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NZ 2015: Home of glacial valleys
posted : Saturday, January 09, 2016
Greymouth to Franz Josef was supposed to only take about 3 hours but since weather and scenery were both fantastic at the same time (our first time in NZ)....we made all sorts of stopovers hahahah. For instance, if we find herds of sheep with a safe place to pull over, or when we encounter a lookout point, or when we see some vast lake.
To commemorate my first drive heh.
Blue skies, vast green fields, sheep/cows, and three humans.
Sheep that went "MEHHHHH" and ran away when they saw us approaching.
Gorgeous scenery!
Random lake #1 - Lake Ianthe.
LOLOL. Found this to be really fun.
Ended up reaching Franz Josef and our accommodation at about 5.30pm lolol. Accommodation for the two nights is at Sir Cedric's Chateau Franz. Got a 4 bed dorm room, had the room to ourselves for the first night and this solo female traveler joined us the second night - though she was pretty antisocial and so were we hahahahaha. Didn't even catch her name -.-
Room was pretty decent though the bathroom at our level was out of order and we had to go down two floors for showers and toilet and I don't think those four rooms were enough to serve everybody in our block. And the annoying light switch in the bathroom that switches off automatically every 3-4 minutes.
But free breakfast provided every morning and at 6pm everyday there's free soup which is kind of like their signature. So much so that the wifi password is "free soup". And camp fire lighted up every night on request. Not bad la actually.
Quite a large compound actually.
 
Our four bedder dorm.
The daily veggie soup. Which I think is cooked by the volunteer staff.
Campfire by night!
So we checked in at about 5.30, hang around to wait for the soup heh. Then since there's still a couple of hours of daylight to go, decided to explore a couple of the shorter tracks. Off we go on a short drive to Peter's Pool and the plan was also to go to Terrace Walk to see glow worms as it gets darker. 
The obligatory photo at the beginning of the track
Pool was smaller than we imagined but reflected off the surroundings nicely.
Crossing the suspension bridge but halfway through decided against it.
Terrace Walk didn't really work out as we imagined though. Walked a bit then found our path cut off. Thought the track was under maintenance or something, but checked online and found that that really was the length of the track. Guess we were too noisy to be able to see glow worms. Oh well.
The product.
Started bright and early the next day so as to not miss breakfast cut off time (totally reminds me of hall). Then took a 20minute drive to Okarito as there are a couple of tracks there. 
The Okarito Township. Apparently people do stay here.
Going for Okarito Trig Walk.
Passing by the Wetland first. Prettyyyy.
One of our signature photos lol.
Onwards to the Trig Walk at the end of the Wetland Track.
Can't exactly see the steepness here but we walked like I think half an hour worth of such slope?
Exhausted by the time I reached the peak. But I guess the view on top was worth the walk.
Practice makes perfect.
Headed back to Franz Josef just in time for lunch. Spotted this cafe the night before and decided to have fish and chips for lunch. Though it wasn't cheap at all. 
Pretty nice though.
Meeting point at the base.
Excited to set off!
On board the tour bus.
Going off track!
 
Stopping to taste wild ferns and what not. This had a super peppery taste.
Back on track towards the glacier
"Salmon rock". Coz of its colour.
Beware of falling ice!
Heading towards the end of the track.
At the end of the track, a view of the receding glacier.
Off to buy groceries for dinner and settled for a simple pasta dinner. Post-dinner activity was this hilarious card game called Politiko which was based on Malaysian politics lolol.
And that's a wrap for Franz Josef! Next up, Wanaka!
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