CS

Last month we went on a couple of trips which we’ll remember forever. It’s taken me a little while to write these down in the blog and it even took a while to get over how good they were, with a few unexpected bumps in the road along the way. It’s a bit of a long post this time just to prepare you.

As mentioned in the South Island road trip blog post, early in November we attempted to get onto the helihike up at Fox Glacier and land on the glacier. The trip involves a hike checking out the flat section which is otherwise inaccessible unless using a helicopter. It was a once in a lifetime trip, so we were gutted when it was cancelled the first time due to bad weather.

So we decided to do the drive up to Fox Glacier again. We chose a day when I finished work a bit earlier the day before so we drove up to Haast and stayed a night there. Even though we were arriving at midnight it was better than doing the 6 hour drive straight to the glacier. Up until the day we were keeping an eye on the weather forecast, as we knew the west coast was notorious for downpours that could last for days. It wasn’t looking good but as we don’t have many opportunities to travel that far very often we decided to chance it.

We couldn’t have chosen a worse day. As we approached Haast the rain was bucketing down and I could hardly see the road 10 metres in front of me. It was dark as well which didn’t help. We got to our accommodation in Haast late on Friday evening and the scene was pretty bleak. It’s a town of roughly 300 people and we could tell as we got there that most of the town was already asleep, probably including the staff at the hostel. I rang the out of hours bell and felt slightly uncomfortable as the guy slowly opened the door and welcomed me in from the dark, empty, rain soaked car park outside. I couldn’t help feeling a bit bad about it, even though I was the one outside in the rain.

The place we stayed that night did the job for a few hours kip, and we woke early to make our way up to Fox Glacier. The rain was just as bad, if not worse than the night before. Vicki and I only had to look at each other to know what we were both thinking, that the trip would be cancelled. We decided to head up anyway, just in case. As the sun rose it became even more evident that the rain was getting worse, the clouds were low and the view of the mountains that is normally incredible in that part of the country was nowhere to be seen. We drove on up tentatively, avoiding big puddles and rivers that ran across the road in our little rental car, a Toyota Aygo.

When we arrived at the helihike reception we were almost ready to tell the reception staff what we knew they were going to say. Cancelled. We were gutted, again. After some lunch we decided we were going to make the long journey back home again. So we jumped in the car and began the drive. We stopped at Bruce Bay on the way back as we had heard this was a good place to find greenstone, which Vicki really wanted to find while we were on the west coast. It was still raining a lot at this point, but we weren’t about to let that ruin our chances of discovering the hard to find greenstone. So we jumped out and searched the beach. After 10 minutes or so we were soaked, but it was kind of cool as there was no one else around and the stones are easier to find when wet.

Getting back in the car I whacked the heating on full bore, even though it didn’t do much. And then we began the drive down towards Haast again. The road conditions were getting increasingly dangerous and there was so much water in the ditches that it had began to overflow onto the road. I was concentrating pretty hard at keeping the little car in the lines at this point. We soon came up behind a bus, which had slowed almost to a standstill, until it did. A lady ran out under an umbrella which wasn’t really doing much and told us that there had been a mudslide on the road ahead. We weren’t sure how she knew this, so having already driven for hours that day we decided to see if it was passable. We drove a few miles further until we got to a bunch of cars queued, with people standing at the front of the line. Vicki jumped out and took a walk down to the front. When she came back she said there was no way anyone was getting through and that people said there were at least two mudslides, with some cars stuck in between. We knew the emergency services were on their way and so we made our way back to a motel which we had seen a few miles up the road.

After two hours of waiting the police turned up. He drove what we had two hours earlier, came back and told us what we already knew, that the road was blocked. After this he moved us further down the road, only to tell us shortly after that he had found out the road would be blocked for another 6 hours, until 7pm. We both looked at each other and hadn’t even discussed our decision before we were driving back up to Fox Glacier to find somewhere to stay for the night.

We stayed over in Franz Josef, which is another glacier just a few miles away. In the morning we woke to clear skies, so decided to head back to the helihike centre to see if the morning trip was running. We couldn’t believe it; third time lucky, it was on!!

