Diary 12th January 2001 & Images
Te Anau to Fox Glacier.
Friday 12th January.
After eating a delicious traditional breakfast, packing my overnight
belongings and exchanging goodbye greetings I left the Shakespeare guesthouse
and drove into Te Anau. I wanted to fill up with petrol in preparation
for a long journey. Having filled with a tank and got myself some soft
drinks I drove back the way I had come.
Just as I was leaving the outskirts of town I noticed a hitchhiker. As I approached I gave him the once over and he looked reasonably respectable. Dressed in beige/grey jeans and a navy blue sweatshirt. He appeared not to be over laden with baggage. Since it was only 0910 and I had always been driving on my own I decided that I could use some company. When I pulled up and asked him where he was going he told me Queenstown in what sounded like a French accent. I took my camera from the car and said "I must have a picture of my travelling companion." |
The picture above -enlarged- shows ice-capped Mount Cook in the
centre. |
He asked me where I had been and where I was going and I told him about my travels. He said his name was Jean Philippe, he was 27 years old and that he came from Paris. He was travelling round the world for a year and had first got the travel bug when he was in his late teens. I was very pleased that I had picked him up, as he was a very pleasant man with good English and a dry sense of humour that I appreciated. |
He asked me if I minded him smoking in my car and I told him it would be okay but there was no ashtray and he would have to use the window. I was surprised to see him pullout a pipe and fill it with tobacco. "It's most unusual to see a young man smoke a pipe these days how long have you been doing that?" I asked. |
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Some of the roads are so steep that the authorities build a special ramp for runaway vehicles |
I next arrived at the confluence of the Haast and Landsborough rivers. |
By this time I needed to stop my car and mark the territory like a common dog. |
The Landsborough river is the major tribute in the to the Haast. its source is 40 miles away at the McKerrow Glazier in the vicinity of Mount Cook National Park. It is likely that the distant peaks of Mt Ward, Mt Trent and Mt Solution would once had been submerged by ice sheet. |
I continued my journey passing through Thomas Bluff. I travelled along the length of the Haast river |
The main reach of the Haast valley was excavated by a large Glazier trundling it's way to the coast. |
Here the river is about half a mile wide. Travelled across the Haast River bridge along one of the most exciting scenic roads ever built. |
The windingnarrow roadway eventually reaches the coast. |
Looking at across the rocks and over the Tasman Sea. |
I continued along 'The Glacier Highway' where little traffic travelled up and down the coastal route. |
At 1710 I arrived at the Hobnail Café in the centre of Fox Glacier. Here too is the helicopter office and the Alpine Centre. |
I went to find my accommodation, a beautiful house known as Reflection Lodge. After a rest and a cup of delicious coffee with my host, a conbenial gentleman, I came back into the centre where I took dinner at the Glacier Country Hotel before retiring. |
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