Michael's Journals

Michael's HomeWe'll be coming round the mountain when we comeFranz Josef Glacier

Entries:

We'll be coming round the mountain when we come

Franz Josef Glacier |

It rained all night last night and it was tip tapping on the roof of the campervan. We were wide awake a 5am as a result so we decided to get up and get ready to go early. Lucy took the first stint of driving and the 2 miles down the road the satnav told us to turn right on to a single track road going straight up a mountain. Lucy said "I'm not driving up here!!" so we promptly turned around and tried to find an alternate route. "Perform a U-turn when possible (you fool)" said the satnav. Half a mile later "perform a u-turn when possible (what? are you deaf?)" said the satnav again add infinitum. With the sun in her eyes Lucy decided to defer her turn to later on and I took over. Being cavalier, I turned around and headed up the single track road up the mountain. The road was so steep, windey and narrow I was beginning to wonder if I had made the right choice. A few miles later we were at the top of a snow capped mountain behind a bus which was chucking out 2 tonnes of carbon monoxide every time it changed down to first. Thankfully we mannaged to get down the other side without having to put the snow chains on or calling mountain rescue. The road soon widend and we were in Wanaka before we knew it. Wanaka Lake was beautiful but we were soon on our way again. At the half way mark Lucy took over and after a few more mountain passages along difficult roads we in Franz Josef Glacier. After a spot of lunch we attempted to go up to the base of the Glacier but the road was not 'sealed' so it wouldn't have been covered by our insurance. So after all that travelling we ended up watching a DVD and reading in the campervan. Tomorrow we are off to Greymouth which is the largest town on the west of the island.

Locations Visited: Franz Josef Glacier


Add Comment

Comment Policy:

Only signed in members can comment on journal entries. Please sign in now or register if you would like to leave a comment. Comments are sent to the owner of this journal for approval before being made live on the site.