Day 358: More Rain

At this point, we hit our northernmost point of the south island, and it was time to head back to Queenstown. We drove towards the town of Franz Josef, right at the base of the Fox Glacier.

We have struggled to time out our travel days against our hiking days against the weather. It rains a lot in NZ and it’s difficult to predict given the large valleys separating the island. We have noticed a pattern where we rest or travel and the sunny days, and accidentally plan hikes on the rainy days. Today would be no exception as the previous two days had perfect sunshine, and today was horribly wet.

We got to Franz Josef and scoped out our camping spot. Our tent isn't the most waterproof, so we took a short walk into town to grab some food and drinks at the Snakebite Brewery before setting it up.

It was still raining and Mary felt tired so we headed back to the car for a quick nap. Kieran used this time to replace his lost credit cards and drivers licenses.

Around 6:30pm, the rain stopped so we set up the tent and squeezed in a hike before it starts again. We found the Callery Gorge hike within walking distance of the campervan park.

The hike was pretty chill; great views of the gorge created by the glacial river, followed by a nice suspension bridge at the end. We ran into a friendly cat on the trail who loved being pet and eating grass (Hiking Cat)

We finished off the day with some lackluster sandwiches at the campervan park (cold bread, mozzarella, and pesto). Chatted with friendly Germans (again) at the park there was one who was very familiar with The Wire, which is always a fun conversation when we say we are from Baltimore. The kitchen at the park also came with a kitty (Camping Cat) who received several pets.

Camp: Orange Sheep Campervan Park

Spots:
Gallery GorgeEn savoir plus