Fiordland -- Te Anau

((Aside, once again, I am left with no options on a computer that will not let me upload the pictures to Picasa; and no, Dan, there is no internet cafe in this little town. This means that all the rest of the picasa pictures will have to wait until i get to a real computer in Houston.))

Anyway, Monday Night 17 November, I stayed in Fiordland National Park at Cascade Creek Campground, this is north of Te Anau, and I was cold (after all the forecast was for a high of 7 C and snow). For the first time I ran the little gas heater that came with the vanette, and it worked beautifully (thank god or perhaps Grant, for that). When I woke up sure enough there is snow on the peaks, and the snow line was a few hundred feet above my camp site. It is a beautiful blue sky morning, and I took lots of pictures. I had a lazy morning since my glow worm cruise is not until the afternoon, and drove out of the Park and into Te Anau to get the camera cards cleared and put the pictures on a disk. In Te Anau, I wrote the past few entries in the blog and uploaded pictures....that was all mentioned in a previous blog entry.

As I left the park, I got many good pictures of lower fiordland without cloudy tops. This part of the park is not as dramatic as the areas further in (by the coast, eg Milford Sound), but there are still really good pictures that illustrate the verticality of the landscape. (You will eventually be able to see them on Picasa.). One place is called Mirror lakes, which are basically a few clear areas in a wetland complex right by the side of the road. I got at least one decent "mirror" picture, but there were these ducks (but they arent "ducks" they are called something else) and they were swiming in these "lakes" and diving down to eat whatever it is that they eat, and otherwise rippling the mirror effect, so.... I also saw a BIG trout, and took a picture of it, but with nothing to show scale, it just looks like a fish. Also, the tour buses arrived and disgourged their contents of endless Japanese tourists, busily snapping away pictures, so I did not stay too long.

After lunch, I went on the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves tour. If anyone comes to New Zealand, definitely DO NOT take this tour! This has to be the world's lamest tour! It is sold as a cruise on this lake to the protected island on the other side, then a small boat ride through the glow worm cave complex. It started out OK, I learned that the Lake is 60 KM long, and is the second largest lake in New Zealand and the largest on the South Island. It was created by massive glaciers that carved it out (like Milford Sound) and melting snow and rain fills the lake. The tour on the lake was pretty lame, because they drove the big boat so fast to where the glow worm cave is, that it was too cold to stay up on top and too rough for taking decent pictures of Fiordland up close on this side of the lake, which is what I wanted to do.

When we arrived at the glow worm cave area, immeditely the lot of us (there were about 60 or 70 people on this tour, mostly elderly Aussies) were swarmed by sandflies. (I got a nice bite on my neck -- still hurts, days later.) Then we were broken down into groups of 16 for the little boat, and told about the tour. We were only going to be in the very first chamber, where the glow worms are, no tour of the entire complex with its underground river and waterfalls, etc. No photos were allowed, and we were not allowed to talk for big portions of it. The entrance to the cave is about 1 meter in height, which meant that we had to stoop to get in -- great on the back, let me tell you. But that was nothing compared to the squat little bench in the small boat that we had to sit on. That truly was murder on the back. Then we got taken into the dark cave, the boat banged along the side, and we could see the little green lights of the glow worms. It reminded me of a ride at Disneyland. After all anyone can cram you onto a little boat and have tiny little green points of light on a ceiling in total darkness flick on and off. Who to say it is a little worm or electric lights on the dark ceiling?

It was interesting to know that the cave is only 12,000 years old (young for caves) and that it is layered limestone and sandstone. The glowworms spooge gobs of sticky stuff that look like droplets of water from the ceiling, and then they turn on their green glow to attract insects. As the insects are attracted to the light in the darkness, they bungle into the spit-created lines of sticky glue. Once prey is caught, the glowworms turn off their glow, and snack on their prey. The brighter the glow, the hungier they are. They eat whatever bug they catch be it moth, sandfly or whatever. They will often knock their neighbor glowworms off, or even eat their neighbor glow worms if they feel like they are being crowded. I also learned that the little buggers turn into a flying insect that looks like a mosguito, but has no poker (nor any digestive system). Their only function in this stage of their short 10 - 12 month long life is to reproduce like mad during the 48 or so hours that they are in their flying bug stage. They then die of exhaustion and starvation. But you could learn all that on the Discovery Channell, and save yourself the $60 NZ and a whole afternoon of your precious NZ vacation! (Take the Doubtful Sound cruise instead.) About the only interesting thing is that you could imagine that these flickering green lights may be the constellations you may see on an alien planet....but my imagination is good enough that I did not need to waste the day on this cruise! It was definitely the biggest disappointment of my trip to New Zealand

The best part of the whole day was walking along the lake shore line back in Te Anau. It was a glorious sunny day, and the Lake was blue and all the mountains in Fiordland were in full view (these are the same mountains that appeared from the cloud bank as I drove in on Sunday). I really liked Te Anau. It was peaceful and serene. The shoreline is all one big long park with a nice walk along it and beautiful mature trees and etc. The town is small, only about 1200 or so residents, but it obviously fills up in summertime for tourists -- most of the buildings along the shoreline (across the street from the water-side park) were hotels or backpackers (hostels).

