Day 18

Fox Glacier, drive to Punakaiki. Keith was up bright and early to go off and photograph Lake Mattheson at sunrise. It's glassy and smooth, so every bit worth the long walk through the forest to see it. Zack was up at about 7:30am so we got ourselves dressed and started packing up in time to have brekkie with Keith. We headed up the Heli-chaps around 9am, only to find that the English family who'd said they'd be joining us hadn't showed up. We had two options (they'll only fly with 3 or more passengers, and we weren't paying for Zack), to leave now or to hang around until 10am when they had 3 definites booked. Keith was rattled by this, so took a quick wander around - there are so many diff companies there doing the same thing that you can easily shop around. No luck, so we went for a cuppa coffee to kill time. Zack made friends with more visitors - an American family with 2 adopted sons who looked Somalian. I was feeling pretty sceptical about things by now... But, if anything was worth waiting for, it was this...
We were really blessed with a stunning morning - the weather all around us was grey, dark and cloudy, but in a ring around the mountaintops, it was clear blue sky. Perfect weather for flying over the glacier at close quarters, and for touching down on some pretty impressive snow. Zack was freaking out initially, and didn't like the noise, but once he could touch his earphones, and point at mine, he seemed to settle down. Before I could blink we were taking off and into the air - helicopters really are exactly like you'd imagine them to be, they just leap off the ground, unlike the trundling and heaving of light aircraft. We flew over the mountains, looking down onto tiny huts and glacier-walkers and then the enormity of the Fox Glacier. We hopped over the hill and saw a bit of Mt Cook and then around to Franz Josef, where we circled, and then landed about 200m from another 2 helicopters on the snow. Looking down, as we were touching down, I noticed that the snow was about 1 - 2 feet deep in the footprints of previous visitors. Heh, heh, we were in for a bit of fun trying to walk around. Zack was not keen on being in it at all and insisted on being carried, so we didn't go too far, or cavort in it like our fellow passengers. The pilot was very sweet tho' and hung around with us and chatted in the sunshine. Keith dashed hither and thither taking pics. We made some snowballs and threw them - all pretty solid, even on impact - and gave them a lick for Zack's benefit. His observation of "wet" was confirmed. I'd sat down in the snow when I'd lost my balance at one point and my corduroys were quite soggy by this time, as were the hems. I was pleased to get back in the heli. We flew back with some great swoops over the terrain, while I watched the pilot tapping one of the instruments because it appeared to be stuck. Ahem, not too sure about that one. Made me comment to Keith that the heli's were probably as old as the Cessna's doing these tourist hops. Remarkable scenery though - everywhere you looked. We were touching down and jumping out and running to the waiting van. Zack said, once he'd been clipped into his seatbelt, "more". LOL, wouldn't that be great?
We managed to get out of Fox before 11am and across to Franz Josef - it's an incredibly beautiful but winding road where you're surrounded on all sides by rainforest, with the enormous snow topped peaks above you. Really spectacular scenery from every angle.
In Franz Josef, we called to confirm our accommodation in Golden Bay, near to Abel Tasman. It sounds just lovely with lots of extras like a bed for Zack and some independence. Hurrah! We don't feel quite so bleak about the mess up without the camper van any more. It should be lovely up there - just a pity about the long drive from Punakaiki on New Year's Day... I guess that's the way it goes when you're trying to get around a whole country eh?
From Franz Josef to Hokatika (where we stopped for a tacky lunch) it continued to be rainforest, but then the enormous mountains started falling away until we got to Greymouth. Neither Keith nor I could understand why anyone would want to live in Greymouth - it's a nasty little industrial hub in an otherwise beautiful part of the world. It does have one redeeming feature tho' - it is home to Monteith's Brewery. Now don't faint, because you know that Keith and I are the last of the great beer-drinkers, but Monteith's is yummy stuff. So far on our journey, we've been having a nice frosty bottle of it almost every other night. We popped into their store and bought a sixpack of their "Collection" and a sixpack of Keith's favourite - Radler. Zack got a freebie bottle opener for being so charming (again).
The drive from Greymouth to Punakaiki brought us into coastal bush, and then the stunning open seashore with the ragged, toothlike rocks leading off the coastline, like the spines on the back of a giant submarine lizard. The sea was a beautiful grey green, and looked like it was washing in that slow-motion kind of way, where it looks like a soft veil. The shores are striking as they're a dark charcoal grey - rocks and sand. We'll get back to Punakaiki tomorrow, and kept going to our place of rest - Charleston. The bush changed between the two, now it's like the fynbos in the Cape (S Africa).
Late night watching crap on TV - 2 films we've already seen. We must be starved for it, tsk tsk.