It was no longer raining when I left Hotikika and I took advantage of that fact to stop by the Tree Top Walk, just a few kilometers south of town, to explore what kind of views the elevated walkway boasted.  The attraction included a 450m long canopy walkway 15m above the forest floor.  They also installed a zipline from the 47m tower at the center of the walkway for those who really want an adventure.  Since it was still early in the day, there were only two of us on the walkway, myself and an older woman from Australia.  (She decided to do the zipline; I did not.)  I was able to see the Franz Josef glacier from the walkway although the surrounding mountains were hidden by clouds.  I had finished the circuit and was heading out when suddenly the sun appeared and I decided to rush back to the walkway (the ticket is good for the whole day) to see if the visibility to the mountains had improved.  While the view did not change much, I did get a chance to to watch the woman zipline and took some pictures of her (which I later emailed after showing them to her at the cafe).

Franz Josef glacier from the Tree Top walkway. Way off in the distance and surrounded by clouds.

That adventure complete, I jumped in the camper van and headed south towards glacier country.  I was staying in Fox Glacier for two nights to explore both the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers.  The drive was a pleasant one, winding through a large river valley populated with agriculture and ranching communities.  As a matter of fact, the two biggest activities in the west coast region seemed to be tourism and agriculture; there was not a lot of other things going on from what I could tell.  The weather remained overcast with intermittent appearances by the sun to lighten up the gloom.  My plan was to drive to Okarito, a small township on the water, which was on the way to Fox glacier, and do a hike there that promised amazing views of the coast.  Along the way I passed an intrepid bicyclist, bike laden with bags, who was pedaling down the highway.  I cannot image how much fun it was to tackle some of the hills and turns on a bike on such a narrow road….

I easily found the car park for the Okarito hike and was pleased to see that it was not crowded – only two other cars were there.  Grabbing my raincoat, which also serves as a wind breaker, and my camera, I set out on the trail.  It was not a long hike, only 45 minutes to the lookout, but it was steep!  (I fondly recalled Nepal again…..). The path was comprised of piled up stones, clearly designed to not degrade or washout in the rain.  After multiple, painful switchbacks I finally got to the top and found one other person there- an older gentleman, who was barefoot.  He apparently hiked the trail barefoot despite the sharp stones (I asked him).  Yikes!  The views were spectacular, both of the coast and of the distant mountains.  The clouds had cleared up enough to provide a nice shot of Franz Josef, which was a bonus.  I sat up there for a while enjoying the view and waiting to see if the sun would emerge and change the lighting, but no such luck. In the meantime, the barefoot walker headed down and a few other people arrived.  As it was getting crowded, I headed back down the trail, easily passing barefoot guy who was walking very slowly. (No clue why he did not have shoes….)

Looking north from the Okarita lookout. Beautiful shot of the beach and an extensive lagoon.

I got back on the road and continued south, with my next stop at the Franz Josef glacier viewing trails.  Not too far past Okarito, I passed the intrepid bicyclist again, who was still steadily peddling away..  She had overtaken me while I stopped and hiked. There were noticeably more people at the Franz Josef glacier viewing area but it still was not crowded. However, based on the size of the car park it looks like summer crowds can get large.  There are several trails that lead to different viewpoints for the glacier and I tried each of them.  The main trail, the Franz Josef Valley walk,  leads to the river bed (or should I say boulder field that has some water flowing through it) that hosted the glacier a long, long time ago. Today the glacier has retreated up the valley about 4km away. The trail used to get closer to the glacier, but a large section of it was closed to the instability of the terrain.  Sighting of the glacier remained elusive as low hanging clouds were clinging to the mountain.

At the end of the Franz Josef Valley walk. There is supposed to be a glacier in the background (or so they tell me). Bonus: because of all of the rain there were LOTS of waterfalls all over the place.

…And there’s the glacier. Emerged from a peek-a-boo game with the clouds.

Another trail climbs to a rocky perch, Sentinal rock, that provides an elevated view.  I thought the view from the rock was a bit better  than in the valley, but that might be because the clouds had thinned a bit.  Looking at the sky I could see that clouds were moving fast and a band of blue sky was emerging in the distance, hopefully heading our way.  I still had hopes for a clearer view! The other must-do trail led to “Peter’s pool” which is a small pond that was formed by a large chunk of ice that broke off of the glacier, got stuck, and melted in place, forming the pool.  I spent quite a bit of time at Peter’s pool, hoping for lighting changes, because I was trying to get a picture with the reflection of the  mountains in the pool (see featured image).  I was successful!  Also was able to get a close up of the glacier when it emerged from the clouds.

