After experiencing (and paying for) a guided walk on the Fox glacier the day before, we decided to enjoy the Franz Josef glacier more cheaply. In Lovely Planet, I discovered a walking track overlooking the valley that leads to Robert's Point. Since it wasn't highlighted in detail in the guide book, I thought it might not be so heavily traveled. The only problem was that I had no idea what the distance was.
It took some time to even find the poorly marked trail head and, once we did, we discovered it was 11km (5 hours) return, which was a little longer than we were planning to undertake, but we decided to do it anyway since we felt we were in need of some exercise. On this sign, there was a hand-writen note posted by someone who lost a homespun hat. We had no idea when it had been put there, but it was wet so it must have been at least a day or two.
Like many tracks, this one had not one, but two suspension bridges.
This insect looks as delicious as a leaf, but is in actuality as delicious as a moth.
Picture of Andrea on suspension bridge #282.
There were several lookouts along the track. This one had a perfect rock from which to photograph ourselves looking happy and sweaty.
After nearly 3 sweaty hours of hiking, we reached Robert's Point very very ready for lunch and, just like any mid-hike lunch, found that the amount of food we brought did not even touch the hunger we worked up. I should also mention that, since I didn't feel like taking 3 million things out of my backpack just to carry a small amount of food and a bottle of water. We ended up just carrying it all in our hands the entire way! Wouldn't recommend it. :)
This picture was taken by putting my camera on the picnic table at which we ate our abovementioned lunch.
Although this looks like a rock with scraping marks in it by some stone-carving tool, it is actually the shadow of a fern projected onto a rock the sun. My artist's mind began to work...
These leaves are those of some kind of vine. They reminded me of those leaves made of frosting on top of a cake. It was a bad thing to be thinking about when I was as hungry as I was then.
This is the treacherous stairway you must descend on the way to Robert's Point. I didn't take a picture on the way there, but decided to on the way back. The supports are drilled into the rock on the right and everything is just suspended in mid air. It was one of those situations where you shouldn't look down, but you do anyway.
This is some old, rundown emergency shelter for those who become stranded in the winter time. I also didn't feel like photographing it on my way there, but changed my mind on the way back. It had a really cool chimney made of steel paneling.
Guess what!! We found the homespun hat about 20 minutes from the top of the track. We called the owner of the hat and told him we had it, but it wasn't likely that we would end up in the same place to give it back to him. I called him when we eventually got to pancake rocks and told him we were headed north, but he was headed south. We ended up letting that wet, moldy hat stink up our car for two weeks before we realized we (both the owner of the hat and us) were ending up in Wanaka for the winter, which was an amazing coincidence. When I gave it back to him, he couldn't believe it. His mom made it for him and it meant a lot to him. It felt good to be a good Samaritan. I was thinking that fate was telling us that we had to all live in a house together, but it didn't end up happening.
It took some time to even find the poorly marked trail head and, once we did, we discovered it was 11km (5 hours) return, which was a little longer than we were planning to undertake, but we decided to do it anyway since we felt we were in need of some exercise. On this sign, there was a hand-writen note posted by someone who lost a homespun hat. We had no idea when it had been put there, but it was wet so it must have been at least a day or two.
Like many tracks, this one had not one, but two suspension bridges.
This insect looks as delicious as a leaf, but is in actuality as delicious as a moth.
Picture of Andrea on suspension bridge #282.
There were several lookouts along the track. This one had a perfect rock from which to photograph ourselves looking happy and sweaty.
After nearly 3 sweaty hours of hiking, we reached Robert's Point very very ready for lunch and, just like any mid-hike lunch, found that the amount of food we brought did not even touch the hunger we worked up. I should also mention that, since I didn't feel like taking 3 million things out of my backpack just to carry a small amount of food and a bottle of water. We ended up just carrying it all in our hands the entire way! Wouldn't recommend it. :)
This picture was taken by putting my camera on the picnic table at which we ate our abovementioned lunch.
Although this looks like a rock with scraping marks in it by some stone-carving tool, it is actually the shadow of a fern projected onto a rock the sun. My artist's mind began to work...
These leaves are those of some kind of vine. They reminded me of those leaves made of frosting on top of a cake. It was a bad thing to be thinking about when I was as hungry as I was then.
This is the treacherous stairway you must descend on the way to Robert's Point. I didn't take a picture on the way there, but decided to on the way back. The supports are drilled into the rock on the right and everything is just suspended in mid air. It was one of those situations where you shouldn't look down, but you do anyway.
This is some old, rundown emergency shelter for those who become stranded in the winter time. I also didn't feel like photographing it on my way there, but changed my mind on the way back. It had a really cool chimney made of steel paneling.
Guess what!! We found the homespun hat about 20 minutes from the top of the track. We called the owner of the hat and told him we had it, but it wasn't likely that we would end up in the same place to give it back to him. I called him when we eventually got to pancake rocks and told him we were headed north, but he was headed south. We ended up letting that wet, moldy hat stink up our car for two weeks before we realized we (both the owner of the hat and us) were ending up in Wanaka for the winter, which was an amazing coincidence. When I gave it back to him, he couldn't believe it. His mom made it for him and it meant a lot to him. It felt good to be a good Samaritan. I was thinking that fate was telling us that we had to all live in a house together, but it didn't end up happening.
No comments:
Post a Comment