In praise of tourists
Date: 7 March 2024
During daylight hours, Franz Josef is beset with a constant whap whap whap of helicopters vacuuming up the tourist dollars, ironically burning fossil fuel to showcase the effect of climate change on our ever-shrinking glaciers. However, it’s the lifeblood of the town and I love how the tourists are concentrated here, and in other hotspots, leaving the rest of the country untouched.
Most of them drive here the way they drive at home, and it was noticeable to us on the three steep hills between Franz and Fox how most of the following traffic behaved; for example, delaying overtaking until we were around a blind corner and had somewhere to pull over. No self-respecting Kiwi driver would do that, so we assume they are foreigners – very welcome foreigners.
From Fox it’s mostly gently downhill to Bruce Bay, where we are sheltering from this evening’s rain in the Pine Grove Motel, a throwback to simpler times – retro without trying to be. We like it.
Supplies: Fox Shop
Accommodation: Pine Grove Motel
These videos are best viewed on a computer screen. Turning your phone sideways helps.
Max elevation: 422 m
Min elevation: 11 m
Total climbing: 859 m
Total descent: -975 m
Total time: 04:37:26
Battery use: 71% | 445 Wh. Big day tomorrow, so making it easier today,
Hey Steve, nice to follow your progress. It seems like your days become bigger the further south you get, just like ours did. Just a little advice, by all means try to avoid staying at Lake Paringa. It’s not just the sandflies, we had an absolutely awful experience at that place.
It was great meeting you, we are now back in Auckland with our flight going on Tuesday.
I read your blog about Paringa and their 2 day minimum so we decided to stay at the motel before Bruce bay. It’s hard to believe that we only have about 6 or 7 days biking to go.
It was great meeting you all, and give Karl a big hug from ne.
Safe travels
Steve