Crossing a Mountain

I'm not sure if I've adequately explained that NZ is one of THE places in the world to do hikes. Here they call them 'tramps' and trails are called 'tracks'. There are several 'Great Walks' of the world here and one that makes the top 10 list of must do walks is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, residing in the heart of the Tongariro National Park. You basically take the whole day (average is anywhere between 6 to 8 hours), crossing over Mt Tongariro - an active volcano with many cones, the most famous of which is called Mt Ngauruhoe. This cone can be climbed as a side trip (adding about 2 hrs to the crossing - so if doing it you must hustle it on the rest of the tramp in order to make the last bus pick up on the other side at 4:30 PM), and is famously (or perhaps infamously) known at Mount Doom (see Lord of the Rings or read the books if you aren't aware of this). I had a hard time finding an accurate reference to the exact total ascent, but it looks like it's somewhere between 1000 and 1100 m, and the total distance covered is 19.4 km according to the DOC website. So, now that I've given you the background on the tramp, I'll take you through my experience of actually doing it. And I should also point out that I am not a seasoned tramper to say the least, and in actual fact doing a lot of walking can be quite painful for me as I have a really bad knee and I find my legs often really stiff from all the cycling. Let's just say I only did this tramp because it's so famous and supposed to be amazing from a scenery standpoint.

We arrived in Turangi, a town not far from the National Park and stayed overnight Friday at a nice backpackers there. The weather forecast for Saturday was looking so-so, but the worst of it they said would be showers that would be easing up and we figured we'd take a chance since often they are wrong about the weather here and even so - the worst would be some light showers right? Might as well. Saturday worked out better for us time-wise anyway - who wants to do a 6-8 hour tramp and then drive 3.5 hrs back home afterward? So we booked a shuttle for 7:30 AM the next morning to take us to the start of the track (and would pick us up on the other side in the afternoon, with two times to choose from: 3 PM or 4:30 PM). The next morning the weather seemed ok. As we got nearer the mountain though, the rain was kicking in. We all had reasonably good clothing on to do a tramp in showers - mostly layers of quick dry clothes (thank you Icebreaker!), tuques, gloves, proper tramping shoes or boots, etc.

Here we are at the Mangatepopo carpark at the start of the track (well 4 of the 6 of us):


The first part of the tramp from the carpark to Soda Springs is fairly flat, a little bit of climbing up and down lava rocks and stuff, but not too bad. It was misty but not too cold or windy and not raining too hard. This took about an hour I guess.

Here is a photo of Mangatepopo stream on the way to Soda Springs:


After Soda Springs you walk a bit further on til you get to a climb called the devils staircase - climbing about 200 m in an hour's time. It was fairly hard and here I got stuck behind a slower group of people (I should mention that there were HEAPS of people on the track, even though the weather was crap - I can't imagine how busy it would be on a really nice day). I decided not to try to pass and just go at the slower pace as it worked better for me anyway but as a result I got separated from my group and they ended up waiting at the top for me for at least 20 mins, maybe half an hour and at the top it was brutal weather-wise. As I climbed these steps carved into the volcanic rock the rain got worse and worse and the wind was picking up. When I met up with my group at the top I was soaked through. My quick drying pants, which had been drying and re-wetting off and on earlier were now sticking to my legs and I'd stopped part-way up the devil's staircase to put on my 'emergency poncho' which I was so glad to have brought since, even though I was wet all the way through, that thing stopped the wind from chilling me and I was still warm inside! Climbing up the side of a mountain doesn't hurt to keep you warm either. At the top of the climb there is a junction at the south crater - although with all the cloud and rain I wouldn't have known it but for the signpost. Here you can choose (on a nice day when it's worth it) to climb Mt Ngauruhoe. Apparently from the top there you can see out the valley and to all the mountains in that range. Would have been nice. But it wasn't meant to be for us that day. So we trudged on.