The helihike was indescribable, except for that it was amazing! The photos do a good job of showing it, but still don’t do it justice. We got kitted up at the centre then shuttled to the heliport, where we had the safety briefing and waited around for the helicopter, the first time I had ever been in one! It was crazy, just hovering above the ground felt weird, a sensation I’d never felt before. The journey to the glacier was five minutes or so, but the view was incredible. After landing we were kitted up with crampons, they were definitely needed. The next hour and a half took us around the glacier, where we saw waterfalls, climbed through ice caves and drank the fresh glacial water. It was awesome. Here’s a few photos.

The journey home was great. We stopped at Haast again to try our luck at finding more greenstone. We picked up loads, but it’s hard to distinguish between a “green stone” and greenstone. We were amazed when we got back home and found out from a local expert that one of them was actually greenstone! So he took it for us, cut it in half and made it into two necklaces. I’m not a necklace person but I love it. Greenstone is supposed to be a gift so we both gifted it to each other!

The next big thing we did was to skydive! I saw a flyer advertising half price skydives for locals so we decided to just do it as we wouldn’t get it for that price anywhere else. Similarly to the helihike our first jump was postponed, although this was due to a plane malfunction!! Our second jump was also postponed due to the weather so it had to be third time lucky again.. We booked in really early this time to try and beat the weather and luckily it paid off! I wasn’t as scared or nervous about this as bungee jumping, I think because I didn’t have to actually do the jumping! When you’re standing on a platform just wider than your feet then that’s scarier.. But that didn’t take away from the fact that we were jumping from 15,000 feet above one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The safety briefing and preparation was much the same as the bungee, except this time it was a full suit, helmet and goggles. I’m still bemused at how relaxed New Zealand is, even when it comes to safety (although it’s not quite to Thailand safety standards). We watched everyone else go up in the plane in groups of three, then they would land, the plane return and the next group would go up. We opted to do the jump without photos or video as we wanted to enjoy it without thinking about that and also because it was bloody expensive!

When it came to our jump we met with our tandem masters and made our way to the plane, with one other person jumping with us. We shuffled onto the plane, with me at the back (or front of the plane), Vicki in the middle and the other guy at the front (back). We didn’t know that the first guy was jumping from 12,000 feet but we got the idea when the sliding door suddenly opened up. They moved towards the edge of the plane, sat for a few seconds, rocked backwards and forwards a few times and then just fell out. The door closed. Vicki screamed. The plane pointed up to space and started ascending again. I looked back to where he was sitting before he fell out, that was weird, less people in a plane still going up. At this point the tandem master nudged me and I looked to my right and could see Milford Sound, then looked to my left and saw Mount Cook. Incredible.

Then the door opened again, we were at 15,000 feet and about to jump. Vicki was laughing excitedly at this point, whilst shuffling towards the open door. I looked on waiting for her to disappear. Then she’d gone. I was up. Shit. Can’t back out now, so I just went with it and before I knew it I was falling from 15,000 feet strapped to some bloke that I’d met 10 minutes earlier. My head suddenly felt tight, like it does sometimes when the flight you’re on is landing, but this was ten times worse. We fell looking up at the plane, which was nose diving, then spun around to see the ground. I didn’t really have time to think about what I was doing but if I did it probably would have included a load of expletives. We fell for 60 seconds looking over the unbelievable skyline of Glenorchy and Queenstown, it was crazy and something words can’t describe. Then he pulled the parachute and I could think about what was going on a bit more, which was that the view was amazing but the harness was really killing my knackers. Ah well, once in a lifetime, haha. The tandem master loosened my harness, which helped, but made it feel like he was setting me free. My heart skipped a beat until I realised what he was doing. Scary shit.

We glided slowly to the ground where Vicki had already landed and was laughing at the face I was apparently pulling as I prepared to land. I was trying to keep my feet up as far as I could so that I didn’t face plant the ground with a fifteen stone bloke doing the same on top of me. Thank god that didn’t happen. Once back on firm ground I gave Vicki a massive hug and we walked off the airfield together. Bloody amazing and if you ever get the chance to do it then do it!!

A few days ago we were really saddened when a skydive went wrong and a skydiver and tandem master crashed into Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. The details of the crash are still unknown, or unreleased anyway, but the skydiver hasn’t been found and is presumed to have died. The skydive master was pulled from the lake and luckily is recovering. We feel so sad that someone went out to feel the same excitement as we did and didn’t come back. RIP.

So some ups and downs in our trips, but we’ve definitely had some experiences in the last few weeks. We’ll be travelling up the east coast of Australia soon and then heading to Melbourne so watch this space for more blog posts…