A mere six minutes after getting up, someone qualified themselves for SPOTD, as Trav was trying to take a shower. As with most of the places we stayed, each tap in the amenities block was affected by other taps. As a result, when in the shower, you’re hoping nobody else is going to either turn a shower on or off while you’re in there, or else the water will either go dead cold or boiling hot until you jump out of the water stream and adjust the taps.

On this occasion, there was a man shaving at the sinks, while his child amused itself waiting for Dad. Unfortunately for Trav, the amusement was derived from turning taps on and off, watching the steam come off the hot ones, and trying to overpower the sinks with the cold ones (ie: more water filling sink than could get out the plughole). All of which was constantly affecting Trav’s shower temperature and water pressure.

After realising that the taps were not being used for any useful purpose, Trav called out over the stalls to please leave them alone because they were affecting the showers. No response, other than the child continuing to tell it’s father in an excited way to look at the water in the sinks he was playing with. A second call for a cessation of playing with taps also went by the wayside, and the shower continued to adjust, while the little kid laughed and Dad murmured his approval of what his child was doing.

Somehow, neither father nor son seemed prepared for the sight of a rampaging Trav, as he came bursting out of the stall dripping water, wrapped in a towel and blasting them about “getting some (expletive deleted) clues in life”. The little kid was actually much closer than Trav was expecting and the soap container he’d brought out with him to rattle and make a bit more noise for intimidation purposes actually clipped him across the back of the neck. After another few seconds informing both of them where they could go and which bus to take, Trav stormed back into the shower. Which, for the record, remained unaffected by any form of playing with taps for the remainder of the time he was in there…

Heading south after leaving the holiday park, we decided to check out the Westport seal colony, which is only a couple of kilometres from the township. There were about a dozen seals lazing about on the rocks, so presumably the remainder were out at sea feeding, because it hardly looked like a colony to us. While we were there, the number of people stopping to look at the seals was quite high, we think, because it’s the only thing to do in Westport. Perhaps the 12 seals came in to look at the 70-person strong “human colony”?

After leaving the seals, we turned on the car radio and listened to the DJ announcing cancellations for various events around the region. Of eight events planned for that day, six of them were postponed or cancelled, which seemed like an awful lot of people were not going to be able to do what they planned.

Punakaiki was our next major stop along the coast, to look at the “pancake rocks” that are found there. Nobody quite knows why the rocks have formed the way they have, with layers of mudstone settling in between layers of limestone, but the rocks only seem to be found in that area. Due to water erosion, there are also blowholes found along the walk, which made a nice booming sound and lots of splashes, even though we were only there at low tide. Neither of us could be bothered waiting around until 3:37pm for it to reach high tide to see the blowholes at their best, but even at midday, when we were there, they were still quite impressive.

As with the Whakarewarewa thermal park in Rotorua, there were safety rails installed all the way around the path, to prevent people climbing out on the cliffs or to get a better view of the blowholes, and falling into the water. However, they have obviously seen the rampant stupidity of some people, and so there was also a life-buoy on a rope which could be thrown to people that didn’t follow the rules.

After exploring that area of Punakaiki, we walked down the road a few hundred metres and checked out a cave found there which apparently contained glow-worms. It was pitch black, and we’d left the torch in the car, but luckily, there were a couple arriving at the same time (also from Melbourne!) who had one. Di waited at the entrance while Trav and the couple explored deeper into the cave in an effort to find some glow-worms. We did not have a lot of luck initially, and were on the way out of the cave, when Trav decided his eyes were adjusted to the low light enough to go exploring on his own, and found some (6 or 7). After a little further scrabbling in the dark, feeling his way deeper into the cave, there were another 8 discovered.

We decided that we’d grab some lunch in Greymouth and eat it at one of the many coastal stops we’d seen along the way. Unfortunately, as soon as we made this plan, we discovered that there were no more coastal stops for several kilometres, and we ended up having to drive around the back-blocks of Hokitika (the next town) to find some beach access. It has to be said that New Zealand beaches on the west coast all have the same ugly grey sand and driftwood nature - not a patch on the white sands we’re used to in Australia.

Trav almost qualified himself for SPOTD while running away from a wave and tripping over some driftwood. With the wave fast closing in, Trav threw himself off the sand and up the beach in a desperate effort not to get wet. After all, that would mean another shower, and he’d already had enough of that experience for one day.

Between Hokitika and Franz Joseph glacier, we saw a myriad of mixed farm enterprises, including two different types of deer, dairy cattle, beef cattle, ostriches, water buffalo, and - of course - the ubiquitous sheep.

