The Last Few Days

The Stealer of our sleep gave us a bit of a reprieve after a couple of days of crashing down the mountain. Today our mission, should we accept it, was to leave at 930am for a nice 4 hour drive to Glacier Country. We left at 933am, headed north and away we went. Of course when we came to a dirt road that read "no exit" things were not looking good. Of course, instead of heading north we should have headed south, then east and then north. Why dont we make that a 4 hour and 50 minute drive.

Away we went and stopped along the way to take some classic photos. Our mission was to get to the Fox Glacier. All of a sudden as the sun got lower, 4 hours and 50 minutes didn't look good. The good news is that we made it before dark. The bad end was that we ended up the wrong road and after a short walk to a dodgy swinging bridge we saw the glacier, and cars on the other side of the river driving closer to the glacier. Back to the car, a drive up beside the river, onto the dodgy dirt road and a 20 second walk. There it was. A giant wall of ice. Whew we made it.

We went in search of somewhere to buy some mince but after finding a shop, had to keep looking as Jeremy, master chef, did not want to buy mince that didnt look like mince. We drove past our accommodation in search of real mince. Finally we found it. We turned around and found our little cottage on a farm. We made our spagetti bolognaise and settled down for a night of tv and dvds.

Our Sleep

We were advised by the owner that they were expecting a lot of rain. Apparently there had been wind and rain warnings for the west coast, as opposed to the wind warnings that Jeremy had been giving us all day.

After a long long drive, I was stuffed and hit the bed while the others watched a dvd. The rain had started and it was coming down very hard. Some time during the night, I woke up to hear and see something like an electrical explosion. I didnt know what to make of it but it freaked me out. I half expected to see some flames and was going over evacuation details in my head. This explosion kept happening and this time Annette woke up to it as well. She went to check it out buy every time we looked, couldnt see anything. Of course this was in the middle of a torrential downpour complete with huge thunderstorm. I thought it might have been the combustion fire but Annette said it was completely out. So we spent the night sleeping with one eye open waiting for the cottage to explode.

Next day we asked the kids about it. Jeremy said he was freaked out all night, while Mr Snooze never even knew there was an enourmous thunderstorm. So we survived the night, but will never know for sure what the noises were.

The Next Day

We got up really early for a change and headed out into the rain and dark for Franz Josef. It was a short drive and we arrived and decided to do a 50 minute walk to see the glacier. We hadnt really done many walks so off we went, up hill, down hill until we found another dodby bridge similar to yesterdays. We looked over at the glacier and saw.......... fog. No glacier just fog. So we headed back to the carpark to where there was a list of other walks. We then did the 20 minute walk, up hill and down hill until we got to a lookout which showed the glacier without the fog. Another big wall of ice. We headed back to the car to prepare for our 5 Hour car trip. You do the maths. If a car leaves on a 5 hour drive at 930am, what time will you get to Christchurch. Well I did stop for petrol a couple of times and purchsased a 70s cd to keep the kids amused. We drove through the mountains and the non stop rain, over the one way bridges, around the twisty bends, past the land slides, only to arrive in a place called Greymouth where we found the local toilets, ate our lunch and decided to hit the Information Centre.

Well what did they have in the way of information? Because of the rain, the road through Arthurs Pass has been closed. The only way to Christchurch is via a detour which will take another 2 hours. Nooooo. You see reader, normally I would not have been stressed out but in our first few days in Christchurch, we found the greatest 2nd hand record/cd shop in the history of the world. We didnt know what time it closed but figured between 5 and 6pm. Are you still doing the maths? So we headed off on the detour with nothing but some cookies, some shapes and a few pieces of chocolate for the trip. Yes that right, Annette still had some chocolate from over a week ago at the factory left. So I drove, while, as usual the others prepared to sleep their way to Christchurch. Just out of Greymouth, the trip hit a slight snag. The road was flooded. No worries said the local council worker. All we had to do was follow the centre line and we shouldnt get swept out into the Tasman Sea. He was right. I drove and drove and drove, each 10 minutes trying to calculate what time I would be buying my first 20 year old record. As Annette did the Wobbly Dog in the front and the kids took their usual positions in the back, I drove through the Detour Mountains with one purpose. Please dont fall asleep. But I was pumped. I had a mission. I had $200 NZ in my wallet and I was going to spend it foolishly finding the 5 songs in history that I havent collected yet. I was doing the countdown. 300, 200, 100, 50 km to go. Then we sit Christchurch and the traffic lights. But I will tell you this dear reader, we made it to the record shop on time. I think it may have been 513pm but I just dont know. I had 10000 records to go through. We looked and looked and as the DVD/CD/Records pile got bigger and bigger, I wondered if $200 was enough. At the end, over $140 worth but the owner let us have it for $125 after hearing how we had driven all the way from the end of the earth to get there.

We headed to the hotel, dumped everything and then headed out to Jeremys new favourite Nachos Restaurant, Cyotes, found our way to Maccas for an el cheapo dessert and went back to try and pack everything. Oh and the good news. Tomorrow we have to wake up really early.

The Last Day

Woke up early, found Maccas for hotcakes, found the airport, dumped the car, got ripped off with a $100 departure tax, found a duty free DVD/CD store to spend our last money, watched some movies that we havent seen before, at the kids salads, and finally made it back home.

Oh yes, customs were laughing when they looked at the photo in Rileys passport and then looked at the hairy mass on his face

Guess what? I have to get up early tomorrow for soccer. Yay, I should be used to it.


Oh By They Way

Last year on the way back from America. I didnt do a post for the last days but as we came through customs in Sydney, Annette was asked why she had a concealed weapon in her bag. She denied everything. At one stage, jail for terrorism looked on the cards until it was discovered that the sling shot weapon, was in fact a cheese slicer.

So until our next adventure, I can say that NZ was great, I didnt put on weight and one day soon I really hope I get to sleep in.