It was one of those places that I thought that I could retire too. Of course this could be that I was there on that one awesome day, and the rest of the time it is cold and rainy, sort of like when people visit Corpus on those nice days in February when the wind isnt blowing and the bay is all still and blue, then they move there and by August they are like, "why the frack did I move here!!" Or it could be like my grandfather who was raised in Kansas ("like hell on earth: the hottest place in the summer and the coldest place in winter."), and when he reached the age of reason, he moved south. He thought that Corpus was the greatest climate ever except for those rare ice storms when he would say, "I did not move far enough south." Of course in Te Anau the scenario would mean that it would get too hot for someone? because it wasnt cold enough? (Now the lady on the tour said that it rained twice as much on the Fiordland Park side of the Lake than in town ... that might not mean a lot when it rains 4 - 8 meters a year in Fiordland! Of course, another of the tour chicks said, "oh, looks like we arent going to hit it," in a regretful way. "hit what?" i ask, and she replies "it was supposed to get to 20 C today.") So if someone wanted to live in the coldest place ever, they should just live in Gunnison (or Antartica!) and be done with it!

They also told us about how they are trying to rescue some of the indigenous birds, by taking the eggs and raising them to adolescence in captivity and then placing them on small islands in NZ that are free of the stouts and possums that eat the eggs, hoping to regenerate the species on these small islands naturally after that point.

Another great thing about Te Anau (and Wanaka), is that the far side of the Lake is all protected, (like in Wanaka, but not in Queenstown), which is super nice, because that means you are never looking across the water at somebody else's house/compound...just the natural beauty of Fiordland (in Te Anau) or Mt Aspiring Nat Park (in Wanaka).

So again, after uploading a zillion pictures and bloging, I rush out to the first DOC campsite towards the park. (It is more fun to stay in these rustic campgrounds than in the developed campervan parks -- much more like camping out, except that there is an outhouse and picnic tables, etc.) It is called Murry Creek, and is on the shore of the Lake Te Anau. Now seeing as it was so pleasant in Town on the Lake, I was surprised to find it blowing a hurricane at this campsite. The windchill was enough to make me sit inside the van for the first time and cook my little meal of instant miso soup, salad and canned Thai coconut curry with the end of the pasta.

The best thing about it blowing a hurricane outside is it kept the damn sandflies away. you know that may be the number one most undesireable feature about New Zealand as opposed to the winding, bumpy roads. I told you about the sandflies in the Monroe Beach walk post (i think), and on the still blue bird morning at Cascade Creek (this morning), I decided to stay in the van and make my breakfast, as there were about 20 of the little bastards clinging to the outside of the windows. That was a good move, for as soon as i opened one of the doors and hopped out, they all swarmed into the vanette. Before I drove away, I spent a few minutes hunting them down and killing them all. The return of Dave the mighty sandfly hunter! They are realtively easy to kill, especially when you can trap them against a window. And though it may be bad dharma to kill other living beings, I kill sandlfies and mosquitoes without any remorse, Dharma be damned!

But I do love New Zealand, and I loved Te Anau. I definitely want to visit Fiordland again, do a cruise (at least the long doubtful sound cruise) and some of the multi-day tramps in the Park here. The only thing that I dont like about it are the damn Sand FLies!!

So tomorrow (wednesday 19 November) I am off back to Queenstown to see the actual town and hang out with Peggy for a day -- getting me closer to Christchurch which I fly out of on Friday (21 November) night!! Ah the end of my New Zealand trip is in site -- boo hoo! =( !!

Until next time, Newo Out.

Lake Marian Hike

So this is still Monday 17 November...

On the drive out of Fiordland and Milford Sound, I took many pictures (sorry for the delay in uploading, but this computer wont do it...but soon ... might be later this week, or even once i get home, but the photos will come), and I stopped to take a hike up to Lake Marian. Now the expected time to do this hike is 3 - 4 hours, and I stopped at the carpark at 4:30PM. I was just going to go to the "viewing platform" which is part of the trail that is a boardwalk on the side of a stream...or river. The water is falling quickly down the steep valley it has carved, and there is a ton of water. You will be able to see plants growing on giant boulders in the stream, there is that much rainfall in Fiordland. (I think i already mentioned it, but 8 meters of rain a year falls on these mountains.) The edge of the trail is sheer in some places, covered with ferns and mosses, and dripping with water like a decorative fountain (except of course this is all natural).

I, however, was feeling like a good walk, and I saw a sign that said 1 hr 30 minutes, and assuming that was the there and back time, I went for it. So up the first really, really steep 1/2 KM or so, I saw some of the guys from my boat cruise on their way down. I asked them, "how much further?" They replied, "you are much closer to the beginning than the end," so i decided that I better haul ass, since I had to still find me a campsite, make dinner, etc., all hopefully before nightfall/twilight which lingers until 9:30PM or so in the southern hemisphere springtime.

So haul ass I did. Gone is the nice buffed out, wide trail that you have seen in pictures of Queen Charlotte Tramp, etc, replaced by a single track trail very similar to the one down from Mt. Arthur to Flora Hut. Except this one is steeper, and not as slick. It was interesting, the rocks, all covered with moss and such were not slick at all, it is the roots and the mud that is sooo slick. The tree roots are the worst. In some places, it is so steep that one step to the next is a grunt and groan and stretch to get to. I pass about 6 other people from my cruise on the way up, who are on the way down. (I had stayed in Milford for lunch, to book a glow worm cruise for tomorrow in Te Anau, and to give my camera's failing battery another good charge.)

I got to the top in less than an hour, hauling ass like I did. I feel good, my stomach muscles are pumping and my back feels ok, not 100%, but nothing like the Mt Arthur hike. Way to go Dave!