After leaving the junction we walked on the flat for a little bit - maybe 20 mins at the most in my mind - until we reached the hardest climb (at least I thought it was) to the red crater. This climb was on loose rock and sheer rock face on a ridge and it was steep. There were points where I had to grab onto the rock or others around me for support so I wouldn't fall off the side of the cliff and the wind was pelting me with rain from the side like mad. I was soaking wet. I couldn't get more wet than that. I turned to one of my friends, Bernie, and announced to him that I thought that "This Sucks!!". Indeed. It did. We took a chance and unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. So, after climbing this relatively precarious ascent we had to descend a very steep section of what is called scoria. It's like scree - very, very loose. So you have to just let yourself slide down taking care with your footing as there are larger rocks in there as well and you don't want to topple down the side, or else you'd end up landing in one of the Emerald Lakes. It smells very strongly of sulphur here and we did get to see a small semblance of a view. The rain started to ease up a tiny bit on us and it was far less windy on this side of the mountain (we are about to start descending now, having been up as high as the track goes on the main crossing). Here I am at Blue Lake (I think this is Blue Lake) looking happier than I actually am, primarily because Bernie and Simon were telling fart jokes and were kind enough to fix my hair for the photo op. (BTW, I have fewer photos than usual of this trek because of the bad weather - bummer) And yes, I am aware of how dumb I look, but hey - I was warm. Not dry, but warm.
The descent continues from Blue Lake to the Ketetahi Hut. People can book to stay in the hut I think, if they choose to do tramping around the area (??). At any rate, there are some toilet/outhouse type things to take a pit stop. Our arrival at the hut marked my the first break from walking - about 3.5 hours in. I'm not joking - I did not stop walking except to let Bernie help put his waterproof pants on me at the top of the devil's staircase. Here we stopped for maybe 15-20 mins and ate. I'd been eating off and on, little bits of PB&J sammies while I walked. Here I dug into my trail mix with Mini Eggs added in for good measure (and extra sugar!).

Here is a view of the valley below and Lake Taupo in the background, on our way to the Ketetahi Hut.

After the hut is a 2 hour descent. I didn't relish descending red crater to the Emerald Lakes in the very steep and loose scoria, but I wished that I had two hours of descending that once I started this one. This descent hurt my knee a lot. However, the weather was continually improving, the rain had ceased and the sun was slowly starting to make an appearance. I was starting to dry out and I was able to stop every so often and stretch my leg to give my knee a break. This helped a lot. We crossed a few more warm sulphur springs and during the last 45 mins to an hour we descended through native forest, which was very beautiful. We arrived at the carpark on the other side of the mountain in record time - just under 5.75 hours. As I mentioned before, the crossing generally takes 6-8 hours, depending on fitness and how many breaks you take to take in the scenery (and whether or not you take the 2 hour side trip to climb and descent Ngauruhoe). We basically crossed a mountain, covering a half marathon distance, in extremely inclement weather in under 6 hours. Wow! Needless to say I was and still am quite sore. My poor muscles are so cycling specific.

Here we are in the carpark waiting for our shuttle to take our stinky butts back to the backpackers for much deserved hot showers:



And Sunday, when we drove back to Welly we stopped to take this photo of the park and the terrain we'd covered the day before. Mt Ngauruhoe is the crater you can see there on the left (aka Mt Doom). So we crossed from the other side of that, up the right hand side of Ngauruhoe as you see it there and then across and down heading through the range you can see on the right. I hope I'm explaining that accurately enough that you can imagine it. Needless to say, Sunday would have been the better day to cross. I can only say of the experience that I'm disappointed to not have seen the views that make it worth all the effort; the crossing is very difficult and people do not take into consideration how difficult it is and are often not prepared (one girl we heard of who was wearing jeans - such a no-no - got hypothermia that day, and another gentleman fell and hurt himself and we saw him being helped by others, covered in one of those silver emergency blankets); and finally I'm glad to have had the experience. I didn't know I could do that. Admittedly I didn't do it without a couple of complaints on that ridge to red crater. Maybe if I do come back to NZ one day, and my knee is up for it, I might try this one again in fine weather and enjoy those views.

Kiwiana #4

I'll be posting on my mountain crossing tomorrow I think. In the meantime, I've had this one waiting for a bit, so figured I'd share...

