I know you’re tired of reading about this thing, but you have to take one last look. It really was the highlight of the trip, getting up there. Did you notice all the waterfalls coming down the sides of the mountains? The different textures of ice? The snow capped moutaintops peeking out of the clouds? The color of the blue sky? If it had turned out to be too cloudy, and we hadn’t gone up on the chopper, I wouldn’t have ever realized what I missed. But it was so incredible, it’s one of the things I want to bring the princess back to see. It’s a must do if you can. I hear Argentina has a similar glacier, coming down into temperate climates, but that and NZ are the only two countries that do. Anyway – I’m glad Jenny’s reaction when asked if whether going up was worth it was so from the gut and positive, or I might have given it a miss.
Imogen, because she gets vertigo, Helen and Dave did. They went to Gillespies Beach instead, which Helen said was the most glittery beach she’d ever seen. The sand was apparently coarse, but she said when you picked it up it had all these glittery specks in it. Dave showed me some photos in his camera later, and they were great. Maybe he can mail me one sometime and I can post it for other NZ enthusiasts at some who might want to have a glance.
When we got down, I was starving. We were eating at the cafe attached to the Alpine Guides place, the Hobnail Cafe. They had these veggie stuffed baked potatoes – corn, carrots, sunflower seeds – and a leek soup that wasn’t served in a turreen, but was so rich that the smaller portion was sort of like getting condensed turreen sized soup. Dave and Helen bought a snack/energy bar there for dessert, which looked really good. More on those later, because I was too full afterwards to have any sweets.
At this point it was finally time to leave Fox and do yet another hilly ride. I wasn’t optimistic, as we had had a full morning roaming around on the mountain, but I was going to try…