(2015/02/13-16) … my really sweating hike up and down the days before reminded me that i really need a haircut before flying to Australia and having a motorbike tour through the dessert. I drove the view Kilometers back to Wanaka to get fuel, a hair cut and to use the local wifi hotspots to upload my blog suff. The weather was still forecasted as being good for the next days and i will have for sure good conditions for my hikes at Fox and Franz-Joseph glaciers. Following the highway 6 to the west coast, through Mount Aspiring National Park and Haast was very beautiful to see while driving. Sadly i hadn’t much options for stopping and time to take pictures, there where several hundreds km to drive before arriving at the Gillespies Beach campground, an old gold mine, near Fox. I have to mention that this camp was for free and already in my WikiCamps App it was written that they have limited space and you have to be there early to get a spot.
When i arrived i was really surprised how busy this place was and how many people was trying to get an place after me. The most annoying thing where a couple with an caravan, parking over 4-5 parking lots, still hooked up their trailer. The husband tried to convince me that this is better, like in a case of “emergency”, that you can leave faster. Ha ha..nice try. They didn’t wanted to re-arrange it and offered to me i should just park parallel in front of their car or caravan. I was really too tired to start a discussion without having any food before, so i just parked parallel to them. After my “delicious” canned food dinner, there where more and more people coming and the parking lot got overcrowd and lot of camper vans parked the road along on the site. A short walk along the history of this place and it’s remaining items, the time for beautiful sunset was perfect. No clouds where blocking the sun, even better they supported the scenery, higher waves where crushing on the stoney beach, a seal was laying in front of us and a man with a guitar supported the awesome sunset…
…Fox glacier was on today list and to hike there. Already from the distance at the campground you could see the ice and snow on the top of the mountains. Very interested in seeing the end of an glacier at almost sea level was something totally new for me. I was used to see a glacier ending at a higher altitude in the European Alps before so i expected something bigger and better, because the pictures int he commercial flyers for heli-flights and the internet where really pretty. The car parking lot at the bottom of the glacier was huge and already full with lots of cars, which didn’t wondered me. Hiking along the valley some signs gave an good impression what this glacier must have looked like years before. Yes, “must have looked liked”, there wasn’t much pretty left of the huge glacier. It was really depressing to see more dirt and more nothing where before million tons of ice was a few years before. The sign which the comparison between 2008 and 2014 displayed as its best what is remaining of this glacier. The ranger who was printed on wood and saying “Doesn’t it look impressive, but don’t go further!” became more ironic then the years before. Hiking? There is no hiking left where you could go around or higher to get an better view of the glacier. Only the held-flights are left and offering for lots of NZD better and still impressive views of the higher regions of the glacier. (Isn’t it more weird, they offering flights to see more of the beauty and forcing with that an even more faster destroying of the nature?). If you would close your eyes and may think not to imagine the hundreds of tourists walking up to the remainings, you still wouldn’t have a great stop there. Why? Exactly these heli-flights where nonstop flying tourists up and down with an annoying sound.
What todo with the day? Hiking on one of the small circle hiking trails where you couldn’t see the glacier anymore? No worries, not far away there is the Franz-Joseph Glacier about 25km north, so lets see if i will have there more luck. Different glacier, same scenario! I wasn’t really happy about what i had seen there. It was a bit more better then at the Fox but even there is a sign “2008-2012” displaying more dramatically that there isn’t much left, parallel to the same annoying helicopter sounds all the time. Hiking? Even there wasn’t any hiking trails to a higher level without using an help left. I decided not todo any heli-sightseeing and waste my money on this way, instead i focused myself on my own art project and decided to use the money to ship them to South Africa to the AfrikaBurn.
I still had the quote of some shipping companies in my mind which i got on my last visit in Queenstown and the cheapest one was about 800NZD. Should i really do this? I still wasn’t sure at this point, but i had enough time to think about on my way to Ross, another old gold mining town, where i setup my tent for a night. Hm, it looked like that i really got back faster to Christchurch then i thought. Ross, a small village with about 300 people living there, not much to see there, except again lots of old gold mining tools and museum about the better and golden ages years before. The “highlight” was the Histroic Empire Hotel which is now a bar and offering some beds for backpackers. Inside you sill could imagine the old western style and times where you bought a beer inside with an golden nugget….
…there wasn’t much to see in Ross and i just choose the time to walk around a nature trail and i skipped to make more pictures of more gold mining tools and relics. Not far after Greymouth, where i got my speeding ticket a few weeks before, i found a nice campground Nelson Creek (again, an old gold mining site) for staying another night. I donated some money because it was usually for free but with flushing toilettes, drinking water, trash and dump place, fire pits and a playground for children. This place was very well maintained and i enjoyed my night there…
Same procedure as the day before, took some hours for walking around the old gold fields before heading to my last stop before Christchurch. Having my expenses for the shipping of my art project in mind, i choose again to stay at an cheap or campground for free. About 50km north of my final destination in New Zealand, a DOC campground offered an free stay which fitted best. The way from Nelson Creek wasn’t even very interesting and i didn’t wanted to stop more often for sights, more the idea arriving in Christchurch and heaving there my last days with silence to sort my stuff out, let me drive through. A short afternoon break for uploading blog content on a Spark Hotspot was already very typical on the drive. Not to drive the same way via Hanmer Springs i choose the Lake Brunner and Arthur’s Pass to have a bit variety. Even driving 5-10km on gravel roads to reach some cool and free campgrounds, i was already used to.
Already some improvised dinner with my left overs in my mind, i got stopped by an gate. Gate? Okay, no worries, get out, open it, drive through, close it. Bummer! The gate was locked! The campground was maybe just 2km away. As it was already getting late and i choose to illegally camp beside the gravel road in the hills and to have a night there. After my dinner, it was already getting dark, i placed some stones on my camping stove to have it a bit more warm for writing my blog posts, like we do on the Isar river in Munich when it’s getting cold in fall or spring…