ANZAC = Australia and NZ Army Corps (they make Anzac cookies here in NZ, which I love - apparently started back in WWII era for the soldiers)
bach = holiday home/cottage/cabin (pronounced like the shortened form of bachelor)
chilly bin = cooler
choice = fantastic
dairy = corner store
docket = receipt
pinch = steal (pinched = stolen)
footie = rugby
chunder = vomit
layby = put deposit on goods until they can be fully paid for
knackered = tired/very tired
afternoon tea = dinner
ute = pick-up truck (short for utility vehicle)
wops = the sticks (rural/remote area)
plaster = bandage (or as we like to call them: band aids)
sunnies = sunglasses
gum boots = rubber boots (like wellies)

Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

Dunedin Railway Station

We arrived in Dunedin late evening, as I mentioned in my last post. I checked into my backpackers, and because I decided to circumvent the bus route altogether after that stop (i.e. not get back on again), I had a 4-night stay in this nice town. I really enjoyed Dunedin. It's quite small, has a very large university presence, and some great architecture. Way back when Europeans and Brits were heading over this way, the crown doled out parcels of land to various groups as they came to settle. Dunedin is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh - it is the parcel of land that was given to the Scots. They have heaps of cathedrals - apparently the only requirement to being deemed a city was to have a cathedral. In this case size didn't matter. ;) They have a beautiful train station and part of the railway still run out toward the old gold mining country in the western Otago region (heading back toward Queenstown). Seems the east coast of the South Island has the nicest beaches (on the west they are rocky or stone beaches), and Dunedin (and the whole south east) has some gorgeous, soft sand beaches to enjoy. I took the bus for $2.50 to the suburb of St. Claire and spent most of my afternoon one day at this little beach town and their very large beach. At the end of the school day the kids were out for surf lessons. And yes, it was very cold down south, but I was lucky enough to have 2 warmer days in Dunedin, which enabled a reasonable sit out at the beach with a good book.


St. Clair Beach
The highlight of Dunedin for me was the Otago Peninsula. I was lucky enough to meet some great people on my bus, and 5 of us decided to rent a car together (cheaper and more fun than taking another bus tour) and drive the 70 km to the tip of the peninsula and then make our way back, exploring as many sights as we could. The attraction at the tip of the peninsula, Taiaroa Head, is the only mainland Royal Albatross colony in the world. This bird is something else - with wings measuring up to 3 m!!! This bird traverses the globe regularly and apparently logs about 90,000 km each year. It can fly at 120 kph!!! I was so impressed. We opted not to take the overinflated tour where there was no guarantee of seeing any birds other than the babies in the nests. Instead we hung out at the edge of the cliff and we did see several albatross flying back and forth to the colony with food for the babies! We totally lucked in!

Later we drove 3 km down the road from here and visited the Penguin Place - a reserve for the yellow-eyed penguin (although they do also see some little blue penguins there too). As I'd mentioned before, since the penguins are moulting right now they are land-locked and we got to see some. They've done a great job at helping this fragile little species prosper and have done everything they can to keep it natural and with the most minimal of human contact. They have a penguin hospital where they collect those that are sick and get them healthy enough to be released back into the wild, but otherwise, these are very much wild penguins and this is their natural home - the beach on the edge of a farm. The farmer started this up back in the 1980's and they have had good public support since then (although there are several conservation workers there, they get very little public funding and rely mostly on the revenue from the tour they give to people like me).

Yellow-Eyed Penguin - this guy's name is Flax.

After that we headed down to Larnach Castle, which is the only castle in NZ. It was kinda cool. I didn't go inside, but wandered the grounds and hung out with two of the other girls while we waited for the two who paid to go in.

At the end of our day, we decided to visit the steepest street in the world, Baldwin St, since it's outside of the central city area and if you don't have transport it's kind of a nuisance to get to. At it's steepest part, the pitch of this street is 35%. If you climb up the street, there is a little shop that will give you a certificate for doing so - you have to pay for that though. None of us bought the certificate. We saw lots of tourists driving up it. We opted not to put our rental through that effort.

After four days in Dunedin I flew to Christchurch, spent one more day finding my way around that town and then flew home to Wellington. It's been weird being back here, as when I flew in I felt like I was coming home (so I think I can say that Welly is my 3rd home now), but since I've been back I've woken up at night several times wondering what hostel I'm in and looking around, realizing that I'm in this room that looks really familiar but it takes me a few minutes to realize - 'oh yeah, this is MY room'. I don't have a lot of time left here so I won't likely feel really settled again. More travels in the coming weeks and very soon back to Canada!

Stewart Island and the Catlins Coast

Clearly, I really loved Te Anau and Milford Sound. One down side though, is that it rains there 2 days out of 3. It’s still beautiful in the rain, and in fact the waterfalls in the sounds are much more beautiful for having the extra water (and temporary falls due to the rain and the melting snow from that which fell in the mountains this past week).

