Hokitika to Haast

Tuesday 8th November
We woke to see low cloud over the mountains, not a good sign as we were booked to go on a Heli-hike up Franz Joseph Glacier and in such conditions, it was highly likely the helicopters would not fly for health & safety reasons. Still we had an 85km drive there so we hoped the weather would be better in Haast. When we arrived at the guide centre for the Heli-hike we were advised that the pilots were still deciding whether or not to fly to the glacier. Helicopters were buzzing around and we were hopeful. However, we found out that the Heli-hike went much higher than they were flying and the concern was that if they got us up there they could not guarantee being able to land again after our 2hr hike to bring us back down. After hearing this I was mightily relieved when the decision was made to cancel all the helicopter trips apart from the scenic rides which flew lower. We could have transferred to a scenic ride but thought that as we had flown over a glacier in a small plane in Canada we didn’t think it would be worth it as one glacier is much the same as another from the air and it would have invalidated our refund.

So as not to completely waste the day we took ourselves off on a walk to look at the glacier from a nearby viewpoint. It looked like a beautiful ice blue torrent of water with white tipped waves frozen as it flowed from the top of the mountain only just visible through the low cloud. We then drove onto Haaat, to find our bed for the night. It was another motel. Not too bad. Free laundry facilities which is a bonus and an opportunity to catch up on washing. It has beautiful lawned grounds with a big pond opposite our room, but the driving rain and leaden skies didn’t enhance the view at all. Dinner at the on-site bar/café the Hard Antler – bit of a bizarre name, it was a large rectangular building like a Nissan hut with the girders on view inside over which were hung loads of antlers from various deer.Read more