Day 21: 15km north of Franz Joseph) to Fox Glacier Lake Mapourika

So last night Biddy and Mike offered me a lift to Franz Joseph as that was my intended destination. KNowing that I had to catch up on all my blogs that day I took the 15km lift gratefully and spent the next couple of hours in a cafe in Franz Joseph before deciding to head on my way to Fox Glacier now that the weather seemed to be good.

I knew that today was going to be a day full of hills and I had been warned that that plus catching on of the glaciers would be all that I would feel like that day. Indeed with a few added extras it turned out to be a fabulous day despite the many downpours that I got caught in during the course of it.

But i digress... them there hills as one would say were certainly that and the 21km felt long and arduous with me walking a fair bit of it with the cycle since the weight of the bike and the lack of really low gears showed itself once again....struggling with a bike up those hills is not so easy....my cycle is 18 kilos and the combined tent and two panniers are another 20 or 25 at least so imagine a very heavy suitcase that you are lugging up and down hills -well I did cycle some of the way....still those 21km took me two hours to do!

Once arrived I checked out a few likely staying places - eyed up the backpackers but felt it was too indulgent even though I had stayed at two doc sites the last two nights....went down to the Holiday Park (not my favourite places) but the lady was so friendly and once she found out I was doing this cycle for CHch Women's Refuge and she was from Christchurch she insisted I stayed for free - I was really grateful for the generosity and for the thought and understanding abou the difficulties that so many are facingi in Christchurch and how hard it seems to be for people to understand that so many are still without a normal living -broken homes that they have to stay in, no decisions about their home, many lost their jobs, suicide has increase rapidly as has domestic violence -its the emotional struggles that are coming to the fore now as people have to deal with out of the ordinary circumstances.

So pitched the tent and headed around town to check out the few buildings and think about when to go to the glacier. By this time the weather started packing in and by the time I reached the very welcoming bar/cafe/saloon it was a downpour. Grateful for my tent being up and me in a place with a fire I wondered whether I had made the righ choice about camping.

Few hours later and most of the blogs and emails done and photographs moved across the sun came out and I decided after my pint of Monteiths and a crazy amount of chips that I was given (not a fan of hot chips at the best of times but cheapest thing on the menu and the beer was heaven!) I headed off to the glacier thinking of recording a song out there as a trial.

Anyway it turned out I struck this amazing cycle path all the way to the carpark which went through this magical underworld - hard to describe it and the piccies don't do it justice either but you know The Lord of the Rings aka Peter Jackson special well I was there in that magical world between the hobbits and David Bowie and his Labyrinth....I had the best time cycling through that track and with only one pannier I was as light as a feather an able to cope with the offroad cycling path -with my slick tires! I did remember though that I had still not changed my front brake pads - tomorrow's important task before heading off!

So from there it was to the glacier - I was hoping darkness wouldn't come about too soon as it was already about 6:30pm. Made it to the glacier experimenting with my camera on the way trying to take a video of me cycling once I met the unsealed road heading to the carpark.....from there its a reasonable walk to the glacier.

I had no idea whether that worked or not but it was quite a mission riding with one hand on the cycle and the other holding the camera trying to get some good shots whilst navigatingthe rocky road and the odd passing car.

Once at the carpark I locked the bike and the weather still seemed to be good so started heading to the glacier. Passed a few people and walked briskly knowing that time was not on my side. After 15 mins walk/run I made it to a spot with a good view of the tip and set up my ipad to record my firs video with me and the uke. Decided on an oldy - Laid Down and Put to Rest that I had written as part of the Ed's Bar and Grill album a couple of years ago and had a go - seemed to be ok.

Just as I finished I noticed the clouds had gathered and were threatening the relative sunny conditions with a definite desire to rain on all... packing up the gear quickly into my panier I legged it to the car park passing a couple of people who I advised to turn back because rain was coming soon.

Made it to the carpark just as the rain started and ducked into the toilet shelter with bike and all hoping it would pass.With a wee break I took off down the road but was soon greeted with a heavy downpour and hada 6km cycle back to the township in my only change of clothes that were now sodden...

Making it back to the campsite I gathered the last dry and clean bitsleft which were my thermals,a pair of shorts and my tshirt for night, stripped to my knickers and bra in the laundry whilst two french girls looked out for me and shoved everything I had into the washing machine.....phew all done..

Took to the hot showers and made some soup and toast with brie for dinner - the second pint of beer was forgotten as I set to being warm. Spent the rest of the evening sorting out gear and catching up on more blogs and adding video and planning tomorrows day.

So that's it - clothes washed and dried - tent was cold last night but I slept anyway and today the sun is back after the continuous rain last night so lets hope it stays away for a while......x