I stay at the top for about 15 minutes, snapped a few pictures, and head down. I knew that going down was going to take me longer than going up, that is just the way it is with my back. To give you an idea of how steep it was, my ears kept popping (both on the way up and on the way down, like i was on an airplane), and there were six separate times that i went backwards on all fours going down. I also caught a good bird song on the digital recorder.... It all came from one tiny little bird, that I think is the bell bird. I also caught a nice picture of the giant, indegenous Pigeon. I surprised myself with how well I felt coming down -- I kept on thinking, tall, steady, strong, as i came down, and the theme song of Superman kept playing in my mind! (Take that Wonder Wad!!) I was down at the car park before 7PM, making my round trip 2 1/2 hours!! All in all the hike to Lake Marian was an enormous success, I was very proud of myself for doing it all so well and quickly. I was pumped and feeling good as I head towards my camp site.

The first camp site, Lake Gunn, was pretty crowded so I went to the next one at the other end of the Lake and camped there. Made dinner, ate, cleaned up, and was in bed and OUT as the late dusk settled in!

Until next time,

Newo Out.

Fiordland -- Milford Sound

So approaching Te-Anau it looks like it is this rolling green countryside, the trees are starting up again, and in the distance there are clouds. Then I realize that in the clouds there are the big, steep mountains of Fiordland. I hope the pictures I took turn out, because it is a sight to behold.

I was supposed to be at Milford Sound by 7PM, but the lunch with Peggy and friends went 3 hours, so I stopped in Te Anua to make sure that they would hold my spot for the vanette. (In Nelson we had a reso, but when we got there at 9, they were like, "Oh, sorry, full up, first come first serve." That turned out pretty ok since I met Aljosha at the place we ended up. But in Milford, there is only 1 place to stay in a camper van; when you see the pictures you will understand why.)

As I approach the entrance to Fiordland National Park (part of a World Heritage Area, which means severe restrictions, limited resource extraction, etc.) it is raining, of course, (it rains 360 days a year in Milford -- 8 meters of rain yes RAIN, a year), I have entered the clouds that I saw out on the "plains," there is one little patch of sunshine, and it creates a rainbow. (I know massive run-on sentence; kinda like fiordland tho; I'll make up for it with a bunch of little sentences.) First is is a partial rainbow. Then it becomes two partial rainbows. Then it becomes a full rainbow with a second partial. If this isnt a good sign of things to come, I dont know what is! (And it is ... story to come.)

I enter the park, and I am back to rainforest beauty. More trees draped in green moss, but somehow it is different....different moss? or just more of it? So far Fiordland does not disappoint. Even tho it is raining, the views are amazing and mysterious (as the tops of the mountains are all covered in cloud). The vertical rise of these mountains is incredible. They rise hundreds, probably thousands of meters in just a few. I mean, the landscape here is nearly truly vertical. I hope the pictures turn out, and convey how truly vertical it is.

There is a sign that says I have crossed 45 degrees south (i am traveling north now, so that puts Te Anau further south than 45 degrees). As I pass Lower Hollyford I get to a OMG series of waterfalls. I had heard that when it rains here, water comes cascading off these mountains and creates a zillion waterfalls, and now I am seeing it with my own eyes!!

And the further in I go, the more extreme the landscape becomes. There are frickin waterfalls everywhere, cascading down these sheer mountain sides (I would call them cliffs, but they are covered in green -- trees and all.) The water is falling for thousands of feet often in a single fall, and I am driving down the road, leaning way over the wheel, looking up with my mouth wide open. This is the most incredible landscape I have ever seen in my life!

I pass thru Homer Tunnel, the darkest, foggiest, wettest tunnel I have ever gone through, and the other side is waterfall city. This landscape is insane. It is literally insane. On the other side of the tunnel I find the steepest, widiest, downward road EVER, in waterfall city. I am way looking forward to tomorrow's cruise of Milford Sound.

I arrive at Milford Sound Lodge, and they have closed, but the harried looking staff is still busy working behind the closed gate at reception. I tell them I have a reservation for my vanette, and they kindly and politely roll the gate back up, take my money, and tell me I am in site 16. I walk over to site 16 to find no site 16. And there are three cars already parked there. taking up all the available space (presumably for campers who are staying in 17). I just tuck myself into the side of the carpark next to the bush, make myself a dinner of instant oatmeal, re-arrange the van -- make the bed (the bedding just got thrown in in our haste to make the lunch in Queenstown) and fall asleep.

It was delightful sleeping to the sound of the falling rain, and i get a nice restful sleep alone in the van where I can stretch cornerwise over the whole bed (at last my feet dont hang off the edge! Those of you who are tall can relate to what it means regarding back pain to have feet hanging off the edge of a bed.) The rain woke me up a few times in the middle of the night. It was amazing how much rain was coming down at those times. That bodes well for the cruise as waterfalls ought to be in abundance.

I awoke to sunshine cutting through broken clouds, but it turns grey after all. I head to the cruise after a breakfast that was the same as last night's dinner. The cruise guide on the small boat/extra time cruise, confirms that yesterday's 33 millimeters of rain per hour (!) will make today's cruise extra special, even if we cant see the top of Mitre Peak (tallest mountain in the world, if you start where it does way down at the bottom of the Sound.) Most of the waterfalls I will see, he tells me, wont be here in 48 hours. Also, the wind is not blowing 100 knots like it was yesterday, so god smiles on me and my trip, again!

The Sound averages 320 meters deep, and only 300 - 400 meters across. It is 70 meters deep at its shallowest, and only 8 nautical miles long. At one point, they brought us in our 120 foot or so boat right under one of the waterfalls that was 80 meters high (not the tallest one). It is wet and cold. Of course it is raining and the wind is blowing, if not 100 knots, still a good breeze. I am wearing every layer I brought, and once again think that I shoulda brought long underwear. ...... 60 or so cruise boats (big ones, like the Love Boat) visit in the summertime, and fill up the Sound.