Due to recent falls of ice, the terminal face (read: the big, wide, wall of ice that is the bottom end of the glacier) of Franz Joseph glacier was closed, and so we could not walk up to it. The best we could manage was a look from Sentinel Rock, which is about one kilometre from the glacier. The glacier has been retreating (although there have been a few periods of growth over time) for many years, and at one time, Sentinel Rock was under the glacier.

We had looked at the Lonely Planet guide and noted that both the townships at the bases of the Franz Joseph glacier and the Fox glacier were designed for ripping off tourists. The AA (no, no that AA! - the Automobile Association) book suggested Fox glacier township was the less-commercialised of the two, so we’d decided to drive on the extra 25km.

We had been told that for a lot of the time, Mt Cook (highest peak in NZ) is under cloud, so not to be disappointed if we didn’t see it. However, when we arrived, the sky was vivid blue, and there was no cloud obscuring the view. We went for a walk around nearby Lake Matheson and took plenty of photos of the mountains (Mt Cook on right, Mt Tasman on left) and the reflection appearing in the calm water.

Since Westport holiday park had been fully booked, and we expected it to be very cold in the tent due to the presence of snow and ice, we had booked ahead at the Fox Glacier Holiday Park (aka Alpine Motor Inn). When we’d booked, we’d asked for a $30 cabin for the night, and the woman we spoke to told us they were quite basic, and there were much newer ones for $35 which were built in 1998. We decided that for the extra $5, the better room would be worth it, so we took the $35 newer cabin.

Based on her description, we figured it would be a much better room than the basic cabins, but when we saw what we had, we had to wonder how much worse it could have been. The room contained no table and chairs (first time we’ve ever found just beds in a room), no towel rack (presumably everyone just kept their towels in a wet heap on the floor), and the wiring for the heater was just an exposed extension lead stapled to the wall. The bed, we quickly found, was also more than a year old, based on how lumpy it was, and the sheets were stained with food in one corner, showing the cleaning staff were not paying much attention to detail. All in all, VERY basic indeed, and not what we would want to spend much time in for more than one night, unless we’d brought our own clothes drying rack, and furniture.

Seeing it was 9pm, and nothing else would really be open, we decided to stick with the room, and just cook dinner and leave in the morning. Trav went into the communal kitchen to find a hotplate to cook steak on, but was unable to find one. A quick search of the tent area also failed to reveal any BBQ, so he went to the office to ask them where it was. The woman behind the counter gave a surprised look and said “oh, you didn’t ask for a room with a BBQ”. It was Trav’s turn for a surprised look as he explained he didn’t know there was a choice.

It turned out that what she meant was that because we were only paying $35 for the night, we were not paying enough money to be able to use the BBQ, because it was reserved for those people staying in the accommodation at the next higher expense level. She was really quite reluctant to let us cook on the BBQ, so Trav pointed out that he didn’t have to use it, and could instead cook the steaks inside the kitchen on two of the oven hotplates used for pots. Realising that would be a bloody awful thing to clean, she relented and we cooked our meal on the BBQ.

The final irritation was provided by the fact there were 12 new cabins, and only 3 in use. However, the 3 in use were all next to one another (we were in the middle) and they were #’s 10, 11, and 12 - all the furthest cabins from the communal bathrooms, and all involved walking right past the communal kitchen to get to the bathrooms. This was rather unpleasant in the morning, with hair sticking up, and clad in pyjamas, as we padded past families at breakfast. All in all, we cannot recommend AGAINST this particular holiday park enough - no matter how bad others are, they could not be much worse than the Fox Glacier Holiday Park.

Sitting on the lumpy bed at 11pm, Di was reading a brochure and noted there was a Glow-worm Grotto in the township, as well as a glow-worm walk just out of town, so we located a map of where they were, and headed off. It turned out that the Grotto cost $2 entry and was open from dusk to 11pm. Nobody was there when we arrived, so Trav walked in to see whether it was locked. It wasn’t, so we just went in anyway, and walked around the 50m circuit looking at the glow-worms. It was not very impressive, and we’re glad we arrived after 11pm and did not pay for entry.

After the Grotto, we went another 200m out of town to the Minnehaha Walk, which is a pleasant (20 minute return) stroll through bushland beside a creek during the day, with the bonus appearance of glow-worms at night. We took a torch to avoid falling in the creek, and wandered around for about 45 minutes, looking at the several hundred glow-worms we could see. It was far more fun on the Minnehaha walk than the Grotto for the simple reason that we got the chance to spot them ourselves, and although there were plenty of them, they were not just dished up on a plate, so to speak. A little bit of hunting always makes it more rewarding.

Onward to Christchurch tomorrow…

Categories: NZ 1999, Travel