Since Wellington is located on the North Island and Christchurch is located on the South Island. I chose to take the domestic flight (Jetstar, 1-hr) to Christchurch. Or else I could take ferry to Picton for 6 hours, but it is a place that I am not that familiar with, and of course time-consuming.
The most wonderful part of the trip is visiting the Fox Glacier, the 13 km long glacier located on the West Coast of NZ’s South Island. Before commencing the trip, I did a lot of homework about this.
To reach the Fox Glacier district, I had to take the long-long-haul bus again. In total 10-hr! After staying in Christchurch YMCA for a night, I woke up in the early morning to take the bus heading to the Fox.
Firstly I had to take 6-hr bus from Christchurch to somewhere called Greymoth. Then I transited to another 4-hr bus from Greymouth to Fox Glacier. It sounds boring but in fact it was not! The scenery along the road was gorgeous! Awesome! However, the heavy rain didn’t stop. I was afraid that my most expected part of the journey had to be cancelled because of the adverse weather. I was very disappointed. On the other hand, it made me felt that I got closer and closer to the world, the tremendous and powerful planet!
At around 5:30pm, I arrived. I was the last one to get off the bus. The bus driver asked me if I went there alone. I said yes, and he encouraged to go ahead on this journey and praised me “Good girl!”, haa. This is also how I felt the warm from the Newzealanders. I stayed at the Fox Glacier Inn for two nights. This time I occupied the whole 4-bed dorm for two nights, but couldn’t meet any friends.
Actually I booked the local glacier guiding called “Fox Glacier” online, which I highly recommended you to join for glacier walk. Mine was a half-day walk (3-4 hours). They provided kind of hiking shoes, socks, jackets, backpacks and equipments. Those coaches are well-trained and humorous.
Next day morning, the sun was climbing up. I am fortunate enough that the weather is good to continue the local day tour.
The starting time was 9am. We firstly did a briefing inside the Fox guiding site, together with those clothing and equipment delivery. Then we took a bus for 10 mins to the starting point of the Fox.
We all were so excited to see the ice, but we should stay in the safety zone according to the instruction of the coach. By the way, my coach is called Angela, which is a very nice and responsible girl. Angela said that yesterday’s heavy rain seldom happened. Also, it made the Fox glacier and river became more dangerous to get closer to them.
But luckily enough, we can still have a walk. Sometimes, the huge ice dropping sounds can be heard. I could feel the power of the natural world again.
Walking on the glacier is marvelous! It is an experience that not everyone can own it.
I even tried to drink the water taking from the river. It was definitely clean and cool.
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After finishing the half-day walk, I found the way to the Lake Matheson alone. The weather was extremely good. I can see the clear sky with clouds, together with the grassy farms along the walkway. It took me an hour to walk there, but it is a worth visit.
There was no one on the road except myself. Just some cars passed by sometimes. At that time, helpful Newzealander appeared again. A middle-age couple driving a car passed by, asking me if I needed them to drive me to the city. Enjoying every moment alone and practicing finding my way are my purposes of this trip. That was why I rejected them and rejected them politely.
Lake Matheson is famous for its lake reflection. The atmosphere was so quiet and relaxing. I even had my own tea time here.
On the third day morning, I took the early morning bus back to Christchurch to finish my last checkpoint of this journey. By the way, Hokitika was the halfway bus stop. I bought some chips as my lunch. A big bag of chips but in cheap price.
Coming up last checkpoint: Christchurch, after the earthquake.
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