It's been a long time since we've had an extended travel holiday. My only criterion was that it involved some hiking so New Zealand was an obvious choice. We decided to explore South Island for our first visit. We landed in Christchurch close to midnight, grabbed a Yaris and stayed in a lovely Airbnb.
We drove a bit of a distance to get to the F-J Glacier which on hindsight, we would not do again. It was quite a long drive just to get to the glacier and another long drive from then on to the next place we wanted to visit.
We stopped briefly at Castle Hill.
We passed Arthur's Pass. The Progression-of-Oddity is alive and well.
Equipped with bug spray and sunblock, we started our walk towards the glacier. The walk was really quite enjoyable. There were waterfalls along the way and the glacial river.
We spotted a rock which had really pretty gold streaks all across it. Unfortunately, we could not bring it back with us.
The clouds were hovering very low and almost threatening to cover the glacier. We wondered if we could make it to see the glacier against the blue sky. A father was remarking regarding his toddler's slow walk, 'We'll never get there! She's slower than the glacier!'.
One of the waterfalls on the way. This reminded us a bit of the Pulpit Rock in Norway albeit a shorter version.
The glacier has receded so much compared to the pictures we saw online.
A view with another waterfall.
After seeing the glacier, we went onto Lake Matheson but the overcast and windy weather meant that we missed out on seeing the 'perfect reflection'.
The sky at the carpark though was a very bright blue.
What can you do- where the wind doth bloweth.....
The glacier was a sight to behold but given the distance we had to drive just to visit it and the limited choices of (rather expensive) accommodation near the area with very little to do, it would not be a place we would clamour to return to.
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