39 | Franz Josef Glacier

By now we could start to see the outline of the Southern Alps. Snow tipped mountains stared down from above as we started to make our way along the western coastal road of the south island. My head bobbed from side to side in a swinging motion as I passed in and out of sleep on the way. I tried to keep my eyes open as much as possible to take in the scenery but I was struggling on that day.

We took a break in Harihari. A very small town with a scenic backdrop where the pace of life could be described as chilled. However this place was slightly different from the rest. In 1931 aviator Guy Menzies landed in the swampland just outside the town in which was the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea taking nearly 12 hours from Sydney and being considerably blown off course. Guy crash-landed upside down but survived to tell the tale. With a slice of history learnt, we continued on our way down the coast.

I arrived like an excited kid. The first time I would see a glacier. We arrived at the Rainforest Retreat Franz Josef hostel which was spectacular. After an upbeat introduction to the facilities and a pizza buffet for $15 lasting for 1 ½ hours, the smile on our faces grew even bigger. We upgraded for an extra $3 a night including a television and an on suite. Living it up! We unpacked as quickly as we could then decided to do one of the local hiking trails begging at 15:00. That was our first mistake. We chose to do the Robert Point walk which was described to us by Pinky as “one of my favorite hikes, you will really enjoy it. It’s pretty easy and the views are sweet as.” The 12km walk and 700m elevation trail should take around 3 ½ hours so we thought we would have plenty of time before dinner, let the games begin!

We caught the local bus across the Waiho River and up to the begging of the trail. Relatively flat with a footpath I thought, this is not even going to take 2 hours. Oh boy did I get it wrong. We started in a group of around 10 for the first few kilometers. We hopped across streams and over boulders and hanging down trees, not a walk in the park but fine. Charlie and myself were at the front of the group heading up to the side of a waterfall when the track stopped dead. We kept going as the terrain violently inclined until we were both on all fours scrambling on the soft moss with each of us losing our footing.

We ducked and dived under the low branches before realizing this can’t be the way. We edged cautiously back down the wet slope hanging onto the trunks of trees to break our fall. Kathryn found the path a moment later lower down which crossed the stream running out of the waterfall. 15 minutes wasted of precious daylight. It was now 16:15 and we were nowhere near the viewing platform at the top. After a brief consultation we decided to go at our own pace within the group and see each other at the top. The minutes ticked by as we walked across tight unsteady rope bridges that had over 200 feet drops below them leading out onto the plain where the glacier had retreated.

It was slow going in the slippy conditions which the rain from the night before had caused. It was getting close to 17:00 and no summit in sight. I was accompanied by two French lads who agreed to start taking risks by running on the rock edges and boggy flats with me. We kept a high tempo for 10 minutes until my planting foot lost contact on a smooth rock. Bang! Down I went. I hit the ground pretty hard and my elbow started to throb. The adrenalin kicked in until one of the guys called out in shock ‘look at your arm.’ I trickle of blood ran down my arm and through my fingers in a steady flow, ‘oh fuck!’ I washed my arm in the glacial stream to find a 1cm across and deep puncture in my right elbow. I started to feel the pain now but I was not going to let this stop me from getting to the top. We wrestled with the route for another 10 minutes before we reached the platform. I didn’t even look at the glacier immediately but went straight for Charlie’s first aid kit. He wiped it as clean as possible and patched me up. Thanks Charlie! As we set off down the hike got even more difficult. One of the girls fell off to the side and nearly down the steep slope until I grabbed her by the rucksack. Everybody went down but thankfully not too serious. I started to think of Pinkys words at this point and how he so nicely described the trail, I think he may have been having us on here.

We were only 30mins late for pizza at 20:00 and we stuffed ourselves as much as possible. I was just about to put another slice in my mouth when Steve walked in and gestured he was grabbing a shower. I thought that’s weird, there’s not long left. We put some aside for him and waited. What followed next I didn’t expect. As we all split up on the decent, Steve trekked alone for a while before he came across a bog. He ended up falling in up to his neck landing on both knees pretty badly. It was almost dark and he considered calling the park ranger before he came across some unsuspecting German backpackers. Covered in shit and in a sticky situation they huddled around deliberating if they wanted to help him. He ended up getting a lift into town and with handshakes all round it ended well for him in the end. The next day Beth arrived and used her nursing skills to patch Steve up and take a look at my injuries.

The next day I did the exact same hike with James in dry conditions. My word was it different, almost pleasant in fact. We set off early and took our time…. Bliss! That evening we had some drinks in the bar and after 3 Gin and tonics later the pain in my arm had disappeared but unfortunately my shuffling made no improvement on the dance floor.

#Accommodation #Nature #Tour #Hiking #Food