Franz Josef: May The Weather Be Ever In Your Favor!

Before I get to Franz Josef, let's talk about the interesting journey here! Noreen and I boarded a bus from the YHA Wanaka to Franz Josef. We had heaps of stops, as the Kiwis would say. We stopped for a view, we stopped for the restroom, we stopped for coffee, we stopped for other people's,who weren't even on the bus', medical emergencies. My favorite of stops had to be a stop smack in the middle of nowhere so the drivers can do a switch-a-roo. Our new driver boarded the bus and started to do a headcount. The count told him he was missing one person so he counted again and then again. He resulted to doing a roll call of names. We were all present. Then he asked does anyone suspect their neighbor or buddy is missing? Nope we answered. Then someone said, "we're in the middle of nowhere.. where would they go?" Valid point. My favorite of points was from a woman that said, "let's take a vote to stay or go!" You had to laugh. Eventually the bus driver agreed to continue on the journey. We're finally on our way to finish off this 7 hour journey or so we thought. Five or so minutes in, this man with a coat that was patched up like he had come back from a war walked to the front of the bus and asked to be let off, in the middle of nowhere. The driver let him out and NOW we're on our way!

We had planned two full days in Franz Josef but after the initial hour assessment of a town, I decided one was enough. Luckily, we were able to move up our bus departure by a day, found accommodations for an extra night in Nelson and the YHA Franz Josef was nice enough to refund our money for the night we weren't going to be using. We spent our first night in a four bed girls dorm room. To our relief, we weren't stuck with the young folks. There was Keri-Ann from Toronto and Nelly from Germany who was stuck on the green KiwiE bus with a bunch of kids, all in the same age bracket or so. "You're 38?!" When I disclosed my age. Yes, the Asian genes! We joked about how nice it was to be with adults and then naturally, dating was the topic of discussion! 

Folks that come to Franz Josef seem to come to wait and wait and just wait some more. Waiting for the clouds to clear so that the glacier helicopters would take off. Noreen read in trip advisor that someone waited five days!! Here! In this 1.5 street town. I would have taken it as a sign that it wasn't meant to be.

Luckily for us, the clouds cleared up enough for us to get a decent viewing of the glacier via the Franz Josef walk. After the 1.5 hour trek, we found a nice older couple from the Netherlands to give us a ride back to town. We had an afternoon (3pm) heli flight up to the glacier but when we initially went to check in, the pilots were just hanging out twiddling their thumbs. The weather was not favorable but anything can happen they say! Half an hour later, checked in again, flights going up! Our backup was the 5pm trip and if not, then the 8am trip the next morning before our 9:10am ten hour bus ride. We lucked out as the weather Gods opened up enough for us to sneak in on the only day that we're here to do this. Being on top of the Franz Josef Glacier will probably one of the cooler experiences here. Just simply doing the glacier walk would not do this place justice!

Next up: Nelson enroute to Abel Tasman.

Hashtag Love Wanaka!

Prior to leaving Te Anau, I ventured into Miles Better Pies for one more seafood pie. Miles himself came and greeted me, asked where I was off to today and I said back to Queenstown, sad face. We both griped about how touristy it was there. Miles said it'll only get worse- both crowd and cost. He asked if I worked there and I laughed and said no, I'm from San Francisco, California. He asked if I've been to Sausalito. I laughed again and said I live there now. He inquired to see if the simple Hamburgers shop was still operating and I said yes, simple, takeaway burgers to go. Apparently, that inspired this simple takeaway pie shop to open 11 years ago! I'll file that under cool wanderlust tales.

Arrived in Queenstown, walked into the Absoloot Hostel and there was Noreen in the lounge waiting for my arrival! The highlight of our time in Queenstown was finally getting a taste of the popular Ferg Burger! All day long, lines run down the street to get a taste of this Ferg. At 4pm, a non-existent five minute line and we understood why.

The next morning, we boarded a bus to Wanaka, realized we could go direct from Wanaka to Franz Josef vs. having to return to Queenstown, so the first thing we did once we arrived was change our bus tickets. Now we gain an extra day in Franz Josef, score! 