When I left Te Anau it was still very cold and raining. I hopped off the bus route that the tour bus I have been on takes, and circumvented their schedule, taking the national bus line to get myself to Invercargill. I had arranged to be picked up by a coach that runs with the ferry service to get to Bluff where I caught the ferry to Stewart Island. It was quite the trip. Because of the bad weather (high winds and rain), and road works the bus that I was transferring to in Gore was late; we were 35 minutes late for my pick-up in Invercargill. The driver of my late bus phoned ahead to the i-Site where I was to be picked up so they could let the coach driver know our eta. He rung me up on my mobile as we were entering Invercargill and said that even though we were as late as we were, they were waiting for me. Wow! Mind you, this is a great example of what people mean when they say that NZ is stuck in the 50’s. This is very small-town-NZ, so they aren’t fussed to wait for you for a few minutes. The coach was to get myself and the one other passenger that morning (another Canuck – we’re everywhere!!) to the ferry 30 mins before departure. Considering that I arrived at 11:05 in Invercargill, a mere 20 mins drive from Bluff, we were already beyond the check-in time for the 11:30 ferry. We arrived at 11:30 and the ferry and its passengers were waiting on us. We all boarded right then and there and were off. It’s a small ferry – a pontoon boat that can carry 65 passengers. There were roughly 30 of us that day. I’ve been told that the crossing at the Foveaux Strait is choppy on a good day, but on a rainy, windy day like that it was quite the experience. One person on our boat was sick and I was informed by another backpacker when I arrived that 70% of the passengers on her ferry were sick so I was lucky. Yes, I suppose I was lucky because I had my moments during the one hour trip when I had to silently talk myself through the nausea I was feeling and if more people were sick I may not have succeeded in holding down what was left of my breakfast.

The ferry drops its passengers off at the town of Oban. It’s a cute little place with a little hotel and pub, a few backpackers, some B&Bs and cottages. There are 300-400 residents of the island itself (not sure how many are in Oban) and the primary employer is the sea – fishing. There is even a NZ reality TV show on these days that feature the life of the crayfishermen of Stewart Island. There are a few tracks on the island, which is what most people that I met were there to participate in: tramping – either the 3-day hike or the 10-day hike. I wanted to go kiwi spotting, but I did not. The tour cost $110 and it was SOOOOO cold there I just didn’t have it in me to spend that kind of money to be out in the cold with no guarantee of seeing any kiwi birds. A big highlight of Stewart Island are the yellow-eyed penguins, as they call this and a few other island, and the Otago peninsula home. I went out walking a couple of times to see them but was out of luck. It’s hard to spot a yellow-eyed penguin because they are very shy and any noise at all scares them off and they won’t come ashore. They tend to come ashore anytime after 4 PM and into dusk, although most people I’ve talked to say they more often come in after dark.

A nature lesson for you, as I’ll have more to post on these little guys next time… The yellow-eyed (hoiho in Maori) is the most ancient of all the penguins and can only be found in southern NZ. When the Europeans settled here they brought with them various predators to this little penguin (rats, cats, stoats, etc) and as a consequence their numbers dwindled until they were declared endangered. They are still listed as such. Their colonies are now very closely monitored by conservationists and there is even a penguin reserve on the Otago Peninsula (where I got to see some and will post on it soon). At this time of year they are moulting – they have to shed their feathers and grow a new coat, then spread oil from a gland on their behind all over their new coat to make it waterproof before they can head back out to sea. This takes around 3 weeks, and during this time they stay on land. The way to identify a yellow-eyed penguin is their distinct yellow band around their eyes and head.

