Abel Tasman Nat'l Park - Greymouth - Franz Josef

Marahau/Abel Tasman National Park (April 5-7)

After some unfortunate weather in Tongariro National Park and Wellington, we were greeted onto the South Island with some beautiful warm sunny weather. Passing through Nelson was really nice and we felt a little bit as if we should have tried to find work there instead of Blenheim. It seemed to be much livelier and have a better vibe about it compared to the flat, quiet, agricultural town of Blenheim. Not to mention a population difference of 20,000. At the same time, we had a decent set-up in Blenheim, Adrian was able to start work right away, we had great bosses, and we were able to save up more with nothing leisurely to spend our money on!
 

We were invited into Marahau with a colourful sunset which we took pictures of before we continued on our way to Old MacDonald’s Farm. Marahau is a small town that acts as a kind of gateway into the Abel Tasman National Park, which provides great walks, sailing trips, kayaking, and swimming with seals. Arriving with the sun already down we made plans to take it easy in the evening and get charged up for tomorrow’s activities.

Beach on the way to Marahau/Abel Tasman

Cool sunset photo near Marahau

The Stray itinerary mentions that there is a wine-tasting opportunity when you pass through the Marlborough district (Blenheim and Nelson) but because we were running a bit behind schedule and there were so many of us, a few of us came up with the idea of buying a few bottles of wine and doing our own wine tasting. After working in Blenheim and visiting Gisborne, Adrian and I volunteered to purchase the wine and lead the tasting. It turned out to be a lot of fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. It was nice to take the knowledge we got from visiting the places and what I learned in previous wine training (what I got from working at the Stampede Casino) and apply it. Although I’m sure even if there wasn’t any information on the wine, it would have still been a good time sharing a few bottles with our group.

For activities the next day, we decided to take a water taxi to Anchorage Hut then walk the estimated four hours back to Marahau. It was another gorgeous day. The sun was out, no clouds in the sky, calm water. Once we got into the boat, we made a short trip to Split Apple Rock, which is, well, a big rock in the water that takes on the shape of an apple that has split in half. From there, we drove up to Torrent Bay, where there was a 45-min loop walk before we started the other walk back to Marahau. The thing is, the walk can take about four hours but there are so many side tracks that take you to beaches and coves along the way that you can really make it a full day. Actually a lot of people will start further up the coast and make the trip back a three or four day trip. It seemed like a good place to start doing longer hikes because the hikes are quite easier and there are a lot of people around if something goes wrong. 

Here they use tractors to launch boats, not trucks or SUVs

Split Apple Rock

Torrent Bay, the start of our walk back

Anchorage

Rock kiwi bird at the Watering Cove

There were such beautiful views along the way with the contrast of the golden sand against the turquoise water and bright green trees. We took some breaks at the beaches which is where we learned about how the colour of the sand came to be. It’s “golden” because of the constant grinding of the iron on the granite rocks. By the time we got back to Marahau it was 4:30pm making our walk about six hours long! A great time though and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. And it was supposed to continue to be like that for the next few days. It was very tempting to stay longer and do more walks but once again we decided to move on with the group.

Great view

Another great view

      Greymouth (April 7-8 [Easter])

From Abel Tasman National Park, we followed the coast line down along the West Coast with our destination for the day being Greymouth. Thankfully the weather stuck with us which made the views that much more striking. I knew the West Coast had the glaciers so for some reason I thought the coast would have all rocky beaches and that it would be much colder than the rest of the area. Wow, was I mistaken! Turns out the glaciers are on the outskirts of a rainforest so there is so much green vegetation, so many sandy beaches and surfing is actually a popular activity in the area even if the water is a bit colder than other places. We made some stops along the way to check out a seal colony at Tauranga Bay (only saw two seals though) and the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes in the Paparoa National Park. These pancake rocks were so different from the ones we kayaked to in Raglan. Much taller but the “pancakes” were much thinner. Unfortunately the tide wasn’t at the right level to see the blowholes in action.

Tauranga Bay

The West Coast

Pancake Rocks

More pancake rocks taking on shapes of different things

After so many stunning sights, Greymouth was a huge disappointment. It is considered the hub of the West Coast but since its gold mining days way back when there didn’t seem to be much going on there. It didn’t help that we were staying in a hostel in the downtown which seemed more like a huge concrete playground/industrial park. The hostel was painted bright purple on the outside to attract people I guess and there was an on-site bar but overall it was the worst hostel we have stayed at thus far; because of the location but more so the owner of the place and how he ran it. 

One of the fun/good things about our evening there was the Bin Bag Competition. Everyone was challenged to dress up in bin bags (garbage bags) and then strut their stuff down the “catwalk” for a chance to win a free canyon swing in Queenstown.  Adrian and I were busy doing expenses/budgeting so I didn’t get into it but some of our group made him a shirt and a hat to go as someone else’s groom.  It turned out pretty good but there were also some creative costumes. In the end, Adrian and Holly really sold it on the catwalk taking some moves from the movie “Hitch” and ended up winning the canyon swing!

Adrian and Holly, Bride & Groom

Group photo

The next day we hung out until 1pm then an afternoon trip to Franz Josef Glacier further down the coast.

Franz Josef Glacier (April 8-10)

As I mentioned earlier, the West Coast includes a huge glacier area in amongst a temperate rainforest which includes two major glaciers- Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. The Franz Josef Glacier is also known as Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere translated from Maori to “Tears of the Avalanche Girl” and named this based on a legend about a girl losing her lover who fell from the peaks with her tears flooding and freezing into the glacier. This glacier is 12km and Fox further down the road is 13km. Because these glaciers are constantly moving and there are chances of ice- and rockfalls, you legally need a guide to climb the glacier. Thanks to Stray we were able to get a good deal on a full-day trip which included free entry into the nearby hot pools afterwards.

Our full-day hike started out at 7am to get all of gear- rain jacket, rain pants, gloves, toque, fanny pack, and cramp-ons (strap on spiky shoes for climbing on the ice). We got out to the car park of the glacier around 8:30am and then there was a 40-minute walk to the face of the glacier.  After an history session/ orientation we strapped on our cramp-ons and away we went! The first half of the day was more challenging than anything. We kept going at a pretty fast steady pace with just short breaks to catch our breathe. During these breaks we would get history or fun facts about the area and glacier. The second half of the day was definitely on the more adventurous side of things, sliding through thin spaces and climbing through short tunnels. The sites were more stunning too being amongst blue ice and less traveled areas. This was rumoured to be one of the last full-day hike trips as global warming has really started to take a toll on the glacier and signs of it shrinking has become quite obvious. So knowing that made the hike that much more amazing.

On our walk to the face

Tight squeeze

Up through tunnels

And more tunnels

Unnerving crevasses

At the top (or as far as we could go)

A short break at the top

Behind these smiles is complete exhaustion

The full-day hike means an eight hour day with six hours being on the ice. It was actually quite challenging coming down the glacier, doing a number on your knees and exhaustion settling in pretty fast. I would absolutely recommend the hike, just make sure you're feeling energetic!

As you can imagine, the evening was a pretty quiet one with a bit of a celebration soak in the hot pools and a group meal of sausages and mash. Not only were we all exhausted but we would be on the road again the next morning by 7am so it was a very early night to bed.