Apr 17th: “or not to be!”

Day 14 (Day 10 in New Zealand)

Up early (again!). Full of hope (again!). This was despite the fact that at 7am the cloud was down to ground level and we couldn’t see any sign of a mountain 

We went to the heli-hike office hoping for a couple of cancellations. There were none but the receptionist said sometimes there were ‘no shows’ and it would be worth hanging around.

We did so until around 10am when a guy came in and announced, “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but all flights today are cancelled due to the low cloud. We thought it would burn off but recent rain is evaporating and creating more”.

Bum! That was my early 70th birthday present too. 

Never mind. We always knew there was a high risk of weather cancellations. Luckily, yesterday we got a confirmed booking on another flight around 2 glaciers with a landing on one of them to get photos. 

The 11am flight was cancelled but they were very hopeful the conditions were improving. 

Rather than twiddle our thumbs we jumped in the car and drove for 30 mins to a small Lake Matheson which had been recommended by one of Julie’s friends to get a great photo of Mt Cook reflected in the water.

Daily selfie! At Lake Matheson with Mount Cook poking its peak above the clouds over Julie’s left shoulder. 

Same view but without tourists spoiling it.

As you can see from the photos, we did get a tiny glimpse as the peak peeped out above the cloud and you can get an idea of the reflection though the water refused to keep perfectly still.  

Back at Franz Josef and the news was bad. Our final roll of the dice and we threw “snake eyes”. As with the other place, the cloud made flights impossible. It was time to move on.

It SO looked like our luck would be in today. 

At 2:25 we set off on the 150 mile drive along the west coast to Arthur’s Pass Village high up in the mountains. 3 hours non-stop but we needed fuel and a few provisions on the way, plus a few stops for photos.

I’ve already said it but driving here is an absolute dream. The single carriageway roads are good quality, well maintained with good signs. More importantly, they were built just for us on our trip as almost no other cars exist in this amazing country!

The final 50 miles was up hill on windy roads. Great fun, especially when huge juggernauts with double trailers are going the other way over a narrow bridge. 

Looking down from a viewpoint near Arthur’s Pass

Arrived here at 6pm. We expected this place to be very basic, almost like a backpackers hostel. Far from it. Very comfortable and equipped to a high standard. We had a microwave curry in the communal kitchen/lounge.

Back in our room (writing this) there was a racket in the lounge, which is right outside our room. I put up with it for a while but eventually had to go and ask 4 Chinese guys to turn the TV down a bit. They immediately apologised and switched it off. I wonder if British guys would have done the same.

Tomorrow we go back down the mountain and carry on up the west coast for a night at Westport. We will be leaving behind the best of these magnificent mountains.