So in a valley by Mitre peak, there are many species that only exist in this one valley, including 3 kinds of geckos and some lizards, and others. The 8 meters of rain per year in Milford Sound makes this rainforest the fastest regenerating rainforest in the world. After all, in winter they have avalanches that come straight down, ripping the trees, that cling to the sides off, exposing bare rock. The lichen acts as a glue, however, and because of all the rainfall, the rain forest can recover quickly.

The mouth of the sound is the narrowest point, and the swells off the sea pitch the boat rather robustly. It is fun (Ange would have loved it.) Our guide tells us a story that Cptn Cook came into the Sound, and that the Mauri (sp?) the native polynesians thought that the guys rowing the boat were aliens with eyes in the backs of their heads. They came out and killed the rowers. Cook then decided this wasnt a place he wanted to stay, and left New Zealand.

One of the big falls in the pictures (so many pictures I filled up all my cards on this trip to Fiordland in 3 short days) is palisade falls. It is 112 meters high -- a 55 story building (or something like that, it is still a little hard to follow the accent of the guide over the loudspeaker). Then we come to the tallest waterfall in the Sound that falls off the smallest mountain in Milford Sound, the Lion or Mt Milford or something like that. It is 700 meters tall! The first, wide waterfall in all the pictures generated all the electricity for the "Town" of Milford Falls.

The town consists of a small fleet of crayfishers, a small fleet of tour boats, a bar/cafe, one hotel, and one lodge -- that is it, no gas, no store, nothing else. Out tour guide told us that the road (the only way in or out) closed last winter for four days and there were only two things to do: watch tv or go to the bar.

So I left Milford Sound and stopped at every possible stop to take pictures (filling up the cards) and at one of the places, just past the Homer Tunnel, there is a giant car park before a very short nature walk. Now I undoubtedly timed this with all the tour busses (most people bus in from Te Anau or Queenstown for the 1hr 45 min boat ride, and return the same day.) The car park is completely blocked by the 40 or so tour busses as Japanese tourist take pictures of the indigenous green parrots that are looking for a free handout. So I park on the side of the road (perilous given the terrain), and before I even get 5 minutes into my walk, the car park is totally empty!

So on another stop I took a longer walk to Lake Marian, but I am thru uploading pictures (thru Monroe Beach Walk -- that's Mt Arthur, Hope Saddle, West Coast, Franz and Fox Glaciers, Pancake Rocks, and the beach), and that is the real time eater (that and all this writing!) At any rate, it is coming on 8PM and I need to go get tonight's campsite and make dinner before it gets dark, (which it does at like 9:15 or so).

So until next time,

NEWO OUT

Wanaka to Queenstown

SO after a day swimming, laundering and blogging, we left Wanaka with Nick Frame and Nick Hayes both (Aussie and Kiwi Nicks) and traveled over the highest road in New Zealand to Queenstown (Codorona Pass). On the way, Nick Hayes traveled with us in the Vanette, so we had time to catch up with him on the way over. One of the things that he reminded me of was that he was at the very first birthday camping out party at the cabin/Chateau Angelique! That would've been 2001 (we thought). He also showed me a wicked splinter that is under one of his nails -- I think that made the picasa site, so that is a splinter(!) under his nail, ouch! The landscape in Queenstown is similar to Wanaka, it seems more like the western US than the other parts of New Zealand have.

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We went to a very nice restaurant at a winery just outside the town and had lunch with Peggy Preston, her mom, and some of her friends, most of whom had a Crested Butte connection: the four of us (Gen, me, Nick and Nick), Jody (Peggy's boyfriend), Karina (a Canadian with no CB connection), Dave (lived in CB in the late 90s) and his wife Vicky. There were lots of questions about Scott Carr, Kate Seeley (of course), Kochevers....Nick Hayes recounted a story about Ted pouring heavy drinks late one night at Kochevars and how he bounced off of one snow bank and then the other zig-zagging across the street trying to get back to Kate's (its a 2 block walk for you non-CBers).

Dave also remembered Blake and Anette, Angie and Scott Wallis too. Many stories were had and shared. He had a joke about women in CB (after I shared my. "the town is filled with Peter Pan's and Wendy's -- or CB where the men are boys, and the women are men"): What do you call a hot tub filled with CB women? "Gorilla's in the Mist." (Not my joke, dont kill me for re-telling it!) Peggy asked about Ruta, Mark and Erika. I got to tell her that Mark and Erika are pregnant! She Says congrats Mark and Erika! More was discussed about CB including what has changed, what is the same, etc.

The Queenstown area has about 17,000 year-round residents, so it is much larger than Wanaka at about 3,500 (which is why the Nicks like Wanaka better, I suppose). Karina, as a Canadian, said that it was relatively easy to get citizenship, although there is a process. She has a job, and her employer keeps re-newing her work visa and is sponsoring her for her full residency/citizenship. She says that because so many NZers are departing the country for greener ($) pastures, mostly to Australia, there is a need for workers in NZ. This is why there are so many worker/visa college aged (mostly europeans) here, like Aljosha in Nelson. The Nicks explained that anyone can own property here regardless of citizenship, so it seems that if you have a skill you need, are willing to work lower paying jobs, or are financially self-sufficient, New Zealand will welcome you with open arms.

Dave and Vicky want to trade houses with people around the world, and since they live in NZ they have a lot of offers. I sweetened my offer (CB alone is a big plus as he along with the Nicks all want to go back to CB) by saying my house comes with a gourmet chef, so Phil you gotta stick around and not move in with Cathy Benson!

