West Coast & Glaciers (New Zealand)

...your first taste of the west coast is not the relatively drab and developed stretch immediately south of Greymouth (only relatively, since nothing along this coast is drab or developed by European standards). North of the Grey River the country is hardly touched, and the drive takes you round rocky hillsides and parallels surf-swept beaches where the Tasman Sea pounds the shore. The main purpose of the diversion, though, is to reach Punakaiki and ...
...all the way down the west coast of New Zealand's South Island, but the odd thing about them is that few are actually on the coast. Punakaiki is an exception, the Pancake Rocks being located on a headland jutting out into the sea. A geological freak, these limestone rocks were formed in layers from the skeletons of molluscs and other sea creatures interspersed with layers of compacted mud. Millennia ago earthquakes forced the layers to the surface, ...

torr 21.04.2005 (29.09.2008) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: exceptional
Review of West Coast & Glaciers (New Zealand)

...little more tough, then the West Makutukituki valley is the place for summer and winter mountaineering. I did everything, tramping, climbing and winter skills mountaineering on New Zealands largest Glacier, the Bonar, as well as sampling some of the best New Zealand beers and nightlife0 in Wanaka and Queenstown. TREKKING/TRAMPING You have to carry your own food, we took stuff you can just heat up with boiling water over a stove: For brekkie, we ...
...to make it creamier, and make my tea and coffe taste better! Some people had small muesli packets/small cereals. For dinner time, we had packet pastas- pasta and sauce, noodles, smash, with meat free mince, and beanfeast, which cooks with hot water in a stove.(We bought trek food in the uk, as you cannot take any meat into New Zealand!) We had a huge sweety bag, which weighed the most for nearly all of us, choccy bars, cereal bars, cheewy sweets, ...

armychick 15.07.2005 · Read full review
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Review of West Coast & Glaciers (New Zealand)

...Josef is situated on the West Coast of New Zealand north of the Fox glacier and south of Greymouth. Its an easily accesible glacier with two tour guides running hikes of varying length up among the crevasses. I travelled up Highway 8 to Franz Josef in my beloved Mitsubishi, and its a stunning drove from Southland, however drivers do need to be a bit wary driving both the Haast Pass and the West Coast road. The Haast PAss can be a little treacherous, ...
...you might need on the west coast - they measure the rainfall in metres there - rather than milimetres! The company will take you up in a coach to the base of the glacier then you walk for about 1/2 an hour before you actually step foot on the ice. The 'Ice Talonz' a sepcially designed kind of crampon are fantastic and make walking on the ice really easy, and for those of you that want to feel like Ed Hilary you can carry an ice axe, which is more ...

Gevaudan 30.08.2005 · Read full review
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Review of West Coast & Glaciers (New Zealand)

We stayed in the town overnight. It was a very quiet small town. We went to the pub in the evening. The pub was very weird decorated. A four-hour glacier walking tour was arranged the next day for 20 of us. We had two guides to helped us on the way. It was quite a serious walking - I had to wear a pair of heavy shoes to stop myself slipping away on the ice. The guides had to make roads for us sometimes as there were none ahead. A girl in the team ...
...weak to make it. We had to pick her up on the way back. It was tough but we all felt very thrilling when we finially made it. All the people made it were given a certificate. It's certainly a very good tour. But you have to book in advance. ...

bunniepie 11.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of West Coast & Glaciers (New Zealand)

The first day we arrived in at the glacier we were met by low cloud and heavy snow, which meant we could not go on the heli-hike, but the next day it was a lot better weather and we set up in the helicopter. Thoroughly recommend this experience, we were flown up and around the glacier before landing on the glacier itself and then being guided around through ice caves and along snow ridges. The trip was excellent value for money and all equipment ...

petelip 18.03.2001 · Read full review
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Review of West Coast & Glaciers (New Zealand)