Tuši's blog: 12330

Sunday, February 17, 2013

12330

New Zealand: Day 76: South Island Motorbike Trip: Day 03: Hokitika - Lake Hawea

After the breakfast John and I followed the standard packing procedure and soon we were on our bikes towards our first destination, Franz Josef Glacier. On our way there we stopped for a Geocache called Fallen Warrior (West Coast), GC1G87D, where we took the trackable item Little Wrench, TB54MWH.

Almost ready

We still followed State Highway 6

On our way towards the glacier we saw some nice waterfalls and many tourists

2 handsome guys, John and Tuši and the Franz Josef Glacier behind us

The glacier was named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer, Julius von Haast in 1865. The Māori name for the glacier is Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere ('The tears of Hinehukatere'), arising from a local legend: Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less experienced climber than Hinehukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks to his death. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier.

Danger, what is that? Since we could only see the glacier from far away, we "didn't" see the warning and moved on and it was great.

New Japanese hiking fashion

The glacier is currently 12 km long and terminates 19 km from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20-square-kilometre large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé. Having retreated several kilometres between the 1940s and 1980s, the glacier entered an advancing phase in 1984 and at times has advanced at the phenomenal (by glacial standards) rate of 70 cm a day. The flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers. Over the longer term, the glacier has retreated since the last ice age, and it is believed that it extended into the sea some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

We continued riding towards Fox Glacier and we stopped for lunch near Lake Matheson, that is known for its reflected views of Aoraki/Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. Unfortunately it was to cloudy for that, still our standard lunch, rice and tuna, was delicious.

Did you know that "Rice with tuna" and "Tuna with rice" are two completely different meals?

Lake Matheson without famous reflections

Our journey continued. We stopped at Haast, where we had a short break and some shopping. Place changed since John was here the last time and they really have a grocery shop now. Soon we were back on the road again.

Great road towards Haast Pass

Haast Pass is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. It is named for Julius von Haast, a 19th century explorer who was also geologist for the Provincial government of Canterbury. The pass was used by Māori in pre-European times, but not on a regular basis.

At the top of the pass we stopped and made a short walk to Blue Pools. The glacier-fed water in these deep pools is the colour of deep azure blue, and also very cold, so it was really refreshing to swim in it.

Nice blue coloured water was very cold

Some guys just don't care about the temperature of the water and their outfit.

The Blue Pools of Haast Pass

Scenic road towards Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka is located in the Otago region of New Zealand, at an altitude of 300 metres. Covering an area of 192 km2 it is New Zealand's fourth largest lake, and estimated to be more than 300 m deep.