May 11, 2007
Josh and I woke up to a rainy morning. This was not a surprise as Josh and I have renamed the West Coast the “WET” Coast. Rain all the time here…which makes sense as the majority of the coast is a rain forest. We could see the waves from our front porch, however, and they were massive, crashing, thundering waves.
Josh cooked us up some grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast while I made the tea/coffee. We loaded up our gear into the car while it was raining, quickly checked out, and were on the road into Hokitika to buy some fuel and stop in at the Sheep Store and Jade Factory.
At the Sheep Store, I was able to take some funny pictures of Josh with the sheep cutout board. We didn’t see anything good there so we went to the Jade Factory where you can watch artisans carve jade jewelry and objects de art. Pretty cool.
We were back on the road through the rain to reach Franz Josef. OH MY GOSH…the rain! Thick, heavy, horizontal rain was blowing into the car from the sea. Then, it started to hail. What the heck?!?! Too crazy!
We came out of that on the other side all right and I’ve come to say that you have to have rain to have rainbows but Geez Louise, this place is so rainy and I REALLY HATE THE RAIN. I’ve been positive about it all though, I think, because the rain has yet to ruin any of our scheduled activities. If that happens, we’ll see how I hold up.
We saw many waterfalls along the drive to Franz Josef and truly, it was spectacular. Especially, when we started to see patches of blue sky and then, finally, full on sun and blue skies! AMAZINGLY GLORIOUS SUN! Then, I spotted some snow covered mountain peaks and I didn’t think it could get any better.
But then, the full mountain range came into view, the sun was shining and making the waterfalls flowing out from the thick rainforest twinkle and sparkle, and I just teared up and was about to cry over the sheer beauty of it all. I said it was all “Too Awesome.” More than awesome. Wish you were here. Once in a lifetime moment.
We drove past our hotel, Glen Fern Villas, as we were driving into town. That was fine because we were going to look at the Franz Josef glacier and maybe do a walking track around. We stopped into the I-site in town for some info and I called the helicopter tour company (Helicopter Line) to confirm that we would make the tour tomorrow.
Josh got some good info at the I-site and we were off. The Franz was only a 5 minute drive from town and we were lucky that the clouds had broken and we could see the glacier and most of the mountains. We did a hike up a hill for a really nice and private view of the glacier since no one else was up there. Then, we went down to the lower walking track. When we got there, there was a sign saying not to walk any further out because there had been rain recently and the river quickly can change its route making it dangerous to walk out to the terminal face of the glacier. So, we stayed put and had a look…clearly, some people had gone past the sign but like I told Josh, tomorrow we’d be up there so there was no reason to do anything crazy.
We walked back up the hill and saw there was another 20 minute walk to a reflecting pool so we went to check that out. Uh, not so reflective. I guess it was because of the rain and it was clouding back up again. As we were leaving, it started sprinkling.
Josh and I returned to town and went to the only grocery store (a 4 Square) where I picked up a Wattie's chicken curry with rice and Josh got a personal sized pizza. We bought some eggs and milk too. We returned to the hotel to check in and I asked if our room was off the road. It was not. The guy, Justin, would not move us either saying he’d never had a noise complaint, traffic is light and ends after 6:30, blah blah. I didn’t argue but now wish I would have.
Our room rate included a bottle of wine, so we got that and went to our villa (which is like a one bedroom apartment). We also were given some trim milk. We made our food and had some drinks and were set to relax for the evening (minus the whole cars driving by right out the door…BUGGER!) I HATE, ABHOR, DETEST traffic noise…any noise…unacceptable! 
However, we did get free internet because the hotel’s system to charge for it was down. So, you win some and you lose some. However, I don’t know why I am putting up with staying right on the road. Ugh.
I went outside to take a picture of the villa, taking my socks off before I stepped off the deck onto the wet grass. But then, I totally busted and fell down. The grass was sopping wet and slippery! Ah well, I didn’t get THAT wet.
Josh and I watched American Idol and thought that the contestants had the best night ever. Well, except for Jordin but it was Jon Bon Jovi week (who’s music we love) so we enjoyed listening to the songs. I fell asleep on the sofa when Josh took over the computer to play his game. He was off the computer at 1 am and I woke up to go get in the bed looking at the millions of stars in the sky from the patio. We set the alarm for 8:15 so we’d be ready to make our 10:15 appointment for the heli hike tour and went to sleep in the comfortable bed.
