The West Coast: Alpine Hikes, Glacier Hikes, Mt. Cook, and Ferocious Winds – February 2007

The West Coast: Alpine Hikes, Glacier Hikes, Mt. Cook, and Ferocious Winds
I remember being told by an Australian that New Zealand’s South Island is “God’s country.” We thought he may just be right. The scenery is spectacular and unspoilt. Very few people live on the South Island, there is little industrialization, and the kiwis are fiercely protective of their environment. The combination makes for a magnificent and well-preserved environment, overflowing with mountains, deep blue lakes and sea, turquoise rivers, and alpine fields of yellow wildflowers.

And so it was that we chose to spend most of our time on the South Island. Once Belou flew back to France, we cycled northwest from Queenstown to the West Coast, stopping along the way to do a 4-day alpine trek. We crossed waist-high rivers by foot and climbed up mountains so steep that the path petered out and we had to scratch our way up, hanging on by our nails for, what seemed to me, dear life. Snowy peaks forced us to continue quickly down the other side so as not to be caught in the coldest upper reaches of the mountains at nighttime. We slept out in our sleeping bags under the very clear star-filled sky, but managed okay because we were above the bushline and so we didn’t have the dampness of the beech forest. The wind, though cold, kept us dry. It was a spectacularly beautiful hike, but by the end, my knees were screaming for mercy.

I was excited when we reached the West Coast because, upon our first look at the ocean, we saw a pod of dolphins jumping in the surf! We passed villages that looked like real towns on our map, but turned out to have less than 100 people. Some of these people, even in the “larger” towns drove as much as 2 ½ hours to the nearest city in order to do their grocery shopping! We learned that we couldn’t trust these points on our map to be large enough to have a grocery store, and so we stocked up when we could.

The highlight of our time on the West Coast was climbing Fox Glacier, one of the world’s only glaciers that descends so close to the sea and touches rainforest (the other ones being in the next town over and in Patagonia). We took a guided tour in order to see the glacier, as it was not possible to do alone. It wasn’t nearly so physical as the other hikes we had done, seeing as how it was the guide, and not us, who cut steps in the ice with his ice-pick.

I was surprised at the appearance of the glacier. I suppose I had always pictured glaciers to be smooth, but it was instead accented by spiky peaks and pinnacles and sharp ice formations. The higher we climbed, the more blue the ice became. We were even able to walk through one blue ice cave. The most amazing part of the glacier is that it changes on a DAILY basis! The guides say that what may be there one day may not be there the next!

The West Coast is infamous for its extremely heavy rainfall and biting sandflies, but we got more than lucky, as the three weeks we spent in the area were uncharacteristically dry (we had only two days of rain, a near record). One cyclist had scared me half to death with his stories about the swarms of sandflies who bite, and although bad (the sound of their kamikaze dives into the top of our tent sounded like pelting rain), they do disappear when it’s dark, and we never resorted to peeing in our cooking pot (like he did) in order to avoid opening the tent to the attacking flies. Thank God for small favors!

From the West Coast, we headed back south in order to cycle up the central part of the South Island, which was characterized by large, open spaces with towering mountains. Towns here are so small that it’s hard just to find vegetables and fruit. The grocers are the most basic of basic, and very expensive because of their isolation. This part of the country was pretty, too, and had more of New Zealand’s famous sheep. Its defining feature was the famous Mt. Cook, the highest peak in NZ.

The great part about heading towards Mt. Cook was that we had continuous spectacular views, but without all the work that most mountains require. Usually, in order to see great views of the mountains, you have a lot of steep hills to climb. Not so with Mt. Cook. The road toward this mountain was gentle, and except for the wind, the ride wasn’t overly strenuous. We had beautiful views from our hike at the mountain and found exceptional camping spots. The mountains were reflected in the exceptionally clear blue water of Lake Pukaki and set off by the pastel-colored countryside.

The biggest difficulty was the wind, which was sometimes so strong that it pushed us at will from one side of the road to the other and sometimes knocked me right off the side of the road altogether! At 250 km/hr., the region holds New Zealand’s record for the strongest winds (in a country that is known for its strong winds). The road signs warning of the wind were no joke! It was physically very demanding and sometimes demoralizing, so I was happy when we reached Christchurch on the east coast (to see photos of the wind, look at our “photos” section!).