Author: Scott

Day 12: Franz Joseph Glacier

Morning came much too soon for us. Our days had been so filled to the brim with fun and adventure that we hardly stayed awake until 10pm each night. Stars didn’t come out until after that, so we really splurged on time when we attempted to stargaze the night before. As always, Becca’s need for caffeine, alongside the knowledge of what awaits us that day, provided enough motivation to get up early again. 

We grabbed a quick breakfast at a local cafe before heading just a few blocks down the road to the touring office. Upon check-in, we were weighed and tagged with wristbands, then shuffled to a locker room to put on special boots and additional layers. We were each given an oddly large fanny-pack shaped bag to sling around one shoulder. In it, we were responsible for our borrowed cramp-on’s (intense metal spikes to attach to our boots once on the glacier), a hat, and whatever food or drinks we brought with us. Once properly dressed and armed with our fanny packs, we walked half a mile through a wooded area to the helicopter landing site. Our wristbands provided our seat designations based on our weights to ensure that the total weight of all passengers was evenly distributed. Within minutes, the helicopter arrived and we loaded up to fly a short 10 minutes to the glacier. 

With cramp-on’s carefully laced and tightened, and a spiked walking stick in hand, we got into single file and fearlessly followed our ice-pick wielding guide through the crevices and peaks of the Frans Joseph Glacier. Our guide always went first with his ice pick to clean up the trail ahead of us. A special team flew out to the glacier each morning to make sure that the general idea of the trail was safe and obvious before any tours started. Glaciers are constantly moving and shifting, even if it’s slowly, and all the guides are constantly on alert for signs of possible danger. Even on our tour the sun was incredibly hot and we saw the ice melting down the walls of the glacial passages. Our guide would chip away at a wall to fill in a growing crack in the trail, recreate steps on a surface, and constantly remind us to stay on the trail. While we all felt very safe on the trail with our guide, it could be dangerous and deadly fast if we were to stray.

We signed up for the 4 hour hiking tour, and we loved every minute of it. 

Part of the tour package included a ticket into the hot pools. While it was already incredibly hot outside, we did make use of our pass and spent an hour relaxing in a private hot pool.

Our day ended with a bit more driving as we continued north to Hokitika. Clothes were thrown into the wash while we got settled into our AirBNB, and then Becca taught Scott how to use a clothesline. Most of our AirBNB homes didn’t have a dryer inside, but all of them had clotheslines. We will never take our dryer for granted. 

After all of the clothes were hung, we drove a couple of miles to a highly recommended dinner place: Fat Pipi’s Pizza. We split a delicious BBQ pizza, and brought a dessert pizza home to eat while continuing to watch Lord of the Rings.

Once again, it was a marvelous day.

As always, more photos are available on our Smugmug page.

Day 11: Travel Day

We designed Day 11 to be a leisurely drive from Queenstown to St. Joseph. Not having done much research before the day arrived, we took a quick look at the maps and guidebooks and found a decent looking hiking trail midway. We left Queenstown later in the morning and stopped in Wanaka for lunch with a lake view. It would be our last time seeing the blue lakes and we wanted to soak it all up!

Following lunch, we set out for the hiking destination. The drive, as always, was beautiful. Becca fell in love with the fluffy yellow hills along the way.

Our midpoint destination was the entrance to the Blue Pools hiking trail. We saw fellow hikers in swim wear, so we packed ours into our daypacks in case we encountered a good swimming area. Aptly named, we came across crystal blue pools not long into our hike. We decided to continue hiking out a couple of miles and then turn back to swim before heading to the car. With the pools being the main attraction, we only encountered two other pairs of hikers once we were beyond the pool area. Our 4 mile round trip was a fun combination of cooly shaded forest trails and single lane tracks through the brush.

On one of the brush sections, we surprisingly came across a sleepy hedgehog! Not wanting to disturb it too much, we quickly snapped a couple of photos and left it to rest.

Being out on the trails didn’t leave much room for changing into swimwear. The Europeans had no problem changing on the beach and flashing a quick bit of skin. We were not quite as keen on that idea, so we took turns being on the look out while the other changed on a more wooded part of the trail.

The pools didn’t disappoint. Refreshing would be the mild way to describe the freezing waters. We were grateful for an incredibly quick way to cool down, but didn’t stay in too long. After re-warming to normal body temps, we took one more swim.

