Style: January 08, 2020

62 STYLE | travel
The mountain view from Te Waonui’s lobby.
GLIMPSES OF
GRANDEUR
Gaynor Stanley slows down on the well-travelled route to Franz Josef to check
in with the primordial power of Mother Nature at Te Waonui Forest Retreat.
He had me at “a glimpse”.
I’d leapt out of bed after waking with the birds to
confirm an unexpectedly clear sky signalling through a tiny
gap in the moss-green drapes. My arrival in Franz Josef
coincided with the ‘weather bomb’ that detonated across
the country in the first week of December, and heavy rain
was forecast for the duration of my two-night stay.
Mightily surprised at this snatch of blue sky, I dialled the
front desk to ask whether there was a glacier viewpoint
I could quickly walk to before the clouds rolled in again.
Having not seen the glacier for more than 20 years, I
wasn’t going to miss the chance now. When Jason, the
man on that morning, replied he’d had “a glimpse” of it
walking to work I began throwing on clothes and was
nearly dressed before he’d even hung up the receiver.
I didn’t have to walk far. Walking into the lobby, a
stupendous mountain view greeted me through the open
front door. I was barely out of the car park when the
glacier’s intoxicating heights were revealed. If this was a
mere glimpse, I wanted a closer encounter.
Tuis sang as they flitted around the harakeke, still dewy
from the night’s downpour, as I retraced my footsteps
to arrange a plan for the day with the concierge. Then,
a distinctive ‘whapp whapp’ joined the avian choir as
the town’s helicopter operators prepared to seize the
precious weather window, fulfilling every visitor’s wish of
an immersive wilderness experience. And I was prepared
to invest the necessary big bucks to join them.