South Island Road Trip: Part 1

As I said, now let's get to the good stuff. Unfortunately, there wasn't a heck of a lot of it on the first few days. The first day of the trip was spent driving down to Wellington, and then we woke up and got right on the ferry that took us and our cars down to the South Island. From Picton (our gateway to the South Island), we drove through the Nelson Lakes and a few ambitious members of the group went for a swim in the freezing cold water. That stop was short lived, however, as we were on a mission to get to Westport, our overnight stop.

I've never been to a small, Texas town, but if I ever went I'm fairly confident it would remind me of Westport. The town itself existed solely for people passing through (as did many of the places we stayed), and when we arrived the town was engulfed in Saturday Night Fever, which is to say that there were a bunch of teenagers drinking on the bleachers by the rugby field across the street from our hostel. A brave few of us went over to join, and in the process got a taste of the real New Zealand. Two girls (aged 15, if I recall correctly) were there for the whole time while a guys there age made visits. One of them, upon introduction, asked us if we hate Nazi's or if we don't hate them, and went on to explain that he was a black (Maori) Nazi. We took every chance we could making fun of him and poking holes in his arguments. The highlight of the night (barely edging out when the "Nazi" was leaving and we called him a bad name, leading to the following exchange: "Did you just call me a jew?" "No, we said you're [Clay Aiken-like]." "Oh, whatever. Nice meeting you guys.") was the interaction with the girls. The heavy-set one spent her evening trying to sit on people's laps and offering to show them around town, while the other one spent the entire time talking about all of the drugs she had done and explaining that the age of consent in New Zealand is 16 but everyone is tired of it by then because they start so early. It was at that point that I crossed Westport off the list of "Places I Would Move Back To In New Zealand."

The next day was actually one of the most fun. We stopped at a little adventure company that offered ATV'ing and horseback riding, and I spent the morning find out how addictive ATV's really are. From there, we made a few stops on the way to Franz Josef. First stop was a Seal Colony with some incredible views of the Tasman that you can see starting at picture #20 HERE (The first 20 are from Day 2 [Nelson Lakes and the rest of the drive to Westport]). The walk out to where you could see the Seals was breathtaking, but it was nothing in comparison to our next stop, the Pancake Rocks.

Named after the rock formations out in the water that most closely resemble a stack of pancakes, these natural wonders were one of the highlights of our trip that sadly, don't really translate in the pictures (which start with the two pictures of the birds in that same album. I chalk up the bad pictures to the lighting, though it was a beautiful day). The Pancake Rocks were tall, skinny stacks of rock that had been weathered over the years and really typified the type of natural beauty that New Zealand has to offer. Without much fanfare, an attraction like the Pancake Rocks, which is tucked cozily on the coast between nowhere and, well, nowhere, can be easily passed by and ignored. But New Zealand was a place where the big city and its attractions pale in comparison to the small, natural wonders that are scattered across the countryside.

From there, it was on to Franz Josef, where we were to spend two nights, with a hike up the Franz Josef glacier sandwiched in the middle. On the recommendation of past students, we scheduled the full day hike so that we would get the full experience. However, that placed us directly at the top of the glacier when the weather arrived, bringing gail force winds to beat the freezing rain into our faces. Good times! Even without the miserable weather, the glacier itself was largely unimpressive. I was picturing the type of glacier you would see on the Discovery Channel falling into the ocean when they talk about global warming, but instead what we saw looked more like a snowbank on the side of the road a few days after a blizzard. Most of the glacier was covered with dirt and rocks. While I don't know many people who have ever climbed a glacier (and thus, I'm very glad I did), it can only be classified as disappointing.

The next morning, we left Franz Josef for the most eventful day of our trip, but not in a good way. Our first stop was Lake Matheson, a widely recommended spot that looks much different on the postcards than it does on a crappy, rainy winter morning. From there, it was a detour down at 20 mile, one lane dirt road that took us to a destination that we ultimately couldn't go to due to time constraints. On the way back up the road, the van leading the way encountered another car coming the other way and ended up being driven off the road, with the van leaning sideways off of a ten foot drop into a river and being supported only by two trees about as thick as your forearm. Scary stuff. Luckily, everyone made it out safely and the car ended up being fine, but the ensuing trip into town to get the tow truck and get the car out took several hours and squashed any chance we'd have to see Wanaka, a ski town near Queenstown with some beautiful scenery itself. We arrived in time for dinner and then it was an early night with Queenstown beckoning in the morning.