Gillespies, Gig Tix & onwards to Franz Josef
Tuesday 29 September
A bit of a lie in š¦ then an easy morning, popping down to the beach, making plans for next year, blogging and gradually prepping Banjo for a late morning departure. The sun had risen over the Southern Alps by 8am and was busy casting long shadows down at the beach. The wild west coast was certainly living up to its name with blowing sand, crashing seas, pounding waves & sea spray almost obscuring the end of the beach.
Watching the waves was hypnotic as they folded, rolled, twisted, boomed, crashed and created myriad patterns along the beach as they hit the shore šš¤
We hadnāt walked the short track to the suction dredge remains so did that around 10ish - pretty cool! But better still were the views of Southern Alps in the distance - snowcapped under blue skies. First thing we found was the pond where the Von Schmidt Suction Dredge lived out its final days. Turned out that the sand at Gillespieās Beach was too heavily laden with weighty rocks and chunky driftwood to allow the suction dredge to function properly, so it was abandoned fairly quickly. There were huge cylindrical remains of two vast boilers which were rather photogenic - and quite a lot of other bits of rusting iron lying around.
We had to be back by 10.45 to sign in for the presale for the big WÄnaka gig next January - Seal, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Level 42 & Bastille - pretty awesome line up for people of "our age"! We logged in on three devices, watched the clock tick down to 11am and then it was all down to luckā¦ and I got lucky, making it to the top of the queue in 5 minutes and scooping up 4 tix (2 for us and 2 for the Tomkinsons š) - gonna be murder on the dance floor! ššŗššŗ
Level 42 holds a very special place in our hearts as āSomething about youā was a song Louis sent me on a tape in a Walkman tucked inside a floral bouquet when we first started dating in London in 1994! ā¤ļøš¶š Who knew that 32 years later weād be living in a caravan and travelling New Zealand together!!!
Finished packing up then took a minute to enjoy one last view of the stunning Southern Alps - then we heard & saw this flock of water fowl circling in between us and the snowy peaks - it was only on zooming into my photo that we realised they were all black swans š¦¢š¤
We hitched up after that, hit the gravel road back to civilisation, past some more amazing Fox Glacier views (better from out here than the look out up in the forest at Fox), filled up at the NPD at Fox as it was 20c cheaper per litre there than Franz Josef, and headed off on the biggest test of the new Cannon ute to date.
The Ute passed with flying colours - powering up hills with nary a blip in engine temperatures and handling curves and downhills with aplomb. No smoky brakes this time, and the ATF Temperature never moved from 75*C. With our heavy caravan and all our worldly goods, the Pajero struggled to keep AT below 100*C on big hills so we were really pleased with the upgrade.
Parked up at the NZMCA Franz Josef which was pretty quiet, and after lunch in the almost sunshine there, with a visiting chaffinch and lots of birdsong in the bush all around us š we took a wee siesta, then hopped on the bikes and cycled up to the Franz Josef glacier lookout carpark and walked out along the track to the viewpoint. The weather was pretty pish so no glacier view unfortunately.
Cycled home to Banjo and a slightly busier NZMCA, via a brief stop in at Inflite Franz and Fox Helicopters š to ask about a possible glacier flight in the morning! We booked in provisionally with my very helpful namesake Sarah, and will await further info. They need a minimum of 4 for a flight to run, and so far we were the only booking but that may change.
Dinner in Banjo - beef nachos for dinner - so good we might have them again tomorrow! Then we binge watched the finale of āThe Pittā which has been awesome. Attempted early night as we may be flying early in the morningā¦
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