - one particularly memorable one was a young Danish man taking the dressing up challenge (designing an outfit purely from plastic bags) very seriously and appeared a couple of hours later as Bananaman!

So apart from the new self-imposed rule of what happens in Barrytown stays in Barrytown I will tell you about my knife-making experience.
Turned out that apart from the usual 15 or so that normally sign up for this there were only 3 of us, me, Donovan (Belfast boy) and Leo (English boy) - which was good for us but no so good for Steve (the owner of the outfit) who was expecting rather more ($$$$ of course) - which may have explained the bad mood for most of the morning which eventually lifted after some serious leg pulling from yours truly along the lines of you grumpy old git!

You may be wondering how the hell do you go about making a knife, well let me tell you.....you get to forge your own blade from red hot steel, and complete your knife with native timber handle, brass bolsters and pins. This means lots of hammering to begin with to shape your knife then lots and lots of grinding (with a machine - not what you may be thinking!) before attaching the handle, affixing it with pins and then sanding the lot down so in the end it looks bloody fantastic - my mother can provide testament to that as mine is now safely back home in Aghadowey! Took all day so don't go thinking it was a short process, it wasn't. So knife made - cue the celebrations! Let me just warn you all that moonshine is highly illegal and highly potent - in the spirit of my earlier 'what happens in Baz Vegas stays there' thats all I'm saying. All I will say is that there was lots of pulling knives out in the pub and uttering that classic line from that classic film 'Crocodile Dundee' ........'That's not a knife - this is a knife!' Very amusing evening had by all. So that was Barrytown - time to move on yet again.

OK - so we'd done the sailing and hiking/trekking yadda, yadda, yadda and it was time to move on down the West Coast where we would end up in Barrytown - although the town bit is slightly misleading....consisted of a pub (where we were staying) and...well that was it really.

Right then - the journey there took us through the Buller Gorge...the most spectacular part of NZ in my humble opinion (West Coast) - wild seas, towering cliffs, snowcapped mountains in the distance - the absolute works, beautiful views whichever way you looked. Although unfortunately through no fault of my own I didn't have my camera for this stretch - I won't name any names...you know who you are - but never fear I got it back the next day. Again somewhere I'll be going back to before I have to leave. Can't really describe it any more than that other than to say Awesome and mean that in the dictionary definition way rather than...Yeah man - Awwwwesome!

Our last stop off before we reached Baz Vegas was the Pancake rocks - one of the most touted things in the guidebooks. Basically the Pancake Rocks are several formations of rocks whereby they are layered on top of each other so it looks like they're towers of pancakes sitting on top of each other. I have shamelessly plagerised the following from another website but we've moved on to the science bit - its educational and god knows most of you need a bit of education!

These limestone rocks began forming 30 million years ago as tiny fragments of dead marine creatures such as bivalve shellfish and other molluscs, creating an even layer of sediment on the seabed. Earthquake action lifted the layers to the surface. The sea, wind and rain have since sculpted the unusual rock formations. As heavy swells thunder into caverns beneath the rocks, huge water spouts blast skywards through the blowholes. When high tides coincide with strong westerly winds, 15 metre foaming geysers can be seen.

And yes there were strong winds and yes I did see the geyser effect - blowholes to the rest of us and yes it was bloody good! I'd recommend this stretch of NZ to absolutely everyone.

OK - so on we go.....I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats salivating at the thought of reading some more my my personal insights to NZ!

Right now that I've got that out of the way let me begin - well as you'll have read in my last entry we had reached the capital city Wellington and after a few beers and less than a few hours sleep it was time to jump on the ferry and head over to the South Island. Its a 3 hour journey and has pretty good views both leaving the North Island and more so entering the South Island through the Marlborough Sounds going into Picton - the topmost town in the south. Basically mountains with lots of natural trees and fauna and various different cliffs and lots of little beaches spotted around - I'm told that occassionally you will spot whales and dolphins.....we didn't! There was of course the occasional sea gull but have to say that was about it - mind you I was napping most of the way so maybe I could have missed something a bit more significant...anyway I digress - we arrived in Picton and picked up a new coach before heading on our way west to the Abel Tasman via a very picturesque drive through the Marlborough vineyards and of course the obligatory stop off for a little wine tasting! Very good it was too and if I recall correctly a blistering hot day so of course I spent the day in the shade for fear of turning that bright tomato red that is so favoured by the Irish worldwide (by now though of course I had developed a tan - I even kept my watch on all the time so I could see for myself how 'brown' (or for the rest off you - off white) I was getting.

Now we'd had breakfast we went on to Nelson which is one of the larger towns - by that I mean it had a population of over 200, and stopped for lunch which of course was a pie! Its something the kiwis share with their cousins over the water in OZ - absolutely obsessed by pies but have to say they are damn fine. Half an hour later we were on our way again in an attempt to make the Abel Tasman before dark via a short stop off to pick up some grub for the evening meal - a few of us clubbed together and went for the barbie option and very nice it was too - mostly cooked by moi of course....known by now by my rightful title of Culinary Kerry!

So our lodgings for the night? Well it was a delightful place called Old MacDonalds Farm - lots of ducks and geese running around, the odd peacock showing off his feathers, sheep, cows, llamas, etc - totally unexpected but pretty cool! This was another place where we had our own huts to be shared by 2 or 3, rather than the usual 8 beds which made a nice change - the only challenging aspect was making your way to and from the bathrooms/showers in the pitch black!

Well as the sun rose the next morning a day of sailing was on the agenda followed by a hike through the Abel Tasman national park (covers loads of ground and is one of the most popular in NZ - you can take anything from a few hours to nearly a week to get through it). All was well until we got on the boat and then the heavens opened and didn't stop for the rest of the day - which made sitting on the boat for 4 hours and then hiking through the forest all good craic........still its not that far away and I hope to go back again before I leave NZ, hopefully I'll get some sunshine the next time around! More on the rest of this day on the next entry!

Right then - so Whakapapa to Wellington......

Well not so interesting unfortunately as mostly it was a day spent on the bus as most people want to get to Wellington and get on with sightseeing and all that jazz.

To break the journey slightly we did stop off in a couple of small towns, mainly Taihape and Bulls. Bulls is really quite hilarious - all the businesses have names which plays on the Bulls theme - so you'll get estate agents with - No Bull here, etc, etc. A good bit of light relief after being stuck on the bus for hours.

But then on to Wellington - Wellington is the capital of NZ just in case you though it might have been Auckland and so houses parliment, the national museum Te Papa and all that important stuff. Its also incredibly windy - Windy Wellington as its known as over here and has pretty steep streets that all lead down into the harbour. It also comes across as arty and is a bit more edgy than Auckland with a more vibrant music and pub/cafe culture. Might actually move there sometime soon!

Not much else to report other than its where we got the ferry the next day to move over to the South Island.

More soon
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