Dave is a ski guide in the winter (i got the idea that was the bustling heli-skiing business) and had a property maintenance business in the summer called "Lawn Enforcement." Dave described how nice it was to live in New Zealand, especially in Wanaka or Queenstown (or any where on the drier side of the mountains) because the snow falls up high, but it remains nice/temperate in the valley floors. Unlike CB which has 2 seasons (covered and uncovered), they got to experience four real seasons, yet with these amazing mountains so close (not to mention the lakes, etc.) Also, apparently, January 2 is a holiday, too, so you get two days to recover from the hangover! "Kiwis are smart that way," said Karina.

So I left Queenstown in the rain, and just after Kingston (just 39 Km away, at the far end of Lake Wakatipu) it got sunny, just to show you how changeable the weather is. (Of course as i made the note in my digital recorder, it started to rain -- in the sunshine.) Gen said it would be kind of sage-brushy-ish here and it is. The countryside has turned to green grass with brown bushes (?) or are they just brown big grasses? Some of the brush here looks like mesquite -- again New Zealand shows great variety in ecosystems/weather. So I am traveling through this landscape, just short of Te Anau and it is sunny, blue bird -- hard shadows on the tour bus in front of me, but it is raining (?!) hard enough for me to have my windshield wipers on continuously. There are clouds in the sky, but nothing over head -- where is this rain coming from? Just further illustrates the point.

Until next time,

Newo Out

Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and the trip over Haast Pass to Wanaka22222

Friday the 14^th of November: So we slept very well in the peaceful and quiet Glacier Motor Home Park in Franz Josef. It is a cool grey morning, and the clouds are back, which I think makes New Zealand more interesting – that mysterious quality. We had a very slow breakfast at a restaurant that had very slow service. Over breakfast, the Breakfast show on NZ TV was on and the same news anchor who had visited Wasilla and knocked on Sarah Palin neighbor’s door, mentioned that he would have loved to hear the awkward silence at the Obama and Bush meeting at the White House. And in the bathroom at the restaurant, there was a condom vending machine that someone had written “insert baby for refund” on it. Ah NZ humour. (This AM at the very helpful Info Site – an actual building with actual people, not a web site – in Wanaka, the lady mentioned with a totally straight face that perhaps I should just swim in the lake when I said that a 50 degree pool was a little cold for swimming. That same dry, satirical humour.)

I emailed back and forth with Lynn about my return travel plans (we are only four hours behind CB time, the day before), and then we head up to the Franz Joseph Glacier. After a short walk we come to the viewing area at the glacier. You cannot get too close to it, and it is receding as one might expect (global warming and all), but there is an excellent view. I don’t know if I have ever seen a real glacier, as the last one disappeared from Colorado some time ago. It is a gorgeous sight and you will see the pictures. What I find interesting is that the glacier is not so much white, as one might expect, but rather it is blue. I have heard that about glacier’s from other people (Ivan for one), but there is something about seeing it with your own eyes. One can walk on to the Glacier, but that would have taken quite a bit of time. When I return, walking on Franz Josef will definitely be on the agenda.

The other thing I have noticed about NZ, is that we have not run into many American tourists, but there are tons of Germans (with some Swiss thrown in perhaps) and Japanese tourists. You cant go anywhere here without running into tons of Germans and Japanese.

So we leave Franz Josef and head towards Fox Glacier a bit further down the road. The road is cut into the steep hillsides, and there are steep walls along the road – cliff faces. In Colorado, these would be bare rock, but in New Zealand, along the wet west coast the almost vertical rock face is covered in green moss, and ferns. This gives the cliff face a soft appearance (and touch), and makes for a nice aesthetic: a fuzzy blanket of green.

Driving into Fox Glacier Town, it seems much larger, older (70s style houses and buildings) and less cute than Franz Josef. Franz Josef’s setting is more intimate, the valley walls are closer, and it seems much newer with modern buildings.

The Glacier, however is in a more dramatic valley and we can get closer to it than the viewing area at Franz Josef. It has a classic U shaped glacier carved valley, with one side being a tall sheer cliff. The vertical from valley floor to the top of the valley is huge. It seems like thousands a vertical feet to the top, and right above the car park is a long waterfall. Its OMG views again. The water flowing off the glacier is the first that is not clear. It is rather greenish in tint, a grey-green that also reflects the color of the rock and (surprise) the glacier itself has the same greenish hue. The air is full of helicopter noise (at both glaciers) as helicopter tours are obviously very popular.

This landscape is clearly in motion here, as there is a small almost constant rockfall from the rockpile next to a pond in the picture. No one is walking on this rockpile, but stones roll down it as if there were. Some of the pictures I took shows the clear mountain water coming from the valley side meeting the green water of the glacier.

So we left Fox Glacier and went on down the road. Just before the small town of Haast (250 souls) we took the Monroe Beach Walk. This was a spectacular walk through the western coastal rainforest to a small beach that has a fiordland crested penguin colony at the point. We aren’t allowed to get too close to them, but Gen and I did see two of the cute little fellas first coming out of the water, and then going in. I tried to get pictures of them, but they might not show up as much more than a small black dot against the rocks. These penguins are known for their long yellowish-orange eyebrows.

Speaking of rocks the rocks on the beach have some very interesting patterns on them – see the pictures.

On the way in, Gen has a picture of me hugging a truly gigantic Rimu (or is it a Rata or was it the kaharakia – there were all of these kinds, and it was not sure which of the tall trees were. There are many native varieties of tall, native trees.) It was all covered with moss, and it was very soft to the touch. (yep I’m officially a tree hugger now.) These trees are really huge, they aren’t always very tall, but some were very tall, maybe 50 maybe 75 feet, perhaps 100 feet tall, and some had many branches almost like an oak, but not quite. We also saw the Kotukutuku (a deciduous) tree with the pinkish paper like bark, which is the largest fuschia in the world. There were also Kiekie vines and ferns all throughout this forest.