Wanaka is a gem of a town. Thanks to my friend, Ray for the tip to come here. It lacks the dramatic cliff surroundings of Queenstown but has a cool authentic vibe about it that Queenstown lacked. It's home to a cozy lavender farm with dramatic characters of alpacas. This is where we probably would have done our steepest hike up Roy's Peak! It's 16km of no joke rated hard with a 1578m summit. I prefer to call it the mountain of never ending switchbacks! It took us about 3 hours to ascend up to breathtaking views though the theme for the 2.5 hour descend was, "Are the cars getting bigger yet?" "Nope?" was often the answer. Special shoutout to the nice Kiwi at the hostel for giving us a ride to the start of the trail and to the nice English couple that answered our hitchhike call back!

The most adventurous thing we did here and probably for the rest of this trip, took place at a spot called Matukituki Valley here in Wanaka. We did what folks here call, deep canyoning guided by an awesome duo, who I think would make a great couple, Rene and Jeremy. In simple terms, we did a steep climb up the canyon for half an hour and then it was an all day adventure of repelling down waterfalls, jumping into them, sliding down them even face first and zip lining across. It was 10% fear and 90% awesome! I even have a wrist full of war wounds to show for it. Having those burgeoning waterfalls in your face as you're abseiling down is no joke! I was so proud of Noreen for tackling and finishing the course! I at least had some experience from rock climbing that I can draw from but she dived in blind and did amazing!   

Here is a video of the type of fun we had: http://youtu.be/7kT9a7A_j0s

Tomorrow, we leave this gem of a town enroute for Franz Josef! #lovewanaka

Weather Perfection In Milford!

Posted in a town called Te Anau, where the sun doesn't start to set until 9pm! I'm blogging this as I'm sitting lakefront on a quiet morning. Where to begin...the journey here! Things happen in threes, right? At SFO, I was held back because they had issues validating my passport. Of course what's crossing my mind is.. did I get busted for traveling to Cuba?! After a 20 minute or so wait, I'm on NZ flight 7! Don't ask but my apple earphones broke three hours into a 12 hour flight. I broke it in fashion, part of the jack was stuck in the plug so I couldn't even use the airline headphones..oh well watched Everest once with sound and twice without. Figured I knew what the dialogue was so at least I had visual entertainment- great film by the way- I recommend it! Lastly, boarded my connecting flight in Auckland to Queenstown.. was in my seat before getting ushered out of my seat and back to the gate.. turns out they gave me someone else's boarding pass! Look, if you're giving me a boarding pass, I'm getting on a plane! At last, landed in Queenstown and what a touristy jungle it is! One true sign of a tourist mecca: a Louis Vuitton shop. In Queenstown! Outside of traveling to Asia, I've yet to see as many of my peoples, Asians, as I have thus far in NZ. While Queenstown itself lacks a bit of character, IMHO, the scenery that surrounds it is stunning! The stunning cliffs! These cliffs will be the closest I get to a Lord Of the Rings Tour- this is where they filmed some of the Cliffs Of Mordor scenes. I left Queenstown after a day for a more quiet Te Anau. 

In Te Anau, I hopped on an obligatory cruise to Milford Sound. It was raining cats and dogs, or heaps as the Kiwis would say, but apparently this is Milford at its best as there is no soil in the mountains to absorb the rain so it creates thousands of waterfall. It is stunning! On the way back, I really wanted to trek Key Summit but the weather did not allow for the vistas one would see so it was skipped. It was raining so hard that none of us wanted to do any of the walks scheduled. Our guide Toni eventually made us, "this is a coach and walk, so let's walk, rain is not that bad." As buckets of rain drops hit her window shield.. to Toni's credit, the trails were beautiful! The epiphany I had for the day was that if it involves me and a boat, it will for sure rain. In Thailand, the cruise through the limestones, rain. In Vietnam, the cruise of Ha Long and Bai Tu Long Bay, rain. And now, Milford, buckets of rain!

While Milford Sound was obligatory and stunning, my favorite had to be a one day hike I did the next day on the Milford Track. Our guide, Will, was a hilarious Kiwi. The weather was perfection- sunny and warm. The vistas was nothing short of breathtaking. We hiked about 12 miles and even filled our water bottles atop a waterfall. Talk about fresh spring water! 

It's time for me to leave Te Anau. It took me three days to figure out my favorite pie is the seafood one from the corner pie shop. At $6NZ, it's the cheapest and tastiest meal in town!

Next up: a quick stop in Queenstown to meet up with Noreen and off to Wanaka we go!