Josh and I woke up to a rainy morning. This was not a surprise as Josh and I have renamed the West Coast the “WET” Coast. Rain all the time here…which makes sense as the majority of the coast is a rain forest. We could see the waves from our front porch, however, and they were massive, crashing, thundering waves.
Josh cooked us up some grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast while I made the tea/coffee. We loaded up our gear into the car while it was raining, quickly checked out, and were on the road into Hokitika to buy some fuel and stop in at the Sheep Store and Jade Factory.
At the Sheep Store, I was able to take some funny pictures of Josh with the sheep cutout board. We didn’t see anything good there so we went to the Jade Factory where you can watch artisans carve jade jewelry and objects de art. Pretty cool.
We were back on the road through the rain to reach Franz Josef. OH MY GOSH…the rain! Thick, heavy, horizontal rain was blowing into the car from the sea. Then, it started to hail. What the heck?!?! Too crazy!
We came out of that on the other side all right and I’ve come to say that you have to have rain to have rainbows but Geez Louise, this place is so rainy and I REALLY HATE THE RAIN. I’ve been positive about it all though, I think, because the rain has yet to ruin any of our scheduled activities. If that happens, we’ll see how I hold up.
We saw many waterfalls along the drive to Franz Josef and truly, it was spectacular. Especially, when we started to see patches of blue sky and then, finally, full on sun and blue skies! AMAZINGLY GLORIOUS SUN! Then, I spotted some snow covered mountain peaks and I didn’t think it could get any better.
But then, the full mountain range came into view, the sun was shining and making the waterfalls flowing out from the thick rainforest twinkle and sparkle, and I just teared up and was about to cry over the sheer beauty of it all. I said it was all “Too Awesome.” More than awesome. Wish you were here. Once in a lifetime moment.
We drove past our hotel, Glen Fern Villas, as we were driving into town. That was fine because we were going to look at the Franz Josef glacier and maybe do a walking track around. We stopped into the I-site in town for some info and I called the helicopter tour company (Helicopter Line) to confirm that we would make the tour tomorrow.
Josh got some good info at the I-site and we were off. The Franz was only a 5 minute drive from town and we were lucky that the clouds had broken and we could see the glacier and most of the mountains. We did a hike up a hill for a really nice and private view of the glacier since no one else was up there. Then, we went down to the lower walking track. When we got there, there was a sign saying not to walk any further out because there had been rain recently and the river quickly can change its route making it dangerous to walk out to the terminal face of the glacier. So, we stayed put and had a look…clearly, some people had gone past the sign but like I told Josh, tomorrow we’d be up there so there was no reason to do anything crazy.
We walked back up the hill and saw there was another 20 minute walk to a reflecting pool so we went to check that out. Uh, not so reflective. I guess it was because of the rain and it was clouding back up again. As we were leaving, it started sprinkling.
Josh and I returned to town and went to the only grocery store (a 4 Square) where I picked up a Wattie's chicken curry with rice and Josh got a personal sized pizza. We bought some eggs and milk too. We returned to the hotel to check in and I asked if our room was off the road. It was not. The guy, Justin, would not move us either saying he’d never had a noise complaint, traffic is light and ends after 6:30, blah blah. I didn’t argue but now wish I would have.
Our room rate included a bottle of wine, so we got that and went to our villa (which is like a one bedroom apartment). We also were given some trim milk. We made our food and had some drinks and were set to relax for the evening (minus the whole cars driving by right out the door…BUGGER!) I HATE, ABHOR, DETEST traffic noise…any noise…unacceptable! 
However, we did get free internet because the hotel’s system to charge for it was down. So, you win some and you lose some. However, I don’t know why I am putting up with staying right on the road. Ugh.I went outside to take a picture of the villa, taking my socks off before I stepped off the deck onto the wet grass. But then, I totally busted and fell down. The grass was sopping wet and slippery! Ah well, I didn’t get THAT wet.
Josh and I watched American Idol and thought that the contestants had the best night ever. Well, except for Jordin but it was Jon Bon Jovi week (who’s music we love) so we enjoyed listening to the songs. I fell asleep on the sofa when Josh took over the computer to play his game. He was off the computer at 1 am and I woke up to go get in the bed looking at the millions of stars in the sky from the patio. We set the alarm for 8:15 so we’d be ready to make our 10:15 appointment for the heli hike tour and went to sleep in the comfortable bed.
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