On this walk we crossed a short suspension bridge over a creek. It was really fun because the whole thing sways as you walk across it. It is sort of like trying to get your sea legs under you to try and keep going. It made us laugh.

Once again we have marvel at how lucky we are with the weather. Not too hot, not too cold, not too rainy, not too sunny, although we have had all those conditions. Perhaps this is a good time to visit NZ after all – not too many tourists, and the bugs are not too bad. But speaking of bugs, there are mosquitoes and the nasty sand flies that just wont leave you alone. Sand flies are small biting black flies. They hurt pretty bad when they bite, and worse, the reaction is quite severe. At the beach I got bit quite a few times (and killed several of the little buggers), and the next morning one of the bites on the knuckle of my hand has swollen up so bad it looks like (and feels like) I have hit a wall or something with my fist – all from just one little bite from one little fly. Gen says that in February they can be especially bad, and the book says that they are going to be real bad in Milford Sound.

Back in the rainforest going back to the car, there is a peculiar musty/musky smell in the air….I couldn’t place it, that is the best I can do to describe it. Very unusual. I also took a closeup picture of the “droopy tree” which I think is the Rimu. (But I might be wrong – I will check this later) and sure enough it is a needle tree, an evergreen, (I thought it was a deciduous tree so it may not be the rimu) oh well. I really like it because it is so very unusual.

Also on the way out, there is a funny tree that had a very thin trunk with large holes or pointed arches in it. I had not seen a tree like this so I took pictures. Upon looking at it in profile, it may be that the “thin trunk” is actually a moss or some other growth on an otherwise normal tree. Again, what do I know? It was cool looking though. I also took a good soundbite of the interesting and unusual bird song, including this one bird that made popping noises. I’ll keep that on the digital voice recorder to remind me of the song. (Although the "popping noises" are too low to make out on the DVR.)

It is funny how things happen kind of randomly, we were just driving by and saw the sign by the road, and decided to stop and go look at it and it turned out to be one of the more interesting short walks we have done.

Once back in the car, there were many sand flies that followed us in. I was the mighty sandfly hunter as I mercilessly killed all seven of them with cries of “Die, sandfly die!” to Gen’s laughter.

So New Zealand does not stop. We left Haas, and crossed the very wide Haas River, and started up the pass. Before too long – minutes maybe? -- the grey sky broke into sunny blue sky and huge snow covered peaks rose from the valley precipitously. We are now in the Mt Aspiring National Park, which extends to Wanaka, more than 100 km away. I snapped a lot of pictures of many of these mountains. These mountains rise so steeply and so high from the Haas River floor (there are dramatic cascading waterfalls), that they are super impressive and are very hard to capture in one picture. I can see up up up to tree line, and then up to the tops of snow covered mountains…so incredibly beautiful.

The water in the Haas River is (of course) incredibly clear – it is in New Zealand after all. We stopped at a particularly impressive series of rapids by the side of the road and snapped pictures, I don’t know if they will actually do it justice, as Gen says, have you ever seen that color in a river? I have to admit that I have not…kind of like the aquamarine/green of a Carribean Sea.

As we move further into the interior, and gain altitude, incredibly the air temperature gets warmer and warmer. By the time we are in Wanaka, everyone is wearing shorts and t-shirts. We met up with Nick Frame there, and he said it was 26 C today in Wanaka. I figured it would be colder as we rose in altitude and traveled closer to the south pole, but the opposite is true.

About 50 KM before Wanaka, we are traveling down a relatively wide valley with jagged brand new mountains along the western side. We hit the beginning of Lake Wanaka. We stop at a rest stop that I have lost the name of forever as the POS FGDMFPOS blog has erased who knows how much of the original story and would not let me get it back (ctrl Z did not work, saving the post under a different name did not work, nothing FGDMFPOS worked and it is now gone forever), and I took pictures up the short side of the Lake. The picutres will show you decent wave action and a long amount of Lake looking up the short way from the unknown rest stop. I was trying to describe to you how big these lakes in NZ are. They are huge, many many a snow covered mountain follows it along one side. A bunch of snow falls here as well. To capture the idea of how much snow falls and how tall these mountains are, I have some remnanat of the last sentence the POSGDMF blog didn't delete into lost non-existence forever, about a "ski area there operates all year around," on the tall volcano on the North Island -- that much snow fell on that very tall mountain. (FGDMFPOS Blog!!!). (

Still before arriving at Wanaka at the opposite end of Lake Wanaka, the highway crosses over one ridge to show another of these huge lakes, Lake Hawea, just one short (but tall) ridge line separates Lake Wanaka from Lake Hawea. There are about 20 huge lakes like this in New Zealand.

As we are approaching Wanaka, New Zealand surprises again. Unlike the mountains of the north and west, the landscape here is much more like Colorado. The air is drier, the mountains don’t rise so steeply as the valley floor is higher (although they are still quite dramatic). Gone is the green drapery all over the trees and all the ferns and mosses. The trees are “regular” looking evergreens, and they are occasional, and the landscape is more grasses and brush. Obviously we are on the drier side of the Southern Alps range, even though the sea is probably not even 50 KM away as the bird flies. So the climate is now different, very much like home. Nick Frame will later tell me that it does not rain that much or snow that much here, even though it snows quite a bit in the Southern Alps and on the three small ski areas that are located here in Wanaka.

We arrive in Wanaka on the southern shore of the Lake, a very pretty town of 3500 that looks like a tourist town. The mountains make an impressive view over the big, blue Lake. We meet Nick Frame and have a great meal. Afterwards, we head out to a campground just outside of town in Albert Town and fall to sleep rather quickly.

