15/12/23 Fri: Woke up
at 7.30am and checked-out of our Airbnb. Drove towards the famous Doughbin Bakery
to get some bread for our four-hour drive towards Franz Josef. My raisin Danish
(NZD 5) was sweet but it’s a nice treat once in a while. Potato had chicken
mushroom pie (NZD 6.8) and flat white coffee (NZD 6) before we drove off.
It was gloomy when we
started the drive at 8.45am. Reached Lake Hawea lookout point and it was so cold.
Then, we saw Fantail Falls and decided to walk to the nearby shallow river. The
waters were very clear and there were some Taiwanese tourists wading across the
cold waters. One of them shared they went up the mountains to stay for one
night before coming down and the one-way trip up was four hours omg~Drove past Haast Bridge,
had a short break looking out to the sea on the west side of New Zealand before
we arrived at Franz Josef Montrose hostel (S$206.07 for two pax for two nights)
at 1.30pm. They gave us a room with private toilet nearest to the entrance. It
was basic but their sound proofing was bad.There were not too many
restaurants or eateries in this small town. We decided on SnakeBite Brewery for
lunch at 2pm. I ate the chicken nasi goreng (NZD 29.5) while he had fish and
chips (NZD 27).
It was raining 3/4 of
the day so we had to cancel all our planned outdoor hikes and headed to their
West Coast Wildlife Centre instead at 3pm. *The tickets were NZD 38 each for
a short visit... not cheap.*
They had two rare Rowi kiwis in their Nocturnal House, one was male and one was female in a
dark quiet space and no photos were allowed. We then went on to read more about
glaciers, which is what Franz Josef is known for too. *Looking back now… at
least we walked on the fake ones lol.* The weather seemed unpredictable there
too with huge amount of rainfall. Saw the Tuatara, a lizard-like creature that
was on Earth even before dinosaurs existed.
At 4.30pm, we went to 4
Square to get sandwiches and apple (NZD 7.9) before going back to rest in our
Airbnb. At 7pm, we walked over to Blue Ice Bar and Restaurant close by. It
looked like it was run by Filipinos because they had Filipino dishes.
I tried their Sisig
(NZD 25) but the pork cheek got too rich for me after a while. Potato’s
mushroom risotto (NZD 22) was not bad but too cheesy for me too. Walked out of
the restaurant and saw bright blue skies after the sky cleared up! We took a
stroll around the quaint little town albeit I thought the food choices were limited
and expensive. *Guess most people were there because of the glacier and
heli-hike experiences.*
Potato taught me a game
of Mancala at the shared dining area at 8.30pm. I won, I think? Keke~
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