I hopped back into the camper van, still having another 40 minutes to drive before getting to Fox glacier and the campground I had booked for the next two nights.  The road was narrow with lots of twists and turns as it wound through the mountains from one valley to the next.  Yet one more time I passed the intrepid bicycler, whose legs were pumping furiously as she headed up one of the steeper hills.  She had caught up and passed me again, because of my lengthy stop at the Franz Joseph glacier.  As it was late afternoon, I was hoping she was going to stop at Fox glacier for the night as well.  The whole trip from Hotikika to Fox Glacier was 158km (approximately 98 miles!)- that is a long day on a bicycle!!!

I had booked a helicopter tour of the glaciers which flew out of Franz Josef so in the morning I got up and headed back north from Fox to Franz Josef to check in.  The weather report indicated that the morning would be partly sunny with clouds later in the day, so I was hoping that the tour would have a chance to go.  But, unfortunately, the clouds remained socked in on the peaks and all the helicopter tours for the day were cancelled.  I was chatting with the tour operator staff about the rain and the road closures and they mentioned that while October typically has a lot of rain, this year was extremely unusual in the amount they have been experiencing– much more than normal.  The road closures were affecting people’s travel plans.  To the south, the Haast Pass, which was one of the three passes connecting the west and east sides of the South Island, was closed due to a slip.  The pass I had just managed to get through up near Murchison, had also closed again.  That left one pass open.  I was a bit worried about the Haast pass because I was headed south next and if I had to detour to the only open pass it was going to add seven hours to my travel time.  So there was a lot of talk about roads and weather happening everywhere.

With my morning now free, I decided to explore the village of Franz Josef (which, I estimated, would take about 20 minutes) before heading back to Fox to chase down some glacier views.  As I was walking down the main street, I ran into one of the couples I met on the Marlborough wine tasting tour. They were on a coach trip down the west coast and had been stranded in Franz Josef for three days due to the Haast Pass being closed.  They were headed to brunch, so I joined them.  We had a nice time talking and funnily enough, while we were sitting there, a woman I met at the Murchison campground came in.  Small world– or there is simply a bunch of us traveling in parallel counter-clockwise around the country.  After brunch I said good-bye (again) to the Australian couple and headed back down to the Fox glacier area to do some hiking.  The weather remained changeable– misting, then sunny, then drizzling, then sunny and raining– it was all over the place, but not so horrible I felt I had to hide in my camper van all day.

The vegetation all over the west coast looks like a rainforest, with moss growing on everything. I guess that makes sense given all of the rain…. But it is beautfiully green.

I headed out to Lake Matheson, and the short hike around it.  Like Peter’s pool for Franz Josef, Lake Matheson provided opportunities to get nice refections from the Fox glacier.  Alas, the clouds did not cooperate and there was a steady, but light drizzle, when I hiked which was enough to abolish any reflective properties from the water.  It was a pretty hike, however and since it was raining, I had the trail pretty much to myself.  From the Lake, I ventured down the side road to Gillipse Beach, another narrow lane with tight twists and turns.  I cannot image driving on some of these roads with camper vans, or full size RVs going in both directions, like must happen in the summer!!

It was really pouring by the time I got to the beach, but I sat in the camper van for 15 minutes and waited; I could see blue sky in the distance. After the clouds blew through I went down to the beach and like the rest of the west coastline, it was rugged and dynamic, with powerful waves crashing constantly onto the shore.  I spent quite a bit of time playing with my camera and taking pictures, experimenting with settings and trying to capture the dramatic lightening and sun glint on the waves.  Eventually the sand flies drove me off, however.  And I had one more stop to make before the day was over.

I spent some time at the beach playing with my camera and iPhone camera. This shot was taken with my iPhone camera.

This shot was taken with my Luminx. I just got it before the trip and am still learning all of the settings/menus/tricks. Was fun playing with it though.

My final stop, before calling it a day, was a viewing area for the Fox Glacier.  I was hoping to get some clear views but the brief bit of blue sky I had at the beach was gone and the cloud cover returned, obscuring the glacier.  I waited a bit, but the rain started up and with it, wind, so I called it a day and headed back to the campground for the night.

Glacier country is very beautiful and dramatic, even with the cloud coverage impairing the views.  This is an area I would like to come back to in the summer, at some point, to get the full effect.

All I was able to see of the Fox glacier. Bummer!