In my last post, we went for a Milford Sound one day tour, drove to Queenstown and stop over for a night before proceeding to our next destination, Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier.
According to Googlemaps, it will take 4.5 hours to drive from Queenstown to our accommodation at Franz Josef Glacier town, and the time taken to drive from Fox to Franz Josef Glacier was half an hour. So our original plan was to explore Fox Glacier first as it was along the way. Then drive to Franz Josef Glacier to check in to our accommodation. But we actually took a lot more time because the drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef was simply amazing and we had to stop at many scenic points. In the end, we didn't have enough time and had to give Fox Glacier a miss. So a tip will be to cater more time for the drive. Although it only took half an hour to drive from Fox Glacier to Franz Josef Glacier, the route was very steep with lots of bends.
Below are some of the photos we took along the drive.
Lake Hawea Lookout Point
Lake Wanaka
Blue Pool (30 mins walk return from car park)
Thunder Creek Fall (5 mins walk to the waterfall from the car park)
Roaring Billy (25 mins return walk from the car park)
Haast Pass
West Coast
Bruce Bay
We had our dinner at Fat Pipi Pizza in Hokitika Town. The pizza was superb! We ordered a large half half pizza, Mariner (Fish, shrimp, mussel, smoked salmon, onion) and Portifino (shrimp, mushroom, bacon, garlic).
The Country Cottage
We have booked The Country Cottage for the night's stay, it's about 15 mins drive away from Hokitika Town. We loved this cottage a lot and the host was super friendly and nice! They live just next door. It was clean and cosy with a fire place! It was situated in the outskirts, very peaceful, quiet and serene. We could see stars at night as there's little light pollution here. We really love love love this cottage and highly recommend this! My favourite accommodation throughout my whole NZ trip.
The Country Cottage can be booked through this website!
We also encountered the first earthquake of our life here, in The Country Cottage that night. On 14 Nov 2016 at 1202am. The cottage shook a little, could see the furniture shaking and our things on the table and water moving. I was shocked and hubby told me that it was earthquake. We were lucky that it stopped after about half a minute. We felt a few smaller after shocks after that. We immediately checked the news and realised that a magnitude 7.5 earthquake just hit Kaikoura area and the surrounding, including Wellington were badly hit.
After that we kept our eyes on the news for earthquake very closely and were shocked that there were a few hundreds of after shocks within a day. We still felt very very small tremors as and when. We will be driving back to Christchurch the next day and were relieved that Christchurch was not affected by the earthquake.
On the last day, we drove back to Christchurch, passing by Arthur's Pass. It was so foggy at Arthur's Pass that visibility was low. We drove through Arthur's Pass and stopped by Castle Hill for a short walk before arriving at Christchurch.
Castle Hill
We spent the last night in Christchurch to catch our next morning's flight. Sob sob. A vacation that ended too soon.
According to Googlemaps, it will take 4.5 hours to drive from Queenstown to our accommodation at Franz Josef Glacier town, and the time taken to drive from Fox to Franz Josef Glacier was half an hour. So our original plan was to explore Fox Glacier first as it was along the way. Then drive to Franz Josef Glacier to check in to our accommodation. But we actually took a lot more time because the drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef was simply amazing and we had to stop at many scenic points. In the end, we didn't have enough time and had to give Fox Glacier a miss. So a tip will be to cater more time for the drive. Although it only took half an hour to drive from Fox Glacier to Franz Josef Glacier, the route was very steep with lots of bends.
Below are some of the photos we took along the drive.
Lake Hawea Lookout Point
Lake Wanaka
Blue Pool (30 mins walk return from car park)
Thunder Creek Fall (5 mins walk to the waterfall from the car park)
Roaring Billy (25 mins return walk from the car park)
Haast Pass
West Coast
Bruce Bay
Finally we reached Franz Josef Glacier and checked in to our accommodation, Franz Josef Montrose.
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| Complimentary soup from Franz Josef Montrose served at 8pm in the kitchen |
Dinner was at Alice May, according to Tripadvisor, it was no. 1 in Franz Josef and they were really good!
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| Pork with apple sauce |
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| Beef Cheek in red wine sauce |
Franz Josef Glacier
The track to Franz Josef Glacier to and fro took 1.5 hours. It was raining when we were there so we again had to brave the rain through the track. But this time round, the condition was better than Hooker Valley Track as there wasn't any strong winds, just some rain. So it was much more manageable. We were told that as Franz Josef Glacier's situated within the rainforest, this area rained most of the time.
While walking half way, we saw some rocks rolling down the slopes! As the rocks rolled down, there's roaring sound. I initially thought some helicopter flew past, that's until I saw the rocks rolling down.
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| An ice cave we saw along the way |
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| That's Franz Josef Glacier up there. It has retreated quite a lot. Sad :( |
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| Panoramic shot of the surrounding half way through the track |
Hokitika Gorge
After Franz Josef Glacier, we drove for about 2.5 hours to Hokitika Gorge. I love turquoise waters and Hokitika Gorge never failed me.
The Country Cottage
We have booked The Country Cottage for the night's stay, it's about 15 mins drive away from Hokitika Town. We loved this cottage a lot and the host was super friendly and nice! They live just next door. It was clean and cosy with a fire place! It was situated in the outskirts, very peaceful, quiet and serene. We could see stars at night as there's little light pollution here. We really love love love this cottage and highly recommend this! My favourite accommodation throughout my whole NZ trip.
The Country Cottage can be booked through this website!
We also encountered the first earthquake of our life here, in The Country Cottage that night. On 14 Nov 2016 at 1202am. The cottage shook a little, could see the furniture shaking and our things on the table and water moving. I was shocked and hubby told me that it was earthquake. We were lucky that it stopped after about half a minute. We felt a few smaller after shocks after that. We immediately checked the news and realised that a magnitude 7.5 earthquake just hit Kaikoura area and the surrounding, including Wellington were badly hit.
After that we kept our eyes on the news for earthquake very closely and were shocked that there were a few hundreds of after shocks within a day. We still felt very very small tremors as and when. We will be driving back to Christchurch the next day and were relieved that Christchurch was not affected by the earthquake.
On the last day, we drove back to Christchurch, passing by Arthur's Pass. It was so foggy at Arthur's Pass that visibility was low. We drove through Arthur's Pass and stopped by Castle Hill for a short walk before arriving at Christchurch.
Castle Hill
We spent the last night in Christchurch to catch our next morning's flight. Sob sob. A vacation that ended too soon.
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