South Island Day 5: Sod Off Great Big Lump Of Ice

We'd officially entered sandfly country and for some reason stuff that sucks blood seem to like me. Mozzies, sandflies, women etc. I love Aeroguard but sometimes I get edgy about spraying myself repeatedly with chemicals that can melt plastic and strip paint so we stopped off at the local shop to get the all natural sweet almond oil/citronella oil mix they sell here in Okarito. It smells ok but shit it's greasy. I smeared it on any potential sandfly breakfast spots and headed to Franz Josef feeling like I'd fucking basted myself. You really do need some kind of repellant though, Shane tries not to use the stuff and his legs were starting to resemble a pin cushion.

Me and Shane had booked ourselves onto the half day Fox Glacier walk for tomorrow, Nat hadn't on account of the fact she's not that bothered about looking at ice but we stopped off at Franz Josef to check out a couple of the unguided walks round the glacier without getting too close.

Franz Josef Glacier

And Would Madam Like Anything Off The Death Menu?

And you really don't want to disregard the warnings and jump the rope. You're fucked really. You can have rocks fall on you, be washed away, have ice fall on you and if you're really unlucky have ice fall on you THEN get washed away while onlookers roll their eyes an tut and prehaps point at the idiot. And to be honest its a fucking huge lump of ice, you can see it from miles away, there's really no need to give in to the overwhelming urge to run over there and lick it. Uh... not that I... um... want to... nevermind...

After we'd got our oversized popsicle fix and viewed and photographed it from every possible angle we headed further down towards the township of Fox Glacier which is heaps smaller than the Franz Josef township and has less tourists. It's also home to Lake Matheson, also known as The Mirror Lake. At least it is on a windless, clear day unlike today.

Not Quite The Mirror Lake Now Is It?

We couldn't even see the mountains in the background so we stared at an eel for a while and tried to get it to eat stuff but we dont really know what eels eat so that soon bored us and we headed off to our camp for the night. You can actually camp for free next to a stream a bit further along from the main Lake Matheson carpark so we thought we'd give that a go for an afternoon of washing in the stream and playing cards.

And oh my god, I don't usually make food recommendations but if you ever end up at Fox Glacier and fancy some good nom then check out the Plateau Cafe Bar thingy and get the seafood laksa. Oh my god its like an orgasm in a bowl, its fucking incredible. I could stuff my face full of it all day and hang the weight loss program, I'm a lesbian, I'm genetically programmed to be fat anyway and if this is how I was going to do it then I'd be the happiest dyke ever.

Nomming on fish...

written by

Koala Bear on February 7, 2009 from Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Tiny Little NZ Road Trip

tagged RoadTrip, LovinIt and SouthIsland

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