Now from Tekapo the road twisted South to my first stopover point,
Twizel, which is in dam country. Dams shoring up this, that and the other
are everywhere and this is clearly mountain climbing area. Twizel is
an alpine village modelled after similiar styled European villages
and a chance to sample the local cuisine.
The next morning I tackled
the NZ telephone system which means invariably picking up a phone
card for minutes on the line, easy to use but if you only have coins
and the shops are shut , your out of luck. 'Kiwis' as New Zealanders
like to call themselves, are extremely friendly convivial hosts and a mild
curious about you without being pushy about it. In fact you'll find they
have an innane practicality about themselves ,probably due to the pioneering
spirit of the country that relied on people using whatever resources that
came to hand. There is no rat race here folks, it's wind down your lifestyle
a couple of gears but make no mistake, the Kiwis are modern, cosmopolitan
people connected to the larger world outside their shores.
Glentanner Park Centre
Gateway to 'the Grand Canyon ' of the Southern hemisphere
Glentanner Park was my next point in the journey and a chance
to do something completely different. (see pic below)
Its about 20 miles drive N of Twizel on highway 80 towards Mt. Cook
village and the 'Hermitage' hotel at the base of the mountain.
Mt. Cook is truly impressive even at 15 miles distance rising to
3,744 metres (12,168 ft.) and behind it lies the lesser peak Mt. Tasman,
named after the explorer who discovered Tasmania off Australia.
As you drive up the scenic road on your right will be the massive Lake
Pukaki, 27.2 Kms(17 miles) long and 3.2 Kms (2 miles) wide making up the Mt. Cook
basin floor. Watch out for the odd single lane bridge! That's right,
some bridges on the South Island allow only one vehicle to cross
at one time. It's interesting if two cars arrive at opposite ends
simultaneously, then its a Mexican standoff as to who is going to
go first. Normally the bridges are signposted as to who gets the right
of way.
I pull into Glentanner in the hopes of checking out the
possibility of getting a plane ride up to the mountains.There's a
nice laid back feeling to the place as the drone of Cessna engines
carry off their retinue to higher and higher ground. As I sat outside
the cafe and restaurant in the blazing 80° F heat, I
studied my limited resources and equally limited choices from a
flight brochure.
A couple of tour buses pulled up and immediately
half the Japanese population scampered into the restaurant for
a meal. I felt sorry for the young lass behind the cafe who earlier
had been lazily reading a book and was now trying to bridge the
language barrier between hope and about a dozen ham and egg sandwiches.
Suddenly I heard the familiar but distinct noise
of swiftly turning rotor blades and turned to see a chopper gracefully
lift off and bank out over the valley. Hmm, I thought, why not? So I blew my only chance of
seeing the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers on the western side of
the island for a spot on a chopper ride to land on a glacier. Well, they
called for some ballast, "that's me", I exclaimed and I took my
position next to the pilot with a video cam running (proof of that
was taking great video of the different types of gravel at my shoes
while talking to a retired English couple while waiting for a flight out) and a still
camera around my neck. We were asked to strap in, so I proceeded
to do so, never having set foot in a helicopter before. The check
man came round to examine everyone and 2 Japanese tourists
in the back started laughing when the man examined my
safety belt. Not only was I making sure I'd be safe, I was guaranteeing
it by strapping on the pilot's safety belt around one knee and my
belt around the other, parachute style. Jasus ,I didn't know if the
pilot got his licence in a lucky bag, I wasn't taking any chances. Feeling
like ' Dougal' in the Irish TV comedy 'Father Ted' I reluctantly
handed back the pilot his only lifeline and like millionaire contestants
in a particular show, I was now down to one lifeline between me and
oblivion.
The chopper took off only after we all donned headsets complete
with mouth mikes (Ciaran Haughey eat yer heart out). We all had instant
communication with each other and the pilot. It wasn't long before
we started climbing in earnest and the whole chopper frame vibrated
from the engine and rotor action. I felt like asking for the pilot's seat
belt back. We passed over the massive Hermitage hotel in Mt. Cook
village and then skirted a high ridge. I could film below my feet as
we were in a flying fishbowl. If you suffered from vertigo it was too late.
My watch ticked off the thousands of feet, 3,000... 4.... 6 and then the
pilot took a sudden right bank after riding the valley thermal uplifts
for so long. I thought for a moment we were going to hit the side
of a snow covered mountain ( sorry folks, but descriptions do no
justice to how it looks on video...one of these days). Suddenly we
were dropping down. I couldn't believe it, we were landing ON THAT!!
The pads touched down on a thin layer of ice covered deep snow.
We had landed on what I can only describe as the knife edge of a saddle,
about 100m wide , 300m long. The door swung open and
I bailed out along with everyone else onto the Richardson Glacier at 7,000 ft altitude.
Immediately I knew we had little time to take shots so I trekked in
previous footprints to get clear of our chopper and set the video
running. I managed to snap off one panoramic still photo(see below).
On either side of the saddle was a shear drop thousands
of feet to valleys below us. The lack of field of depth is astonishing
here, there's no way to indicate how far off higher peaks were and the
glare off the snow was intense. Then a second helicopter landed
and more people streamed out. It was time to leave. We lifted off
again and this time made our way closer to Mt. Cook . My watch
again ticked off the altitude, 7,000 ft,....8......9.....10......11,000ft.
I wasn't even conscious of the rarified air up there as I sat at the
back showing my watch to one of the Japanese who kept nodding
enthusiastically. It was well worth the 35 minutes or so we had. When
we finally landed back at the park centre I didn't drive the remainder
of the way to Mt. Cook village but that would be a worthwhile experience
for anyone.
