New Zealand 2017 - Day 16: Franz Josef Glacier, Knights Point, Thunder Creek Falls, Blue Pools Walk, Queenstown

Friday, March 3 - Franz Josef Glacier, Knights Point, Thunder Creek Falls, Blue Pools Walk, Queenstown:


The main experience for today was hiking up to see the Franz Josef Glacier:

Well, no, we didn't actually hike UP INTO THE GLACIER, but we got close.

An other-worldly type of day - I kept expecting King Kong to appear in one of these valleys!


It is a little more than 2 km to get to the viewing area:

You hike through jungle:

until you come out into the glacier valley:


A beautiful set of waterfalls on the east side of the valley:


And there is a FABULOUS ribbon waterfall ahead in the distance:


This is as close as you are allowed to get, but you still get a sense of the greatness of the glacier, and its blue-green ice:

and heading back down the valley is very impressive and elemental:




Once again - where is KONG??:


We headed south, and I did a quick run up a trail to see the Fox Glacier, but it was so far in the distance, I couldn't get a good picture. So we headed for the coast! We stopped a a couple of places, including Knights Point:


(boy, that light sure does some funky stuff with my photos).

Then inland to Thunder Creek Falls:

I thought the Falls were pretty cool, as was the river (the Haast River):



Next was the Blue Pools Walk:





Then down to beautiful (and VERY WINDY) views of Lake Wanaka:



and nearby Lake Hawea




Going down the Cardrona pass on our way to Queenstown



Looking east at The Remarkables from our hotel:

[I WANT TO GET UP THERE!]

and south at the mountains across Lake Wakatipu:



This is the first-of-four-nights in Queenstown, and sometimes you just have to do the laundry:


A Beautiful end to a Beautiful day!


WHAT AN ADVENTURE DAY, and THANK YOU GOD for these wonderful adventures in these Beautiful Places!!

Music today - music from my big iPod:

Jethro Tull - This Was, 1969


The Waterboys - This Is The Sea, 1985


Lyrics: "Don't Bang The Drum" song:

Here we are in a fabulous place
What are you gonna dream here?
We are standing in this fabulous place
What are you gonna play here?
I know you love the high life, you love to leap around
You love to beat your chest and make your sound
But not here man - this is sacred ground
With a Power flowing through
And if know you you'll bang the drum
Like monkeys do

Here we stand on a rocky shore
Your father stood here before you
I can see his ghost explore you
I can feel the sea implore you
Not to pass on by
Not to walk on by

Counting Crows - This Desert Life, 1999

It was SOOO COOL listening to "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby" while driving over Potter's Creek! (no photo, though - there is NO PLACE TO TURN-OUT ON THESE ROADS. The blacktop is exactly 2-lanes-wide, with a white paint line at the edges, and then it is gully/cliff/mountainside.)

Bruce Hornsby & the Range - Scenes from the Southside, 1988


Donald Fagen - The Nightfly, 1982


Rod Stewart - Never A Dull Moment, 1972