After an early flight to Christchurch, we picked up our home for the majority of our trip – a Spaceships Dream Sleeper Mini, a small campervan to better manage the windy roads of the South Island.
We eagerly started off on our road trip, driving across the island via Arthur’s Pass, known to be one of the –if not thee—most scenic drive in New Zealand! … only to hit fog. And rain.
But, the closer we got to Arthur’s Pass, the more the clouds lifted until we had pleasant weather.
We did the trek up to Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, enjoying the opportunity to stretch our legs and get some exercise.
When we left Arthur’s Pass, we had beautiful clear skies to showcase the beautiful countryside around us.
We finally saw our first glimpse of ocean, having reached the west coast. But, we turned back inland for the detour to Hokitika Gorge.
Hokitika Gorge is known for having brilliant turquoise waters, from the sediment flowing into it. On days when there is more sediment, it turns to more of a milky blue, almost gray, which is what we had while we were there.
We went across the bridge to get down closer to the water where a few people were sunbathing, and others were picnicking.
When we had our fill, we went back into Hokitka town for dinner before continuing on to our campground for the night at Lake Mahinapua, a DOC site.
Campgrounds in New Zealand are typically split between DOC sites which have minimal, if any, facilities, and holiday parks which are more expensive, typically less scenic, but have far more amenities.
It was a beautiful evening to relax down by the water, followed by drinking some wine in bed in our campervan.
The next morning, we got up to see the sunrise. And hear it! I was amazed by the song of birds that sounded like someone playing the xylophone.
Coffee finished, we started the two-hour winding drive to Fox Glacier for our morning heli-hike.
Fox Glacier has retreated so quickly recently that now, the only real option for hiking the glacier is to fly in a helicopter up to it. So that’s what we did!
When giving us the safety briefing, they mentioned that we may not get to go because of cloud cover. Of course. They also mentioned that if we do fly to the glacier, and then clouds quickly fill the valley and the helicopter can’t get back into us, we’d have to spend the night in a makeshift tent on the glacier. Awesome.
We went to the launchpad and had to wait about half an hour while the pilots went back and forth on if we could go or not.
But at last the decision was made, and up in the air we went (but not before I overheard our pilot telling our guide “Well, I’ll get you in there ok, but I might not get you back out” … -_-).
Hopping out of a helicopter and onto the ice was too fun, and the ice too beautiful. Anthony and I agree that it was one of the more memorable moments of our lives.
Having done a glacier hike in Iceland already, we were surprised by how steep the glacier was… and by the gorgeous waterfall.
We put on our crampons and climbed up the glacier a ways, exploring caves and crevices.
And of course, getting closer to Victoria Falls.
It was afternoon by the time we were done and back, so we grabbed some wifi and lunch. Everything else on my schedule for the day also had to do with the glacier, and since we felt we had seen it enough, we checked into our campground, the Fox Glacier Top 10 Holiday Park, to just relax for the evening instead.
The next morning, we went to Lake Matheson at sunrise. We speed walked through the path until we got to the View of Views. But, as is our usual luck, it was too cloudy.
We continued on to Reflection Island. Still cloudy, but it looked promising, so we sat there, enjoying the peace and beauty, waiting for the clouds to slowly lift.
At one point, some ducks swam through, their ripples ruining the reflection.
But it smoothed back out, and we got pretty darn close to unobstructed views in the end.
We quickly finished the rest of the path, ending our time on the west coast with a bang before starting our drive down south, out of glacier country.
