From: "Philip
Merryman" <phil_merryman@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri Mar 29,
2002 08:00:58 AM Etc/GMT
Subject: Sensory
Overload - Part 1
Hi Again,
Here is part 1 of what I
have been up to this past week.
The last time I sent a
mail it was from Greymouth. A
place reasonably aptly named, and in the next morning most definitely so as it
was very grey and raining! This is
where I first joined the "Magic Bus". This is a backpackers bus network which runs around NZ. You buy a ticket for a particular route
and you get off and on pretty much where you choose on that route. They have set places to stop at each
night, but you can get off and on at selected other places too. You can stay as long as you want at a
place, you just need to let them know when you wish to carry on and they will
pick you up again from your accomodation.
So it is very flexible.
They also book activities and accomodation for you, however with the
Easter weekend approaching they recommended that we booked ahead ourselves as
they only book as you go, not days in advance, and Easter will fill up quickly! As the bus travels along they have some
activities pre-arranged at an arrival point and they just ask on the way there
how many want to do what activity, so it is also very convenient. However all events and accomodation
needs to be paid for, it's not THAT convenient! :-)
This first leg was mostly
uneventful. The rain was steady
and the cloud low and misty. The
countryside was fields, trees, bracken and rivers. So it was just like the moors of North England and Scotland
back home! Here I am 12,000 miles
away and I am back in Scotland!!
(This is even more so at the moment, but more about that later). The highlight of the day was the stop
at the gold mining town of Ross.
Here we had a go at gold panning!
You paid NZ$6 for a pan full of river gravel and panned it in the water
tanks provided, so no need even to bend down! We were given a demo and then had a go ourselves. This was remarkably successful, with a
little guidance, and I managed to get three garnets and quite a few grains of
gold dust! However far from enough
to even cover the NZ$6 investment, let alone a chance to retire early! Anyway, it was good to actually get
your own gold! We each got to keep
the results of our efforts in a small glass tube! Quite a cool souvenir really.
The rain continued to
fall steadily and we reached the village of Franz Joseph at about lunch
time. Here the activity was a bit
more strenuous: a hike up onto the Franz Joseph glacier. There was the option of a half day hike
immediately, or to do a full day hike another day. I had booked 3 nights in FJ so I opted for the full day hike
the next day. This is universally regarded as a far superior option as the
short walk only just gets you onto the glacier, whereas the long one gets you
much higher and you see a lot more. So that afternoon was spent sorting myself
out. Just as well as the rain came
down in some really hard squalls throughout the afternoon and into the
night. So those who went on the
half day walk got well soaked!
Next day I did the
hike. This is a full 8 hour effort
from pick up at the centre in the village to return there that evening. The rain had relented so that was a
good start. They provide you with
an ice axe and boots with crampons.
You need to use their boots as the crampons (the company's own design
called Talonz) only guarantee to fit their boots. A bit of a pain if you already have your own boots! However they also supplied a waterproof
coat, along with socks, gloves and woolly hat. These were all in the cost, but if you needed any further
warm clothing you had to hire it.
As I have said several times before a pom doesn't go out without a
raincoat of some sort, and warm weather clothing in the colder times, so I had
my own full set of waterproofs and fleece. (Boring!)
There was a short bus
ride to the start of the walk. The
first hour or so of the walk was along the river bed below the glacier and then
up onto the start of it where it is covered with stones on the surface, so there
is no big difference in the ground under foot. As we were progressing over all this loose material I
realised that returning over this would be the hardest part of the walk for
me. Those who have been hiking in
the hills with me will know that loose rocks are my nemesis! Especially when
coming down! Somehow I always
slip, trip and stumble over them, so I have to tread very carefully!
However the first view of
the glacier in valley ahead is quite something. This river of ice surrounded by trees and covered in rocks
at the front is very imposing.
This glacier is special for two reasons: 1) it is quite a fast one,
about 5 metres per year, and 2) it is one of only 4 in the world which descend
into rainforest. The other 3 are
the Fox Glacier just a few km away here in NZ, one in Chile and another in
Argentina. Although it is a fast
flowing glacier it is at the moment also a fast melting one so in recent years
it has been retreating. It has
waxed and waned several tinmes in recent decades. Back in the 70's (I think) it was growing, so whether its current
retreat is due to global warming, or just a natural cycle is hard to tell.