I left Stewart Island, thankful for the rest that the first day of rain there afforded me, but not having seen any of what I went there to see. I wasn’t disappointed though, as it was a nice trip – the crossing was much calmer on the way back – and I got to go as close to Antarctica as I may ever get! I hopped back on the tour bus that I was taking before and reconnected with a new friend I’d made back in Wanaka. Another new friend also hopped on that bus, whom I met on Stewart Island. We spent the day on the bus touring the Catlins. This is a really, really beautiful part of the country. Real, soft sand beaches, sand dunes, beautiful surf, dolphins, fur seals, etc. It was really nice. We stopped for a little while at a place called Waipapa Point where we saw two fur seals and a Fiordland Crested penguin. I only know this because when I later went to the penguin reserve I asked one of the conservation workers to look at my photo of the penguin and identify it for me. This penguin was moulting and was sitting in the tall grass in the dunes off the beach. I was much closer to it than you are supposed to get (although I didn’t realize this at the time). You are supposed to stay a minimum of 5 meters away, preferably more, in order not to stress the penguin if you see one. I think I was maybe 2 or 3 meters away. He was soooo cute!!! And apparently it is VERY rare to see a Fiordland crested – one of the penguin reserve workers there had actually taken a cruise in order to try to see them as he’d never seen one before and he never did get the chance. How lucky were we??? After touring around the Catlins for the day we arrived in Dunedin late in the evening. I will post on Dunedin next time.

Fiordland Crested Penguin

New Zealand fur seals

Fiordland

Even though I’m so very, very tired, I am making the time to record today’s experience and posting it for your reading pleasure. All these uber- early mornings are starting to pile up and wear me down. 8 AM is now sleeping in for me. Holidays can be exhausting! (I’m half joking here)

OK. I have the answer to yesterday’s post confusion… A Sound is an inlet, as stated. A fiord (aka fjord) is an inlet that has been carved out by a glacier, also stated yesterday. This is the main difference. A sound has not been created by a glacier. Milford Sound is inaccurately named, as it in, in fact, a fiord. It should be Milford Fiord. It was discovered by a Welshman named Grono and he actually named it Milford Haven, after his hometown. Cook missed this entrance into Fiordland when he explored here previous to Grono.

Since the fiord is created by a glacier the walls of the rocks surrounding it are cut deeply. As a result, the boat on the cruise I took, sailing around and out of Milford Sound (Piopiotahi – its Maori name), was able to edge itself right up to the shear cliff walls, almost close enough that we could touch them, were it not for the huge waterfalls that we were edging up to check out. Wow!! Yesterday it rained a lot, which made the waterfalls more full and spectacular. There were hundreds of them – some permanent, some just temporary falls from the water that either collected from the rain or from the snow melt (anywhere above 600 meters last night got snow). Despite the cold weather, despite the fact that it rains here about 200 days of the year, today I think I fell in love with Fiordland.

I met more Canuks on today’s trip. I seem to be meeting more and more these days. Funny that. I ended up taking a little tour with a little tour company and really enjoyed it. The ten of us left Te Anau early in the morning and drove to Milford on the only road that can take you there, Milford Road, through the very historical Homer Tunnel – a mountain pass that took 19 years to complete due to a myriad issues. It even took until 1992 before the final sections of this road were sealed (paved with chip seal) – that’s how remote this place is. The Homer is a 1.5 km long, one-way tunnel, where you must wait for a traffic light to turn green before you can take your turn (if you miss the light the wait is about 15 minutes for the next turn – we got green both ways). Arriving in Milford we took our 2.5 hour cruise, then Andrew, our lovely Welsh-born, NZ-converted guide collected us and took us to the Hollyford Track where we entered the start of the 4-day tramp at the suspension bridge (no plans to actually take on the full hike) and tramped for 30 minutes to a lovely waterfall, as if we hadn’t already seen enough of them for one day! Haha! Today’s tour should have been called Waterfall Day Tour. We stopped in a few neat places on the way out and back to snap gorgeous photos of the mountains that are newly snow covered. This place has a high avalanche risk in the winter. Particularly near the Homer Tunnel. After our mini-tramp we headed off to have tea and biscuits near a little river. Andrew made the tea in a neat little camp kettle at the river’s edge using the water straight from the source with no treatment necessary. Nearly all the water here is clear as any water I’ve ever seen.

Today was one of those 100-photo days. This is one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen. It reminded me that it’s been far too long since I’ve seen the Rockies – the mountains down here looked a lot like them with the snow on top. They aren’t quite as big, but they are as beautiful. This isn’t a place that I could live – too cold and rainy – but wow! This is a really nice place to visit! I’ll post photos the next time I connect.

Southland

I left Wanaka and headed off to Queenstown a few days ago and stayed with one of the friends I've made over the course of my travels down here. It was nice to have a brief reprieve from the backpackers. It was a low-key visit, which was fine by me. Considering where I was (party-central NZ), I could have done it up right, but I was too tired and then today my departure time was 6:15 AM. Eek!

