West Coast Adventure

Over Christmas break we decided to head over to the west coast of New Zealand for a short but exciting two day trip. Jocelyn, Adnan, and Trey left Christchurch shortly after 10:30am to start the 2.5 hour journey to the west coast. The highway that connects the Canterbury Plains to the west coast travels through the Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass.

Arthur’s Pass is home to one of the South Island’s national parks. The drive is very interesting since the ascent is in a rather arid climate and the descent is in a rainforest. The difference in yearly precipitation on the two sides of the mountain range is over a factor of ten. Before arriving on the west coast we stopped for a short 1 hour hike in Arthur’s Pass. The hike, although short, was a little more strenuous than expected since it was mostly a combination of a steep up hill and stairs. Like most hikes in New Zealand we were rewarded at the end with the view of a magnificent waterfall, called the Devils Punchbowl that was over 300 ft high.

After this short detour we got back into the car and finished the drive to the west coast. At the coast we stopped for a quick lunch in Greymouth before continuing north to see the Pancake Rocks and blowholes in Punakaiki.

The Pancake Rocks are located on a small section of the west coast where the rocks look somewhat like a large stack of pancakes. These cliffs consist of layers of hard and soft rock that are eroded away by the wind and waves at different rates creating the layered look.

At this same location there are a series of blowholes where the waves form the sea travel through underground caves and crash into the end of the cave sending a jet of water up into the air. Due to the combination of a stormy sea and being close to high tide, the blowholes were very active. One of the blowholes was very unique because instead of sending up a gush of water when the wave crashed against the shore it sent up a very fine mist out of a relatively small hole. It almost looked like steam coming out of a tea kettle. A second blowhole was a little bit more powerful - sending a large splash of water about ten feet into the air every time a particularly large wave came by.

It was now starting to get late so we headed south along the coast until we arrived at our hotel in Hokitika. The hotel room was nice with a balcony looking out onto the beach. After such a long day we got a bite to eat at a local restaurant and then when right to bed because we had a big day of glacier hiking planned.

We woke up and got on the road early because we still had another 2 hour drive to get to the Franz Josef Glacier for our 10:30am expedition. Once we arrived we suited up in “waterproof” pants, hiking boots, and received a set of crampons (spikes that strap on to your boots for hiking on ice).

We then boarded a bus and took a 15 minute drive up to where the hike started. The start of the hike took us through a short distance of rainforest that opened out onto what looked like a large rock-filled riverbed.

This is about the time the Jocelyn realized that she had to go to the bathroom, but with no bathrooms around and no desire to have her first outdoor bathroom experience she made the decision to hold it for the 18 hours (actually 3 hours but when you have to go it can feel like forever!) This riverbed is actually where the glacier ended in the early 1900s but has since retreated 1.5 miles, leaving behind a path of flat rocks as it melted.

The next 20 minutes or so we hiked across these rocks to the terminal face of the glacier. We then passed a few warning sings that told us we would probably fall and die if we hiked on the glacier without a guide. Good thing we booked a guided tour instead of just trying to do it ourselves (Just kidding mom and dad!).

At this point we strapped on our crampons and stared up the face of the glacier along a series of steps that had been carved into the ice.

Once at the top we were finally able to see the true beauty of the glacier. It was an amazing blue color. The hike took us through tight crevices, up ice cliffs and around small streams of glacier melt.

With the crampons it was quite easy to walk around on the ice as long as you remembered to take aggressive steps to dig the spikes into the ice. You also want to make sure that you do not get the spikes caught on your other boot or pant leg because this can cause you to fall, which Trey found out the hard way. Fortunately, he did not fall on any steps or ledges. Jocelyn was having a very good time now after she got over the initial fear of climbing the ice steps. But just when she was feeling comfortable on the ice, disaster struck, or so we thought, when her crampon broke in half. I think she was a little bit too aggressive with the walking on the ice. Luckily the tour guide carries some spare parts so he was able to fix the crampon in a few minutes and we were once again on our way – though he did tease her during the rest of the hike.

It was amazing to be on top of a glacier and looking around and seeing rainforest and waterfalls in the surrounding mountains.

Here are a few random facts about the Franz Josef Glacier for those who are interested. It is one of only three glaciers in the world that is located in a rainforest. It is considered a warm glacier because it almost never reaches below freezing at the base of the glacier. The way that this glacier forms is that high in the mountains snow falls on the order of 100ft a year. This is more snow than can melt in the summer so it just continues to accumulate. The weight of the new snow compacts the old snow underneath compressing it into ice. This ice then starts to slowly flow down the mountainside at the rate of about a 3-5 feet a day forming the glacier.

Once we got off the glacier Jocelyn made her way to the bathroom (which she was pretty happy about) and then we boarded the bus back to where our car was parked. It was now about 5pm and since we had a 5 hour drive back to Christchurch we grabbed some food and souvenirs and got back on the road.

On the ride home just when we thought our adventure was over we had a unique experience of driving through a cloud! The clouds were quite low over the Canterbury Plains so as we got to the end of Arthur’s Pass we realized that we were actually above the cloud line. It was really cool to be on a mountaintop looking out over the top of clouds. Although it was not so fun driving down the mountain side through the cloud with very limited visibility. We made it home safely and were all very tired from the two day trip so we headed straight to bed.

It is amazing all that we were able to see in such a short road trip. Where else could you drive coast-to-coast from semi-arid plains though mountains to a rainforest and see countless waterfalls, interesting rock formations, blowholes and go hiking on a warm-weather glacier all in less than 36 hours? The answer is nowhere but New Zealand.