Below you’ll find the newest edition to Backpackingmatt – Travel Videos. I’m excited at the opportunity to share my tips and experiences in video format. This will hopefully allow you to better get a feel for the destinations I travel to.
I look forward to any feedback about my first video – be it positive or negative. Please feel free to share them in the comments section below.
The first (of hopefully many) travel video takes you to the rugged, West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. I hope you enjoy Episode 1 of my Budget Travel Videos in Franz Josef, New Zealand.
Additional Franz Josef Tips
- For any glacier viewing you plan to do, start early. Clouds often come in during the early afternoon.
- Everything is extremely expensive in Franz Josef – plan accordingly. Stock up on food, drink, and petrol before you arrive.
- In the high summer season, book your accommodation well in advance as the village will fill up.
- Your cheapest option for food in Franz Josef is the fish and chips shop on the street parallel to the main road (there are only two streets, I trust you’ll find it!). It’s a fish and chips shop, internet cafe, and laundromat combo.
- The glacier is found about 5kms outside of the village. If you don’t have your own transportation, you should have good luck hitching to the glacier carpark. Otherwise, you can catch a shuttle for about $10 return.
- For good nightlife, check out the Monsoon Bar – their motto is, When it Rains, We Pour. And it rains a lot in Franz Josef. It’s a busy place especially when the Kiwi Experience bus shows up. On Wednesday nights, head up to the Blue Ice Bar for the best (and only) karaoke in Franz.
- If you want to attempt to get away from the tourist crowd, consider checking out the Haast Public Bar. It’s about 1km north of the village center and offers the only reasonably priced pint in Franz Josef. With a pool table, a juke box, and a tough, West Coast barmaid, you can have a good night out. Ask about their Riggers and you can take away two liters of beer for about $12.
- For more about the Franz Josef Glacier Guides hike, check out this post.
- For pictures from a helicopter ride over the glaciers, check out this photo essay.
Backpacking Matt 
Great video mate and some awesome tips. I wish I’d gotten over to NZ a couple of years ago when I planned too. Now its going to have to wait till I return to Australia.
Will look forward to your next video 🙂
Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it! You’ll have to share some videos on your upcoming trip to Europe.
Hey guys. Yeeeeeeeessss Videos. Good camerawork Nicole. Talented in front of AND behind camera.
I enjoyed the video but if I could suggest one thing it would be more cutaways. Presenters/talking heads are good but it gets a little boring if you are just watching someone talk all the time. If you can, film cutaways of the things you are talking about and edit this footage OVER your voice from the presenter bits to illustrate as you go. This will work really well (examples of this are the helicopter… I can hear it but I wanna see it too and when you were in the bar, I was dying to see a cutaway of the bar/food/beer taps etc.. while you were talking).
The slight exception to this is if you are actually doing something while talking, like the shots of you driving or in the plane. These worked really well.
I’m a dick eh?
Good work though. Cannie wait to see some more
Dom
It looks really great- certainly better than I could put together in a first try. Lots of useful information and WOW that glacier looks spectacular.
My only suggestion is to maybe lose the sunglasses next time? I can tell it’s super sunny there, but watching you speak and not being able to see your eyes is kind of an odd feeling.
I won’t ask about the facial hair…
@Steph I’m glad you enjoyed it! I probably could have lost the sunglasses – I’ll keep that in mind for next time. And the mustache … yeah, that’s gone. I started it as a joke but decided to keep it through the end of the summer season!
@Dom Thanks for the comments and thanks for coming over to the blog. I’ll keep in mind the ideas of cutaways – that will definitely add a lot to the editing process but also to the viewing experience. I don’t have much experience editing movies and was using an outdated version of iMovieHD, but I’m sure we can figure it out. Thanks again!
Amazing go for the first try to both you and Nicole. I can’t wait to get to experience New Zealand.
Good job with the video, Matt. For your first video it’s quite impressive. I agree with Steph about the sunglasses/mustache. I’m no videographer, but you might want to consider cutting back on some of the details in the video (put them in the post instead). Could just be my personal preference. Cheers!
darling! great video! just to add to people’s comments above, especially Keith’s; i really don’t think the video would suffer from less dialogue. the information is great but as he said the blog has plenty of space for that. the reason a video can work is because people can SEE what you’re telling them about. use the video to show things that are harder to describe with words. and the sound quality isn’t great. i’m sure you’re not recording with state of the art equipment, but as someone else said above, using voice over would be a great option and you could record somewhere with less background noise.
that being said, BRILLIANT IDEA! and well executed, especially considering it’s your first go! you’ll have loads of fun learning all the stuff you can do with editing (even with the program you have i bet there’s plenty of fun stuff you could mess around with). i don’t know anything about video editing myself, but i’ve been messing around a lot with photoshop lately and i’ve learned a huge amount just through trial and error.
love to you both xx
Nice video! That view from the helicopter is gorgeous. Love the ending too. All touring days must end with a beer. Can’t wait to see your next vid.
Great job for a first video – my sentiments were echo nicely what Steph said, so I won’t repeat 🙂
Looks great and fantastically beautiful and I hope to make it there soon!
@Suzy – Thanks … I don’t have one in the makings yet, but I’m going to be temporarily settled in beautiful Queenstown … so maybe that can be my next destination!
@Shannon – Cheers for the feedback. It is a beautiful place when the sun is out … add it to your list, but factor in a couple days to wait out the rain!
Great Vid! and WOW!!! That glacier is amazing!!! It literally is Ice meets the rainforest! That is possibly one of the coolest natural wonders ever!
Hi Sasha – Really glad you enjoyed the video. It’s absolutely fascinating. One of the cooler natural wonders I’ve seen as well!
great vid and dope site!
I am hoping that we have good weather when we are driving through this area. I really would like to get some photos from the hikes you mentioned. Great video and information. Cheers.
@NZTRIP2011 Really glad you enjoyed the video! Enjoy Franz and have a beer at the Speights Landing Bar when you get there for me! Fingers crossed the weather is good for you.