QT is really pretty. There is a really huge lake there. Autumn is upon us down here. I think it comes earlier in the South Island. I'm finding myself in the middle of a cold snap right now. The first night in QT it snowed in the mountains - the first snow of the season. It was really beautiful to wake up to. It doesn't snow much in the city, so I'm told. We took the gondola up for a view of the city and did the luge track while we were up there. It was really windy and cold though, so we didn't stay up there very long.

This morning, bright and early, I left QT for Fiordland. Today I'm settled into Te Anau. It is a wonderfully quaint little town. Another lake. There are many, many lakes down here. It's been raining all day, but off and on, with lots of sunny breaks and many, many rainbows! The rain is heavy though. I hope that tomorrow isn't too bad, as I'm supposed to be doing some tramping and they say that there will be snow in the mountains here tonight as well and cold weather tomorrow. Some facts about fiords and sounds for you...

A sound is a large sea or ocean inlet, larger than a bay or a channel. A fiord is a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea with steep sides that have been carved out by glaciers in years past. Milford Sound is a fiord (fjord). It's confusing isn't it?? ;) Seems the term 'Sound' is often misused. At any rate, Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound are two of the nearby sounds that are part of Fiordland National Park. Where I am today as I write.

The Ups and Downs of Travel

Through experience comes wisdom – or something like that. I realize that so far, bus tours are just not for me. I’m also not a backpacker. I’ve never really been in love with the backpacking lifestyle, however, it is really the only really affordable way to go about seeing places for extended periods of time. Not to mention filling in time with memorable experiences and saving money to do things that are really worthwhile – like helicopter rides up in mountains with glaciers.

I haven’t been overly enthused about the coach that I decided to try out this time around. I’ve done the full-on solo trips, both by the national bus line and rental car. I’ve toured around with a friend from home with a rental car as well. This time I decided to try one of these hop on hop off things that a few friends whom I’ve met here have done. They both had positive experiences. So is it me, or perhaps the driver of the first couple of legs of this trip that are making me feel less than satisfied so far? Could be a little of both, to be honest. I think I function better on my own. While I don’t want to fly solo all the time, I quite enjoy doing m own thing. I also think that needn’t pay for a coach with a driver who is never on time, quite disorganized, and rarely helpful. I don’t function well with hour-long delays. It has definitely been testing my patience. I’m also not impressed with having to stop at crap-holes in really remote places because it’s a ‘mandatory overnight stop’, only an hour’s drive away from the next town where there is better accommodation – this is just a ploy to keep crappier establishments in business. I was not happy with where I found myself obliged to stay last night – particularly when I found a bed bug on the sheet of the bed I was about to set my stuff down on. I moved rooms, but was quite anxious about the whole thing.

I usually maintain posts on the fun, happy, positive aspects of my journeys, but the reality is that travel, while highly rewarding and usually a lot of fun, also has its moments. It can get stressful and it can test you. But as with all things in life, there is a yin and a yang, and without the bad we cannot fully appreciate the good – and we learn from both.Yesterday I arrived in Wanaka, and as a result of stopping here got off the schedule of that bus and will be picked up by the next one – hoping that things will be better tomorrow with a different driver. I've really enjoyed Wanaka. It is a very, very small place but full of charm. It sits on a really, really big eponymous lake. The backpackers where I chose to stay is really nice and has a beautiful view of the lake. I hired a mtb and rode around the lake and practiced my bunny hops and got my groceries and stuff yesterday. It was a nice afternoon of down time for me. I really enjoyed it. I wish I had one more day here, but I’m off to explore more interesting things over the next few days. As a result of my experience the past four days I’ve decided to alter my trip plans a little so as to accommodate some detours from the coach route. Stay tuned for more as I make my way around the south.

Glaciers and Helicopter Rides

What an fantastic day it has turned out to be in glacier country! I learned the stats yesterday - apparently 60% of all activities (primarily glacier hikes) get canceled here due to the heavy rain. It is located in a rainforest, after all. I wonder how businesses stay open here. Well, perhaps it's the exorbitant prices. I have to say though, the cost is so well worth it!!

