Wake up cliffside one day and beachside the next - that's sort of the trend we had going when it comes to freedom camping. I woke up pretty easy because I knew we were at the beach but hadn't seen it yet so I grabbed my camera and scampered outside. The makeup of the shore was smooth, gray pebbles or rocks. As told, every day brings something new in New Zealand that really takes your breath away. What did it for me today was the sight seen once I turned around on the beach to head back to the RV - you can see the mountains from the beach! I don't know why I was so blown away by this.
Back at the RV Andrew was awake and breaking out the drone so we went back to the beach for a bit to judge the waves coming in and then found a little nature trail with a bunch of old dredging equipment that started right in our parking lot. Even though we read signs, googled, and looked at pictures and old equipment, neither of us really understand what the purpose of suction dredging is - but made for some cool photos.
We were under attack by sandflies again as the sun rose higher so we retreated inside where Emily was whipping up sausage, eggs and toast before our big adventure of the day. Knowing we had a longer drive we needed to navigate back to Fox, we left with plenty of time to allow for any potential sheep crossings. Once at the Fox Glacier Guiding Tour meet up, we grabbed a few flat whites and then moved into our security briefing.
One of the cool things about the other people on our tour is that they were from EVERYWHERE. We went around the room and it was full of people from China, America, Japan, Thailand, England, Canada, Australia and Korea. We were given a briefing on helicopter safety and glacier safety and then given boots, socks, pants and jackets we could change into if we needed any gear.
We hoped on buses that took us down and around the corner to the helipad where they weighed our groups to determine which load we would be in. Emily and I got stamps on our hands that meant we were allowed to ride up front in the helicopter -- poor pilot had to deal with all of my overly excited antics. I don't think I have been in a helicopter many times in my life so this was awesome. With the boys sitting behind us along with a couple from Tokyo, we took off into the wild and headed towards the glacier. The views were incredible - such a different view point than from the ground.
We landed ON the glacier (sidebar: Everyone in New Zealand pronounced "glacier" like "Glaaay-C-er" so every time I type it I hear that pronunciation) - back to the glacier. Once off the helicopter, we met up with our guide Bex and broke into two groups. Bex gave us crampons and taught us how to put them on along with a walking pole. Our group had our 4, the two from Tokyo, a couple from England and three girls from Thailand who were HILARIOUS.
Once geared up, our tour started down the glacier path that Bex continued to "trim" with her axe. As we walked on the glacier, we stopped to look at different formations like bridges, streams and crevasses. The glacier moves and changes daily so every trip is different. We got to one stream we were able to fill up our water bottles from and it was the most refreshing water we will ever drink. We also had a ice slide we got to go down and a few ice tunnels we got to scamper through.
Scamper is putting it nicely because when you have big metal ice talons on your feet, you are doing everything possible to not stab yourself and also stay upright. Long story short, I have a few bruises from poor penguin waddling through tunnels. The trio from Thailand took the best photos ever - they never had to coordinate or talk about it they just had this instinct that any time one of them put their camera up, the other two had coordinated poses or movements to go with it. I don't know if the glacier or the girls were more entertaining.
Back into Fox we went to return our shoes and get some much needed late lunch. Bex recommended pizza across the street at Cafe Neve and she could have recommended worms and we would have eaten them. We ordered two pizzas and then while we waited for those, I entertained the man behind the counter with my detailed, meticulous decision making process at the dessert counter. He was very patient as I scanned the carrot cakes, tan bars, chocolate bars, coconut bars yet never making a decision until after we ate our pizza -- what?? a girl needs to think! While we were eating pizza suddenly all of the staff ran outside and there was a double rainbow up over the cafe - pretty cool!
Emily went and grabbed some groceries to hold us over for the last few nights and then I snuck in behind her and got some candy as well. It was around 5pm or so as we continued our trek north towards Hokitka. We had driven for about an hour or so when we briefly stopped at sunset along the Whataroa River thinking we would camp for the night. After a few minutes, we opted to continue driving further north to cut down on the drive time in the AM. So, we buckled down again and drove about another hour a camp site at Lake Mahinapua.
I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but the fridge in our RV is a haunted mess. Out of nowhere while driving it will just open throwing food everywhere. Being the engineer that I am, we learned the best way to attempt to keep it closed is to wedge a certain part of my boot under the door. (Sidenote: Emily texted me a few days after we had left and said the door finally completely fell off).
Once we arrived, it was very dark and we couldn't really tell what we were around so we just parked the RV near a few others for the night. Because it was so dark, the stars were incredible. Jason is really good with a camera so he took mine and set it up outside to show me that I could take cool pictures too! We spent probably an hour or so outside coming up with creative ways to mess with the lighting, shutter speed and all of that fancy stuff I'm saying wrong. The Milky Way shots were the coolest!
Once done playing, we went inside to look at all of the photos and then a bit exhausted from a late lunch and all day glacier hike, we ended up just eating noodles for dinner. Because they are our favorite =)
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