Until Next Time

Newo Out

Wanaka

Saturday November 15, 2008

So we arrived in Wanaka last night and had dinner with Nick Frame (Aussie Nick or Evil Nick for you CBers), and he is doing well.

Last night I slept poorly in the vanette, woke up from bad nightmares of betrayal and loss, the sandfly bite on my hand made my whole arm feel all swolen. Tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't, so I got out of bed with the dawn, read some in the book, wrote a postcard and planned my remaining trip. Gen is off to Stewart Island, and I am off to Milford Sound.

Gen slept in while I was doing some planning. The wind was blowing quite strongly, and while I was letting her sleep in (that was the plan), I put on my fleece to keep warm. On my way to the outhouse for a pee, I pass another one of the campers, she is wearing a bikini! So I am in my fleece and she is wearing bikini! Go Figure.

Last night at dinner, we were sitting outside, but I got cold as the sun went down and asked to go inside to eat. Nick had to give me a little shit, "Aren't you guys from Crested Butte? Its warm out here!" But he relented to my shivering and we went inside.

Gen woke up soon thereafter, and I desperately wanted a swim, so we went into Wanaka and stopped at the isite (I explained what an i-site is in yesterday's blog). Also, we have been meaning to splurge on a nice hotel to give us a break from the vanette, and since we have decided to go separate ways tomorrow, this is the night to do it. The super helpful isite consultant tells me that the public pool would only be open late in the day tomorow, and our schedule requires us to leave Wanaka early in the day. She books us a night's stay at a nice little apartment/hotel. For $150NZ (about $85US) we have a one bedroom apartment, with a garage for the vanette, and in the garage, a washer and dryer, with two pools, one heated. I took a swim in the "heated" pool. It was chilly enough to make me SWIM! These NZers and their sense of temperature is way screwed up -- it could not have been more than 75 F in that pool!

Afterwards it was work on the blog, do laundry, unpack the vanette, and re-organize ourselves for the remaining trip.

At about 3:30 PM, Nick came by, and we went on a little tour of outer Wanaka, and he showed us the very nice house that he and Nick Hayes (Kiwi Nick or Good Nick for you CBers) had built and are marketing as a high end retreat called "Release" (www.releasenz.com). It is super nice, has amazing views, and is the place you should stay if you come to Wanaka. See the views of the lake and Mt Aspiring Mountain Range soon to be posted on the picasa site.

Later that night we went to Indian Food at a take-away spot and caught the movie at Cinema Paradiso. It is a fun little theatre for a fun little town. There are a variety of seating options, including old style theatre seats, couches, even an old vw bug (yep there inside the theatre). No two rows of seating were the same. The movie was a french film called "Paris" with Juliette Binoche in an ensemble cast of fine actors. It was a story about love and living life. A fitting end to tonight, and a good start for tomorrow.

Until next time,

Newo Out.

The West Coast of New Zealand

So today I had to deal with some travel screw ups. I decided that I was going to pull an Angie, Let me explain, Angie delayed her return to Thailand for a day, giving herself just one day in Thailand so that we could spend an extra day on Gili Meno in Indonesia. Likewise, I realized that I was running out of New Zealand time and was probably going to miss Milford Sound. So today I changed my return to New Zealand to arrive about 10 hours before I depart Thailand for the USA. Rick was not going to be in Thailand when I was returning, and Methet and the kids were leaving a day before I did, so I did not see any reason for me to be back in Thailand. So I contacted Qantas and changed my return to the 21^st giving me two extra days in New Zealand which will give me time to get to Fiordland, and to take the not to be missed boat tour of Milford Sound.

We then left Westport, a little too late to catch the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki at high tide. But we had a glorious blue bird day to see the west coast of the South Island, and that was nice. Usually, as I understand it, the west coast is very, very wet as it seems that the weather generally comes in from the west – at least the few times I have seen a radar of New Zealand, the weather was coming from the west, however, a guy at the Hope Saddle rest area, where we camped two nights ago said that the weather rolls off the sea from any direction in New Zealand.

The western slope is rugged and rocky, with beautiful rock outcroppings being pounded by the waves of the Tasman Sea. It was beautiful. We stopped a few times and took some nice pictures (eventually they will be on picasa). We got to the Pancake Rocks in the early afternoon and they were interesting. (again pictures will follow eventually) The tide was still high enough that I got some good movies of the surf spraying out the blowholes in the Rocks (although not like the postcard picture) and making rainbows in the sunshine. It was a small area and the track was a wide asphalt path. There were many tourists here, and so it had a very touristy feel to it. They had a good walking exhibit about some of the plants, including the cabbage tree and New Zealand flax, so that was interesting to read and see the example planted by the track. We finished the tour and picture taking, and did some shopping.

When the stars are out at night, I can’t make out any of the constellations, except for orion, cassiopia, and perseus, (they are all upside down, like the moon). Oh, and I have picked out the southern cross. But today at the DOC gift store at the pancake rocks I bought a star guide for the southern hemisphere. It is under the light now so as to make it glow in the dark as the stars come out later tonight. The constellations are all different so it will be fun to pick out some new ones.

Since it was 2PM, we decided to have lunch there at the café. I noticed an internet kiosk, and thought, I need to check the email (I asked Dan Jones to do some things for me today as I was having trouble with one of my credit cards), and lo and behold an email from my travel agent back home…. Thai has cancelled my flight home and rebooked me on a flight that leaves that evening from Bangkok. That means, I miss my connection to Houston, and also that there are no other flights to Houston that late from LA that I can make. So now I have to spend a night in LA and wait to go to Houston the next day! That means that I will leave New Zealand, travel for 14 hours to Bangkok, wait 22 hours in Bangkok, fly 15 hours to LA, spend the night in LA and then get to Houston the next morning… so its going to take me 4 days to get from New Zealand to Houston?! I rifle off some emails to Lynn and hope that she can work some magic so that I don’t have to spend two nights in two different cities and zig zag across the planet to get back.