Today I took a half-hour long helicopter ride up and over both the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. It was one of the best experiences ever! For one, it was my first time on a helicopter! And then of course, there is the scenery and the experience of landing on top of a mountain! Wow!!! I'm still a bit in awe of the whole thing. I'm feeling that kind of burst at the seams kind of excitement over it all still. Wow!!! Maybe I'll say that again - Wow!!! Yay! I thought I'd be nervous and maybe get some vertigo, etc, but not at all!! I loved every minute of it! Even when we got up into the wind and felt a bit of turbulence. All good. I got to sit in the front seat too - so I had all windows around me. Even down at my feet: windows! We flew up the Franz Josef glacier and then over the top of the mountain to the Fox glacier. We landed on top of that one on the snow at the top and backside of Mt Tasman. We got out and walked around on the snow and took some photos. It was really bright up there on the snow with the sun. It was chilly too, but not overly cold. Then we got back in the helicopter and flew down the Fox glacier, sweeping past the sides of the mountain, then over the edge of it and down into the valley where we followed the winding road back to Franz Josef village. You can really see how the glaciers used to flow all the way to the sea; how they carved out a valley below.


I am so happy that the weather was fine today so that I could experience it! What a great day!!

Back to the Glaciers

Greetings, once again, from Glacier Country!!

I arrived in Christchurch yesterday morning, headed to my backpackers, dropped my bag, and walked into town. It was a short 15 minute stroll. It was cold in Christchurch! The pilot said it was 13C when we landed, and while it was chilly, it didn't feel that cold per se. I like Christchurch (although I was told by some others that it's always cold). It is the town with the most British influence in NZ and you can really feel it. I was relishing how flat it is and how badly I wished I could ride my bike. But alas, this is not that kind of trip, and I was soooooo tired!!! So I walked around, took in the cathedral (which I did not do last time), found the supermarket and picked up a couple of things (I forgot bath soap - doh!), and headed back to the backpackers early and got a good night's sleep.

It was an early start this morning with a 7 AM pick-up to take me to the railway station. I caught the TranzAlpine which takes you from Christchurch to Greymouth via Arthur's Pass. The famous pass which we crossed by car last time in the pouring rain. If I had a better adjective than pouring that could really emphasize the rain we had that day I'd use it, but I do not. Today I had zero expectations and it wasn't until I was on the shuttle and one of the passengers mentioned what a great day it was going to be for a train ride I realized - OMG!!! It was a beautiful, sunny day!! Yay!!! The ride was really amazing. We passed through something like 9 tunnels - the longest of which was 8.5 km long! And about 2/3 of the ride we had a helicopter following us, apparently filming the train as we rode along for a country western movie. Cool as! I met a really nice lady from OZ who sat next to me for the trip and I will meet up with her again here tomorrow when she comes to glacier country as well. The train was full, full, full, and as a result we were quite late leaving about 45 minutes late. I was afraid that I'd missed my connection with the coach that I'm traveling on for the remainder of my trip. The coach, however, was late arriving as well.

The coach, so far, is ok. I can't say it's the best, and yet it's not the worst either. I will reserve judgement. So far I've met 4 new Canuks. There are plenty of us traveling around this country indeed! The French Swiss guy who sat beside me today was probably the best new acquaintance, as I got to speak French all afternoon, which was great! Retracing a route I've already driven here before in much nicer weather made the scenery all that more spectacular. :) The Southern Alps are quite beautiful! Tomorrow, if the weather holds, I will have the chance to explore here, as I hadn't able to on the last visit.

On a side note, I seem to be having quite bad luck with my teeth down under. In November I broke off a piece of a built-up tooth (kind of a fake tooth, but not totally). I didn't deal with it and after it started causing me some pain in January (or was in Feb?? I can't remember now) I got it fixed. Luckily I knew the dentist through the bike shop - fellow cyclist. He did a good job and gave me a good deal. Today I bit into a pear and broke the bottom retainer off one of the two teeth that hold it in place (a relic from the years of orthodontics I painfully endured as a child) and now, in the middle of nowhere, there is no dentist to visit until next week. Luckily when I get to the next possible place to find dentistry (QT), I will be visiting with a friend that I met up in Raglan who is currently living down there and I texted her today to see if she could do me a big favour - find me a dentist and book me an appointment. I got a message back saying it's done! What would I do without such great friends like that?

I hope to post again tomorrow. Stay tuned...