Around the time we were getting hungry again, we found ourselves in the tiny town of Haast. Our options included a small “cafe” inside of a grocery/convenience store, and the Hard Antler Bar & Grill. We opted for the Hard Antler. The food was okay, but the service was lovely, and we enjoyed a unique space. It was a hunter/fisherman’s palace – a good meat and pototoes kind of place with taxidermy and trophy antlers attached to nearly every surface. Scott also found some funny information signs inside:

Our AirBNB for the night was one of our favorites. We stayed in a handcrafted mini A-frame chalet. The details in the house beautifully displayed the love and craftsmanship that went into making it. We enjoyed the back patio for a bit of stargazing before bed.


This was Scott’s first attempt at nighttime long exposure photography. This photo was a 15 second exposure at 3200 ISO, F/2.8, 16mm. Most of these stars were not visible with the naked eye. It is out-of-focus but was the best one of the bunch. He’ll work on getting the focus better next time.

More photos available on Smugmug.

Days 10 and 11: Queenstown

We arrived in Queenstown on the afternoon of January 14th, and had just enough time to get the key to our AirBnB before heading to the pick up location for our next adventure – Paragliding!

We would absolutely do it again.

One of the crew from the cruise had recommended we try out a tapas restaurant called Public for dinner in Queenstown. We were not disappointed in the least. Beautifully situated on the boardwalk along the lake, we were given a lakeside table with great views. The food was equally fantastic, and we over-ordered because so many items sounded good.

After dinner, we relaxed and enjoyed the views from our AirBnB patio:

The next morning (January 15th) we drove 8 minutes into the main part of town to acquire coffee, more Mucinex, and cough drops. Both of us have had a cold for nearly the entire trip, and our sleep has suffered from coughing fits most every night. We were hilariously miserable-sounding. Once the coffee and cough drugs had been located and purchased, we meandered to a public park for a short walk to close out our time in Queenstown.

More photos available on Smugmug.

Days 9 and 10: Fjordlands and Milford Sound

After reading in one of our travel guides that the road from Te Aunu to Milford Sound was busiest with tour buses leaving between 9-10am, we decided to wake up earlier on January 13 and beat the buses instead of doing another hike in the morning. It turned out to be a rainy day and we didn’t mind driving instead. 

Just before we got into the Fjordland area, we had been discussing how we weren’t sure New Zealand could get any better. We had seen icebergs, glaciers, blue lakes, mountains, and incredible landscapes. We truly didn’t know what could top anything else we’ve seen. And then we drove into the Fjordlands in the rain. The area is known for its waterfalls, but we didn’t know that they multiplied in the rain. Everywhere we looked, we saw water cascading down the mountainsides. Despite us thinking we were missing some of the scenic views due to the rain, we wouldn’t have seen nearly as many waterfalls without it. Our photos don’t do it justice, but here’s a small snapshot of what we experienced:

Link to video on Smugmug.

The Kiwi’s have a saying in the Fjordlands, “There’s no bad weather, just wrong clothing.” We had raincoats with us, but that was about it. So we chose to admire the falls along the drive from our car. Upon arriving to the official parking lots for Milford Sound, we got our bearings and found where our overnight cruise would be departing. With a couple of hours to spare before boarding, we finished a bottle of Wet Jacket wine while watching Lord of the Rings in our car. It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon. 

The rain had finally stopped and the sun came out. Just prior to boarding the ship, we walked to a nearby creek that still had a lot of flow volume from the recent rain. Scott had just gotten a 6-stop neutral density filter, which allowed him to take a couple of long exposure shots during the day. His first two attempts at exposures of 10 seconds and 17 seconds are below:

At 4pm we boarded our ship, settled into our room, and joined our fellow passengers on the deck to take in the sights:

As dinner was being prepared, we opted for a short kayak excursion out on the sound. We enjoyed the exercise and opportunity to be out on the water in a different way. We also discovered sand flies. Imagine a friendly oversized fruit fly. They look small and harmless, but perhaps a little annoying. We didn’t think anything of it until they landed on us and instantly started biting. Sand flies are the smarter, smaller, stealthier, sneakier, and hungrier cousin of the mosquito. They hunt in packs, and will leave you wounded and itching for days. We learned of several Kiwi and Maori tales for the “why??” behind creating sand flies. One story explains that God didn’t want any visitors to linger too long and settle down in New Zealand. Another says that the sand flies are motivation for humans to keep moving and working so as to not become lazy.

