New Zealand Part 1: Wanaka, Franz Josef, Te Anau
- Olivia Rosenburg
- Oct 11, 2017
- 6 min read
Sorry for the long pause but between finals and last-minute assignments, I had to write six essays last week so my blog took a backseat to that briefly. But after finally making it through the week, I’m in New Zealand!
Caroline, James, and I flew into Queenstown on Saturday and drove up to Wanaka to stay the night. The flight and getting the car went smoothly and we saw some beautiful scenery until it got dark as well. We arrived in Wanaka around midnight New Zealand time, which is 2 hours ahead of Sydney, and 17 hours ahead of the east coast of the US. We went to sleep soon after because we had an early start the next morning.
On Sunday, we went canyoning. I had been before in Costa Rica but that didn’t even compare to this. We started by driving out to the canyon and we saw beautiful mountains and a ton of animals like moose, cows, and SO MANY sheep with their lambs since it is spring here. Then we got to the site and put on a few thermals and hiked up the side of the canyon (check us out on the right, pre-hike). It was about a 30-minute walk of going straight up the side of the mountain. By the time we got to the top, we were all sweating a ton. Next, we all struggled into our wetsuits, me especially. It literally took Caroline, James, and both of the guides to get my wetsuit up over my legs. It was HIGHLY embarrassing but also hilarious and it tired us all out just getting dressed. The canyon started with abseiling down a pretty big waterfall and then we did a slide aka we literally laid down and let the waterfall take us over the edge into a free fall. It felt like we fell for a really long time but it was probably only about 3 seconds in reality. When I went under the water at the bottom I think I literally went into to shock because the water was 4 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit). I came up for air and struggled really hard to catch my breath while swimming to the side, but once I got up to the rock and adjusted to the temperature (the wetsuit really helped) I was right back to having a great time.
We went on sliding, repelling, climbing, and zip lining down the canyon and it was so much fun. There was one slide we did that was headfirst into a pool of water (I went on my butt because I’m a baby) and our fake GoPro (FoPro if you will) fell off the mount on James’ helmet and was somewhere at the bottom of the pool. Our guides tried to dive down to look for it but they couldn’t find anything and they said they would bring goggles the next day to look for it while they were there. Finally, we got to the last part which had an optional 7 meter jump off of a cliff into the pool of water. I wasn’t going to do it but I decided that I would regret it if I didn’t so I just went for it and I’m really glad that I did. It was pretty scary but a lot of fun. Then we went on the final zip line and walked down the rest of the mountain completely exhausted from our day. It was already 4pm but we ate lunch at the bottom anyway and then drove back towards the town of Wanaka.
By this time, it was sunny instead of overcast the way it had been early in the morning and we could clearly see all the mountains and the lake. The water in New Zealand is SO BLUE. It looks like they took food coloring and poured it in the water. When we were in the canyon they told us we could just drink the water straight from the pools and waterfalls. They dropped us off by the car and we decided to sit by the lake for a little while to enjoy the sunshine and the view. Next we drove back to the hostel, showered, made dinner, and packed our lunches for the next day. After dinner, we went out to see the stars and James got a lot of really cool photos of the night sky. There weren’t a lot of lights where we were so it was really beautiful.
We woke up on Monday pretty early to make the drive 3 and a half hours north to Franz Josef. That’s around the time I realized that I have a pretty bad cold but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from having fun. On our way, we again saw a million sheep and lambs out in the fields. We also stopped along the way in a national park and different lookouts along lakes and mountains and the beach to take some photos. After James drove about halfway, I took my turn which at first was super weird because they also drive on the other side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car but I got used to it pretty quickly.
We finally made it to our Franz Josef Glacier helicopter/hiking tour (with 5 minutes to spare). We got suited up in snow pants, heavy boots, and jackets. We walked about 15 minutes to the helicopter pad to fly up into the glacier. So just to recap, we drove for 3.5 hours and started off in the mountains with beautiful lakes, stopped in a national park with waterfalls, then stopped at the beach surrounded by rainforest, and then we were minutes away from being on top of a glacier. Long story short, the biodiversity in New Zealand is insane and its really cool. We got into the helicopter and Caroline got to sit in the front so she was really lucky. I had never been in a helicopter before but it was so cool. It took us about 5 minutes to get up to the glacier, where we started our hike. The Franz Josef glacier is one of the fastest moving glaciers at 1-4 meters per day. The path we took was unique because the paths they use are never the same for longer than a few days before the ice totally shifts and they have to start again. It was so interesting to be able to hike on something that is never the same and also most likely won’t be there in 20 years because of global warming.
After about 4 and a half hours of hiking we took the helicopter back down to the base and returned our gear. We went up the street afterward to check into our hostel for the night and shower before going out to get some dinner. We tried to watch The Incredibles after that but the Wi-Fi wasn’t great and we were all exhausted so we just went to bed.
The next morning, the plan was to wake up at 7am and leave by 8am to start our long 6 and a half hour drive to Te Anau where we were staying the night before going to Milford Sound the next morning. Except we actually woke up at 8am and didn't leave Franz Josef until about 9:30am. It was really nice to take it slow though and it was a rainy morning so it was calming. We actually got super lucky with weather since it was beautiful for canyoning and our glacier hike, so rain wasn't too bad for our long road trip. On our way back, we stopped in Wanaka to retrieve our FoPro that the guides found! That was pretty exciting since now we have all of our canyoning footage back. The plan is to make a trip video so stay tuned for that :) After a long but also gorgeous 6 and a half hour drive, we made it to our Airbnb. Basically we were glamping for the night. We had to build a fire in the wood burning stove to keep warm, there was no hot water in the cabin or outlets. It was kind of a nice to be disconnected for the night and it was a good experience.
Stay tuned for the rest of my trip! So far it has been amazing and I'm in love with New Zealand. I have never seen anything more beautiful. 10/10 would recommend coming here at some point. Everything about it is amazing.
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