Hokitika > Franz Josef Glacier
There are benefits to being on a smaller campsite even if is has fewer amenities: no queues for the showers or the dumpsite - so we had a brisk, stress-free departure from the campsite, even if the raind had started again and looked set for the day. We drove in to Hokitika and did a bit of shopping then booked our Heli-hiking on the glacier and our Top 10 accomodation for tonight (we had the feeling, rightly we later discovered that this would be a popular place).
"We got our kicks on Route 6" a long straight, then very winding road to the glacier along the coast.
Made great time from Hokitika, only to find ourselves in a very wet place, with a cloud enshrouded glacier in the background. The place purely exists for the tourists and consists of 2 roads of shops, cafes & accomodation. Amazingly, there weren't even funny looks when Gavin asked if he could log his lap-top onto the Internet, so nice to get connected to the real world again... so that's the plus point to Franz Josef! Catherine shopped and prevented James wrecking things while Gavin surfed. After that we headed back to base.
 
The camp-site was rain sodden, crowded and quite miserable to be bbq-ing lamb chops (which was were we were up to on our meal planning), however the food was good and we sat tight listening to the rain. Gavin and James are up in the top bunk to give Mummy a clear runway for Heli-hiking at early-O-clock.
9:20:28 PM 
|