Anyay, once up onto the
glacier and clear of the rock (moraine) at the foot of it, we put the crampons
on. These really do make a big
difference and you are able to walk with confidence. The main difference between these and normal crampons is
that the just have short downward spikes for walking as opposed to full
climber's crampons.
The first part of the
glacier walk was fairly straightforward with our guide just cutting a few steps
here and there. The surface was
full of holes and cracks and melting running water. One hole was, however,
about the size of a house! By now
the rain had begun, but it was normal steady rain the type of which I have
encountered many times walking in the UK.
Mercifully we had none of the heavy bursts of the previous 24
hours. Also despite standing on an
innumerable number of tons of ice it was not that cold! The air was reasonably warm so again it
was just like a walk back home and so long as you kept walking your feet were
not cold either (but I, as always when walking, had two pairs of socks on in my
boots!). From time to time you
stepped over these narrow cracks just a few inches wide, maybe up to a foot
(30cm), but some of them appeared
bottomless. They must have gone
down many metres into the ice.
Others were much more substantial crevasses with we walked around. Also, because the glacier is constantly
chainging the guides who do this every day never walk exactly the same way
twice!
After a couple of hours
the rain finally stopped. The
views back down the valley from the glacier were terrific as you were looking
along a tree-lined valley with steep sides and waterfalls and a river at the bottom! However the views the other way were an
order of magnitude more stunning!
By now the sun was coming out.
All the rain of the last few days had actually done us a favour in
washing the glacier!! A lot of the
silt washed down from the hills by the streams gets left on the surface, but
the heavy rain of the last few days had washed it off! So we were looking up at the ice fall
in pristine condition. The top of
what we could see was still a couple of km away but is was full of towering
spires of sheer blue ice by now glowing in the sunlight against a deep blue
sky! The nearest I could describe
it is as large chunks of blue/white peppermint. Someone else in the group said it was more like marshmallow. It had, what the Daz adverts used to
call, a "Blue Whiteness".
However none of these feeble attempts at a description can ever do
justice to the sight of it! I
doubt if the photographs will either!
We progressed into the
beginnings of the ice fall. Now
the going was quite tricky and the guide was contantly cutting steps and the
ice axe came in extremely useful to keep balance and just to hang on in some
cases. We were now amongs the ice
blocks. Walking through
narrow gaps only a metre or less
wide with ice several metres above on either side. Climbing over and round large blocks. Consequently we all fell over at least
once! Even the guide, in a fruitless attempt to cut his way through a dead end
fell into a pond of water up to his thighs! We didn't actually see it because he was ahead behind some
blocks trying to find a route, but he came back all wet! In the end, after what seemed like half
an hour, he admitted defeat in
this spot as we were surrounded on three sides by walls of ice at least 10
metres high! So we backtracked and
went a different way.
That proved to be the
highest point reached. We only
just scratched the edge of the ice fall which continued above us for about 2km
to the pinnacles we could see. The
actual glacier continued for a further 7km beyond that! Even this short walk on a
"tourist" glacier became very slow progress once amongs the ice
blocks. Goodness knows how long it
would take to walk up to the top of what we could see, never mind the entire
glacier! My admiration of the
people who climb Everest and the like is now even greater than it ever was as
this little walk showed just how difficult it is to negotiate even a few small
blocks close to sea level, let alone the gigantic ones at 8000 metres! The spires we could see looked huge
from 2km away, you had no idea how big they really were.
The walk back down was
very pleasant. The sun had been out for most of the afternoon and I had long
since discarded my waterproof top.
Later and lower down it was to get warm enough so that I would
eventually need to remove the overtrousers as well. As predicted I was the last one down over the loose
rocks. It is something to do with
the way my feet are! It takes my
full concentration as I have to pick each step. Any lapse usually results in slip or trip of some kind! So I may be slow, but not so much
through the physical effort but the sheer concentration!
Back down there were a
couple of beers with my name on before a much welcome shower!
The next day I had hoped
to get to the top a much easier way, in a ski plane! However, this was the first day of flights after several
days grounded due to the bad weather so it was a popular day to try and get a
flight, including many who had been hanging on over the last few days. The other and recurrent problem I have
is that I am a single booking!
This causes problems because one is not enough to be commercially viable
and as most are couples or groups, adding a one leaves an unfillable seat
unless another single is available! Again effecting the economics of the
operation! However the weather
remains the biggest uncertainty!
