Day 5 - 1 night stay in Greymouth
Journey continues... train stopped at Greymouth & i stayed here for a nite. it was raining the whole day when i was at Greymouth & the rain got even heavier when i reached Greymouth. I had to walked under the heavy rain to get to the backpacker tat was abt 15mins walk away from the railway station... when i reached the backpacker, i was jus too lazy to get out into the rain again. my sport shoes had a hole at the sole so water will sip in. without going thru all the hassle, i decided to stay put in the backpacker. haha... & i can slowly plan out my travel itinerary and plan for my remaining places.
Day 6 - Departure for Franz Josef...
there is nutting much at Greymouth. most activities r not really within distance. so is oso for me to save some money. juz tat i din buy any food so no way i can settle my dinner. thank goodness, they sell some food in backpacker. like maggi noodles, eggs, cereal and tings like tat. so for pple like me who was not in time to get the food, all these come in good use! heehee... since it was only 1 nite, nutting much i can tok abt tis place. all i did was rejuvenate myself for the nite and woke up early at 6am to prepare for departure via Magic Travellers... bye Greymouth & here i am, Franz Josef!
YHA Backpacker @ Greymouth... quite warm and cosy... 1st time i see those olden type of keys for the rooms. those steel keys for big key holes... hahaha...
me on the travel coach towards my next destination, Franz Josef...
along the way, we stopped by for short coffee break, toilet stop... here is one of them.. i like the name of tis town, Hokitita.. haha... nice name leh... yeahz~ gotten my groceries and dry food here...
another stopover @ tis small mining town, Ross...finally after abt 4 to 5 hrs travel, i reached Franz Josef. this where the Ice Glacier are located at. yeahz!!! i can go for glacier walk! woohoo~~!!! i went for a half day glacier walk as i was tinking of leaving Franz the next day for Queenstown, the happening place. together with a few roommates, we went for the half day glacier walk under the really bad weather condition. & we had many feedback tat it is gonna be worse for the next day as at the most, the only pathway leading to Queenstown is closed due to bad weather condition. & becos the weather was rather bad and gloomy, upon reaching Franz Josef, we had to rush to unload our bags in the rooms and rush to the centre to meet our glacier walk master to get our gears and get ready to set off! gosh... everything happened with 15mins... fast leh... see wat i got into...
i noe i look bloated here... but i have to be well equipped as it was really really cold up at the Glaciers... hahaha... see tat boots on my feet, they r damn heavy! & when i put on the spikes to walk on the ice, is even heavier... i can no longer feel my legs sia... gosh...
becos it was snowing so heavily, i din had the chance to bring out the camera. this is the only shot i took with my camera. i have some other photos with a gal-fren i noe along the trip. i am still waiting for the photos. heehee...after abt half an hr when we finally get to the bottom of the glacier, our masters had a call via talkie saying tat it is too dangerous to proceed on. we all have to head back. no way we can get up to the glacier. argh~~~ how can they do tis to us? when we made our way to there and we had to head back... gosh~ half day glacier walk became Eco walk... whahaha... well, act is understandable cos the glacier in NZ moves everyone few second. so it is rather unpredictable. if we had continue, something dangerous might have happened. it was reported that there r few pple who slip and fell among the batch of pple who went earlier than us and there was a master who tried to test for the route to move on, act fell into a pool of freezing ice water. gosh~ well, so is always better be safe than sorry... we muz have fun but not to the extend of endangering our safety...
Day 7 - 2nd day @ Franz Josef...
since the only route to Queenstown is closed, we had to stay put at Franz for 1 more nite. the next day, me & my roommates decided to walk around Franz. but Franz township is juz so BIG tat we can finish within 2hrs. whahaha... so wat did we do for the rest of the day? we went back to the backpacker and we took out a 1000 pieces puzzle at the common room and start to fix it. heehee... 3 of us tried to fix as many as we could. we din finish it but it was a good way to kill time. we chit chatted over dinner and did our laundry and tat was how we spent our time. hahaha... how good is tat, rite? 3 of us from 3 different countries toking abt our home country, our travel experience... fun....