Now we are way behind schedule so we race across the west coast to get here to Franz Josef, so that we can make it to Wanaka by tomorrow night to see Nick Frame. On the way we stop in Greymouth (largest city on the west coast, I think, at something like 13,000) to buy some AAA batteries for my digital voice recorder and head lamp, and we walk into a New Zealand version of a Super wal-mart. Now outside it has been warming steadily since we’ve arrived, and it is all pretty spring green and flowering, etc., and we walk into this store and they are playing Frosty the Snowman, and Jingle Bells and things like that. It is just funny to think that it is the holiday season in late spring/early summer, but it is!

The west coast ride is interesting, but from Greymouth to Ross it is the most boring landscape I have seen so far in New Zealand, that is to say, it is gorgeous and green: farms and the large variety of trees and every so often one of the numerous short, wide, crystal clear rivers that New Zealand has, but it is not as vertical as the rest of New Zealand. Every now and then a fantastic view of the Southern Alps opens up on the eastern side, but they are in the far distance, which means like the view of the Rockies from Aurora on a clear day (not very far at all)….still beautiful, but relatively boring.

Now at this point in the trip I am lying down in the back of the vanette. That is one of the beautiful things about the vanette, when my back bothers me, I can lie down in the back while Gen drives. Now the roads in New Zealand are one of the least attractive features of the country. For one they twist and turn a lot. And today that is not bothering me at all. What is killing me are the numerous compressions. The landscape is rather volatile as this is an island of mountains formed by two tectonic plates colliding as the chap at the Nelson Lakes hike explained, so the landscape is moving, and the roads are not in the best of shape. We seem to be hitting a compression about once every 300 meters or so, and it is taking its toll.

And I thought there wasn’t much to put in the blog tonight.

Then we come across something uniquely New Zealand…something you would never, ever find in the states….A one lane bridge (I’ve told you about them), but this one is also a railway bridge! So the main west coast highway becomes a one lane bridge with a train track going right down the middle of it! In front of us now, a big tour bus is on the train track waiting for the traffic coming across the bridge to clear the bridge before it and we go across this bridge. (I took pictures!)

But then the landscape changes back to New Zealand verticality, the road comes closer to the Southern Alps, and I am mister shutterbug in the car again. We don’t stop too much, because we need to get to Franz Josef tonight, and I want to get there so I can get out of the car, eat, get the blog done and get some sleep tonight!

Passing Ross we return to the steep green room of a typical New Zealand landscape – moss and ferns and huge trees covered in green drapery, steep slopes that get so much moisture that they are also covered in green. By Whaitaha it is very, very beautiful. We then pass through Harihari, which looks like a really cool little hamlet. It has a lot of flat (for New Zealand not nearly as wide as South Park or the San Luis valley– not by a long shot!), and of course it is all super green. The Southern Alps are right there, and the mountains in front of the Southern Alps are steep and covered in rain forest type vegetation – it reminds me of Hawaii, just colder.

Tonight we are staying in Franz Josef under a tall snow covered mountain on the western side of the Southern Alps near the Franz Josef glacier. This is a newer, very nice camper van park that was recently hewn out of the rainforest. It is nice, peaceful, and thankfully dry. Not many amenities – no kitchen and no internet/tv lounge, but that is ok. It beats the hell out of the crowded and rather grim Holiday Park Camping area in Westport. That had a communal kitchen with rows of two burner electric cooktops, but I had to try three to find one that worked. It had a tv room/internet kiosk room, but only lit by this one low wattage light bulb, so that I wore my headlamp as I composed last night’s blog. Here on the other hand, we have power at our site and I am standing outside the van (better than sitting in the awful chairs of the place last night, which is what crippled me today) typing away on Genevieve’s computer listening to the pleasant, but somewhat muted (compared to the northern part of the Island) birdsong in the fading twilight. We also have a lamp that puts out a good amount of light, so this is working fine. (The lesson is to not stop at campervan parks that do not rate any stars in Jason's Guide book. An invaluable and free publication available all over the South Island.)

Genevieve likes Westport, a town of about 4500 in the northern West coast of New Zealand which has an area population of 6,000. Westport is a little grim, but also has some charm. It is a coal mining town that has some counter-cultural types moving in and making it an interesting smorgasborg. Sound familiar? (Crested Butte). No wonder Genevieve likes it.

Westport is basically on the far side of Kahurangi Park and it took us a few day to get around to it from Nelson (with hikes, of course, but that gives you an idea of the size.) Kahurangi National Park covers 452,000 hectares (1,116,916 acres!) and is the second largest of New Zealand’s 14 national parks. It covers most of the northwest corner of the south island. I really liked that park, and definitely want to spend some time exploring it when I come back to New Zealand. It seems to have a lot of variety in landscapes and is home of the famous Heaphy Track – a four/five day walk.

I also thought I would put in some general observations about New Zealand tonight, like how great the apples are. Good new Zealand Macintosh and fiji apples. Also, there are lots of deer being raised on some of the farms, Gen tells me that when you order Elk or Deer in a restaurant in the US what you are really eating is New Zealand Red Deer – a cross between an Elk and a Deer. Also the walking/bike paths that occur occationally along the side of the road, are not str8. They are usually very curvey, and not because the road is curvey, it seems that it is just for aesthetics.

Anyway, that is tonight’s blog. Tune in next time for the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and the trip over Haast Pass to Wanaka.

Until then, Newo out