They had told me to ring before 8am to see if there were any
flights. They then asked me to
ring back several times during the day as some people hadn't confirmed, or may
just not turn up. Unfortunately
despite keeping in constant contact with them I was out of luck. They even had a flight for me at about
4pm but the others in the plane pulled out! In all this hectic confusion they actually thought they had
already taken me! So a frustrating
day living in hope, but at least in between calls I was able to get the washing
and other chores done!
The next day the bus took
me further south. This was a
glorious blue sky day. The first
stop was mid morning to Lake Matheson.
This is one of the smaller lakes but is famous for the mirror reflection
in the surface of the snow capped mountains behind. Further on we continued to the start of the day's main
activity. At a point just by the
side of the road you get off the bus, get a small plane into the middle of
nowhere, walk for about 4 hours, then meet the jetboat which was the activity
at the overnight stop! However,
like the half day glacier walk, to go on such a hike is a major repack to empty
the small pack, get all the cameras etc. from their own bag into the small
pack, and other stuff out of the big one.
This is not something I can do in 5 minutes! Especially as the big pack
is in the hold of the bus! However
there was a spare seat on the plane!
So I jumped at this after the previous day's frustrations! The plane would land, drop off the
walkers, then continue to the night stop, so I would get there before the
bus! This mean that I could leave
everything on the bus and just take the cameras.
So we waited by the road
for this small 6-seat plane to appear out of the cloudless blue sky. At first I thought it was going to land
on the road! I then realised that the long grass by the road had been cut short
in a strip alongside. This was the
runway! So after a few formalities
we took off along the grass strip.
We circled back over the bus and headed off into the mountains! About a 30 minute flight between the
snow tops and looking down into the valleys and other smaller hills. Truly magnificent. Again words are not enough! We were
able to see Mt.Aspiring, which is the Matterhorn of the south as it has much
the same shape, and one of the higher mountains in NZ. Also through the mountains to the sea
and all the other mountains in the distance all around. Then in a valley miles from anywhere
and surrounded by the hills there was a straight line in the grass on the
valley floor. This was the landing
point! However we had to circle
around through a couple of other valleys for us to get back to it from the
right direction to land!
We eventually descended
into nowhere. The only sign of
human intervention being the cut strip and a lonely solitary wind sock! With the plane on the ground and the engine
off it was totally quiet! We were
surrounded by high hills. There
was one person to pick up so the pilot and the two of us took off again after
about 10 minutes. This time I got
the front seat! Just a short 10
mins or so to the final landing spot by our evening destination. So time for an ice cream and a rest
before the bus arrived about 20 minutes later!
After sorting out the
accomodation formalities it was time for the afternoon's activity: the Jet
Boat! These work by sucking in
water and forcing it out the back in a similar process to a jet engine. As they have no exposed moving parts
they do not need much water depth and in fact will operate in as little as four
inches !! Furthermore the nozzle
is used to steer the boat so it can change direction instantly.
We set off at speeds of
up to 80kph whizzing past the banks, trees and small rocks and from time to
time the driver would put the boat into a 360 degree spin! We hurtled up the
river valley with the mountains all around. The views were magnificent as they
whizzed past! This was a wide
valley, not a narrow gorge, so all the time we had this wide vista around us as
we ducked and dived and spun our way along the river, even trying to soak a
poor cow near the bank! (We missed)
After shooting up some little rapids and further weaves and dives we
reached the point to pick up the walkers we had left from thr plane. We then whizzed our way back in much
the same manner as geting there.
As there was two boast on the way back we tried to soak each other with
out spray as well! This whole
event took about 1 hour. It is
perhaps not as white knuckle as the gorge runs, but you get a much longer time
in the boat!
This accomodation place
is in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere pretty much, howover the chalets
were excellent little buildings and there was a communal kitchen and eating
area. So that night the
evening meal was a bus barbeque! A
NZ$10 contribution per head provided a barrel of beer, and the food was
included in the accommodation cost.
This turned out to be a jolly good night with plenty to eat. Some of the younger element then
continued a bit later with even more drinking and some were still going strong
well past 11.30 when I turned in.
There was going to be a few fragile individulas in the morning! :-)
As usual, after a few
beers, I had to get up in the night as they had worked their way through the
system. This meant that I got to
see the sky at about 4 am. The milky
way was fully visible along with the clouds of Magellan, with the Southern
cross directly overhead. Orion by
now had set behind the hills. The
bst sky I had seen since the first night in the outback!
Anyway, I have been here
now for over 2 hrs 30 min and it is 8pm and I am hungry! So more another time, and there is
plenty of it!!!
Cheer
Phil