YHA Backpacker @ Franz Josef... best YHA i ever stayed in. it is cosy, big, spacious, nice, clean and warm. most imptly, they have a very handsome guy as the manager of the backpacker. hahaha... okok... out of point.. overall, is really a great backpacker. highly recommended!
Franz Josef Township... juz 2 main streets... tat's how big it is wor... Day 8 - Departure for Queenstown...
rest early for the day cos next day morning at 8am, we r setting off to Queenstown... the route may remain closed so we r taking a 50-50 chance. reason being the closure was becos of bad weather and there had been accident on tat particular route. apparently a car got into accident and a girl from spore was killed. hmmm... tat set my family in spore worried too cos when i called them, they were asking abt how i was. then a travel coach act ski off the road cos it was juz too slippery. tat is how cruel mother nature can be at times... in Queenstown, it was none the better. Queenstown airport was closed and winter festival in queenstown had to be postponed to due winter being too wintery. whahaha...
tat's the travel coach i was on... Magic Travllers... there r many of such travellers' coaches in NZ. & it is very convenient. they not only bring us from places to places, they can even helped us book accommodation and activities. honestly, their drivers r great, nice and helpful. i had a great experience travelling with them. esp during the period where we r all stuck at Franz Josef due to bad weather, i tink their crisis management was good. they handled well and in particular, my coach driver, Rachel was marvellous! she is a tough lady. she can handle a bus of abt 40 of us & still cheer up our day with jokes, fun and laughter. full admiration for her! Bravo~!!!! all thanks to Magic too for making my NZ travel such a memorable and comfy one... :D
my puzzle khakis... heehee... my roomies... girl in red is Katrina from Germany. girl in black is Kanae from Japan...
some sight seeing along the way... tis beautiful waterfall... there was a small rainbow forming on it... nice view... and is FREEZING COLD!!!
roads r covered with thick layer of snow... trees and bushes by the road side r all covered with snow... i din use special effect for these photos... they juz come out as this black and white effect as the weather is juz gloomy...
another black and white effect showing the frozen river...
tis is the critical route called the Haast Pass. without passing here, we canot get to Queenstown. so we had to pass thru no matter wat. upon reaching Haast township, we had report tat the pass was opened! woohoo~!!! so slowly, Rachel drove thru the curvy route. trying to maintain the bus in balance and not ski off the road. we saw the bus tat ski off the road along our way. pple r trying to get it out from the thick layer of ice by the road side. whahaha... wat a scene... 
hip! hip! hurray! we passed by Haast Pass which means we r safe! we can head all way to Queenstown... and tis is oso when mother nature start to smile at us too. giving us some sunshine under tat extremely cold weather. is really FREEZING cold even with sun shining on us so can u imagine if is without the sun? now tat sun r shining on us, i shall capture some lovely scene of snow mountains... ample of them in NZ ah...
the sun, the mountain, the lake, the land... juz how lovely nature can be... r u a scenary person? if u r, NZ suits u... i am quite a scenary person. i get excited by extremely lovely landscape. those splendid and picturesque landscape which r beyond my description r really wat i love & i found my love in NZ...
upon reaching here, we r juz 1 hr drive away from Queenstown main town area. here is Lake Wanaka. a very lovely lake... really peaceful and beautiful but if u ask me stay long, i tink i might get bored ah. haha.. i admit i am a city person so for travel, i go for landscape but for long stay, can i dun go for tat?
a whole day coach ride... so by the time we reached Wanaka, is close to sunset... lovely sunset view from here... can compared to Byron's sunrise view..
tis shld be called "晚霞" ah... nice nice... glimpse of light before the sun really set down...
so with all the hassle along the route with route closure, we r finally at Queenstown by abt 8pm at nite. It was too dark for me to continue my day. so after checking into my backpacker, i rest for the day to prepare for a week of happening activities in Queenstown! woohoo~!!!
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