After skydiving I felt great for about an hour. Then the flu set back in. Meg and I were going to meet Jenna and Michelle for lunch but I couldn’t face the sight of food so I ended up sleeping at the hostel for the day. That afternoon Jenna had to fly and we had to pick up our car so we headed to the tiny Queenstown airport. I don’t remember a whole lot of the car hiring process since I was delirious and lying on the floor. Meg had to sign most of the papers even though I was technically the hirer. The next two days, we had planned a fantastic 32 km hike through Fiordland and over the mountains called the Routeburn. We’d booked transport to the start of the track for the next day, a hut in the mountains for that night and transport out the following day. In the evening, Meg was starting to feel awful too and we were having doubts about being able to do the hike. We still shopped for supplies anyway and said we’d make the call in the morning.

We got up and dressed like champs at 6:30am on Tuesday morning and made it almost to our car when we decided that if we were feeling like passing out from a walk to the car, it really wasn’t smart to attempt the hike. Super bummed out, we canceled our transport, went to breakfast and decided to take out time and do the first portion of the hike anyway, turning around when we felt like it. We did our fair share of offroading on the way there. The car company had told us that there were a few roads that we weren’t insured to drive on so when we ended up on a gravel road in the wop-wops (kiwi slang for “middle of nowhere”!), parts of the road having been washed away by the river, we started thinking that we were in the wrong place… Eventually we managed to flag down a safari truck and were told that, yes, we were in the wrong place.

Finally we made it to the track and hiked for a few hours before having some lunch and turning around. It was such a beautiful day with clear blue skies which was probably nature’s way of making us feel worse that we couldn’t hike the whole thing. Still, we got some great pictures and had a decent 4 hour walk which probably did us some good

The next step was to drive over the crown range road to Wanaka, which is like a smaller, less touristy version of Queenstown. The Crown Range Road is SCARY. Hairpin turns every hundred metres and cliffs off to the side.  That night in Wanaka, we treated ourselves to a hotel room which was an amazing experience. We also decided to suck it up and eat out freeze dried hiking food for dinner. Never ever eat hiking food when sick, or at all for that matter. It was disgusting and I’ll never buy anything like it for a hike again.  The next day we had booked a horse ride in the Cardrona Valley just outside of Wanaka which ended up being awesome. It was just four of us and a guide and she let everyone cater for a while along the river. Pretty much the ultimate Lord of the Rings experience. We stopped by the Cardrona Hotel for a drink after and someone had told me that it was used in the filming of Lord of the Rings which would have been cool. It wasn’t used in filming and we definitely looked stupid for asking as they even had a sign reading “Lord of the Rings was NOT filmed here”. Oh well, we weren’t the only ones!

Thursday morning we were feeling better but still not 100% and decided to do a hike called Roy’s Peak Track. The lady at the information booth told us it was 3-4 hours return. FALSE. It was a hike basically straight up a mountain that doubled as a sheep paddock. The sheep weren’t very friendly though and wouldn’t let us get near enough to pet them. About two and a half hours of slogging uphill in the hot sun, we asked some people how much further it was to the top. When they said we were just about halfway, we decided to turn around. The views were still awesome from where we were and we were running out of time to make the drive to the Fox Glacier that we had to do the evening. On top of still having flu! That evening we drove over the Hasst pass which was beautiful. We stopped at a couple waterfalls and rivers along the way and saw a magnificent sunset just as we reached the west coast.

The following morning we had booked an ice climbing expedition on the glacier which has traveled 13km from the Southern Alps and ends almost near the sea which is really rare. Seeing as the company we booked with was a well known tourist operation and the booklet said you needed moderate fitness for the ice climbing, we figured that the climbing would be pretty tame and easily. I’m so glad that it was the opposite. Our guide, Andy, geared the four of us up (Meg and I plus two young Germans) with boots, crampons, ice picks, two pairs of gloves, packs, ice screws, harnesses, helmets, gaiters and jackets. We then took a bus to the terminal face of the glacier and strode past all the other sightseers and under the safety rope until we got to the ice. Andy taught us the basics, like not tripping on your crampons and how to tie yourself onto the rope before we set off walking on the ice. When we reached the first ice wall, it was hugeee and Andy climbed round the back and anchored in two of the ice screws in different spots. When he came back, he told us that the huge, deep hole in the ice face wasn’t there a few days before and told us to check it out as we climbed. He quickly told us how to belay out partners and said “Right off you go then!”.  Luckily both Meg and I have belayed before so it wasn’t completely new, but still took a couple minutes to get the hang of. Overall, the ice climbing was probably my favourite part of the trip. We were out there for nine hours, climbing progressively more difficult walls and exploring the moulins (water mills or big holes in the ice that you can climb down into). It was so difficult to keep both your picks and your crampon toes jammed into the ice as you climbed and the most frustrating thing was when your feet slipped and left you hanging by your forearms from your picks. I discovered muscles I didn’t know that I had! On some of the last climbs of the day, Meg and I would get so close to the top then just get really tired when we kept slipping. On one climb I was so exhausted from slipping over and over again that I’m ashamed to say that I started whimpering as I clung on only a few feet from the top, before I has to shake myself and tell myself to not be such a baby.

I’d love to go again and improve as I think it was hard to get the hang of it in one day. So much fun though and the huge chicken burger I had for dinner was well deserved I thought…as well as the bottle of wine and lying on the hostel couch watching the Time Travelers’ Wife. Fox Glacier village wasn’t as hopping as Queenstown…

We were sad to leave Fox the next day as that meant our vacation was almost over. We drove up the west coast, which is basically like West Virginia but by the sea and over Arthurs Pass, on route to Christchurch. We could not find the rental place in Christchurch and instead drove around the Red Zone for a while. It was actually pretty scary. So many building had fallen down and many of the businesses were derelict and empty. The traffic just kept getting directed around and around in circles since no one was allowed in the Red Zone. We were probably lucky not to get caught in a quake when we were there at the rate the earthquakes are coming.

That night was spent at the airport and this time we couldn’t find benches so we just stretched out in our sleeping bags between two pay phones. The next morning in Auckland we had to wait 5 hours for our bus and ended up sleeping/lounging in some big chairs in the centre of a mall. Normally I would be pretty well mannered in a mall, but we were so tired that we had our shoes off, our coats as pillows and were basically passed out surrounded by our packs. Some guy came up to us and said his mom had told him to come and see if we needed somewhere to go because we were welcome to come to their place if we didn’t have anywhere. So basically we were mistaken for homeless people.

However, fantastic trip overall! I’m a little behind so more to come on the past few weeks soon!

Karen

Location: Wanaka, Fox Glacier and Christchurch