We ate at a restaurant in Haast later in the trip that had this to say about sand flies:

Photos from the kayak excursion:

Following the kayak, we both jumped into the sound with a few other passengers to cool off from the rowing. The temperature rivaled Lake Superior in early spring. We were numb within minutes. Feeling very refreshed, we showered and went upstairs for dinner. Tables were arranged to have several different groups seated together for a meal. Our table mates included Millie, a Brit turned Kiwi, and her parents, Simon and Pippa, who were here visiting her for a month to celebrate their birthdays. Our dinner conversation was lovely, and we all went to a wildlife presentation before turning in for the night.

The morning brought more amazing sights as we headed out to the Tasman Sea before turning around and heading back to land at the dock. This cruise is on our list of things to do again should we return to NZ in the future.

Upon departing the boat, we hopped in our car and lazily headed towards Queenstown, stopping along the way as we wished:

Excursion links:
1) Relaxing Journeys Milford Mariner Overnight Cruise

More photos are available on Smugmug.

Day 8: Te Anau

We woke up early on January 12th, hoping to leave town fully fed and caffeinated by 8am. Our next destination would be Te Anau, and we had a 2-3 hour drive ahead of us. Our delightful AirBnB was an actual BnB that had a cold breakfast spread in the kitchen. We enjoyed some toast and muesli before heading to Ritual for coffee on our way out of town.

We’ve mostly figured out the coffee ordering now. Becca gets an iced Americano, and Scott gets a long black. Both of us are still always asked if we want milk, cream, or sugar with our order. Kiwis really like their dairy products. We’ve looked for packages iced coffee equivalents in supermarkets and petrol stations, and they all have several options for coffee flavored milk. That’s exactly how they are labeled. Coffee-Flavored Milk, Mocha-Flavored Milk, etc., and some have a small level of caffeine included on the ingredient list, but no black, unsweetened iced coffee. The best we’ve found is “Columbian Espresso with Milk,” and it’s so thick and creamy it tastes like it’s been made with whole milk or maybe even straight cream. It tastes absolutely fantastic, but it’s practically a meal in itself! 

With caffeine in hand, we started off for Te Anau. This would be one of Becca’s favorite routes to drive and enjoy – largely due to the yellow fluffy hills:

Just 45 minutes into the drive, we spotted a sign for cheese. We had to stop. This spontaneous side trip equated to an adult version of the children’s book, ‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.’ 

If you give the Klettke’s a cheese sign, they will pull over and ask to taste the cheese. Upon eating the cheese, they will need to wash their hands and ask to use the restroom. In the hallway, they’ll notice a sign for wine and feel a wee bit thirsty. They’ll ask to taste some of that, too. While tasting the wine, they might notice a nice outdoor patio area and ask to explore it. When you say yes, they’ll also see a food truck making fresh tacos, and they’ll ask to order some. While ordering taco, they’ll notice a magical picnic area and need to take some photos….

Thus, the Klettke’s ate a second breakfast consisting of tacos from Taco Medic (shout out to Logan for amazing service!), sampled (just Scott) and bought Wet Jacket wine, sampled and bought Whitestone cheese, and left a wee bit happier.

Arriving in Te Anau, we started a load of laundry, and headed out for a hike to the Kemper Gates. It ended up being an easy and fairly flat 5 or so miles round trip. The gates are actually a dam of sorts, and the bridge across leads to one of the Great Walks in the Fjordland National Park. While the walk was enjoyable, we’ll probably drive to the gates next time and then start our hike on the Great Walk trail into the woods. On the walk back into Te Anau we also discovered a bird sanctuary with many native rescue birds.

Our Vegas friends from the boat tour had strongly recommended Paradiso for dinner in Te Anau, and it was just a 10 minute walk from our AirBnB, so we went! We shared a Speight’s beer, a South Island favorite, along with meatballs and gnocchi, and a pizza. We’ve yet to regret ordering pizza. As for Paradiso, we recommend not going famished because the wait was incredibly long with their single wood fire oven. Go at 5p or 8:30p, but not in the middle.

Following dinner, we broke out our cheese and wine, and watched a bit of the Lord of the Rings before an earlier bedtime. Our plan was to wake up early, get breakfast, and drive up to Milford Sound for a hike before our overnight cruise.

More photos available on Smugmug.

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