Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers

We heard rain fall overnight but when we got up, there were signs of blue among the clouds. It was supposed to rain fairly heavy today, but we lucked out and had some fair weather.  These glaciers are the closest to the temperate and ocean zones of any in the world. This is what the Franz Josef glacier looked like today -

  

The walk was about an hour and half to the toe. It was amazing and the cloud started to clear later in the morning. There were a number of glacier walking groups with boots and crampons learning to walk on the glacier, but none had ice tools. The views were stunning. Some more photos...and you can see people on the glacier walks.

Next, we drove to the Fox glacier, about 30km down the highway. The toe of the glacier was only a 30 minute walk - much more accessible, a shorter walk but just as interesting. It had a huge hole at the toe and a number of people walking higher, into some dangerous territory.

Tomorrow we are off to Wanaka, about 4-5 hours drive from the west coast. We will head from there to Te Anau for 2 nights and experience Milford sound before heading to Queenstown.

More to come when we have access to a computer.

Christchurch

After a nice stay in Picton, we drove down the east coast and stayed a night in Kaikoura where there were great beaches and warm sun. We continued down to Christchurch after a stop at a winery. Christchurch was our stop for two days and we knew of the huge damage done in February 2011 from the earthquake.

We stayed at the YMCA near a big city park (Hagley Park) and the Canterbury museum. We walked to the centre of town which has chain link fencing around the "red zone" cordoned off due to damage and continued danger. We could see windowless high rises, deconstruction equipment, and much toppled brick. The famous church was hard to find amid all the fencing, rubble and equipment.

They have made a new shopping area downtown where shipping containers have been used to create colorful shops. On our second day we headed over to Akaroa on the Banks peninsula, a French town was established a century ago. Back in Christchurch we walked the Botanical gardens where roses, mums, hydrangeas, lilies, etc  were still blooming. Some trees are turning color for fall.

 Next door we visited the Canterbury Museum which holds some Maori exhibits, Antarctic exhibits, and lots of the natural history of NZ. Very well done and to us, more interesting than the Te Papa in Wellington!

Yesterday we drove across the mountains and Arthur's Pass stopping for lunch at Castle rocks, huge limestone rock formations that looked like a scene from Lord of the Rings! As we approached the west coast the temperatures rose to a balmy +27C.



























We drove up to Greymouth and down to stay in Hokitita where we saw a beautiful sunset on the ocean - the Tasman Sea. However, dark clouds were appearing and it moved in over night.

We awoke to pouring rain this morning, which will impact my plan to walk the Franz Josef Glacier tomorrow. We hope everyone back home is doing well.

We have one more week before flying from Queenstown to Auckland.

Inter Islander Ferry

  

We have had several nice days in Wellington where we visited the Te Papa National museum and a funicular railway up Mt. victoria overlooking the city, and a drive up the Hutt valley where there were several interesting areas.

Gloria wanted to see a paua shell factory in Carterton, and we found an interesting place called the Aotearoa Stonehenge, the new zealand version of Britain's Stonehenge. The best part was standing exactly in its centre and hearing your voice echo back slightly changed and amplified! saw lots of sheep and cattle farms.

We had a leisurely saturday morning before dropping off the rental car at the ferry terminal in Wellington and catching the afternoon ferry to Picton. It takes about 3 relaxing hours to cross to the south island, where we picked up a new rental car and drove a short distance to our YHA hostel last night in Picton. We met a nice older couple from Toronto!

Today was our 34 th anniversary so we ate out for dinner in Kaikoura, on the east coast after spending the day tasting wines in Marlborough area (much like Kamloops) and driving the coast highway which reminded us of the Oregon coast.

We did a short day hike along a limestone bluff overlooking the Kaikura coast. We are seeing a few more mountains here. Mt. Fyffe, the highest local peak is about 1640 meters. Tomorrow is supposed to rain. We plan to drive to Christchurch, pretty much following the fault line all the way.

We have heard that the devastating earthquake left the centre in shambles. We will spend a few days in and around Christchurch, driving up over Arthur's Pass to Greymouth on the west coast. We will then make our way to the Fox and Franz Joseph areas, then on to Te Anau and Milford Sound. More on that later.

Wellingon, NZ capital

We arrived in Wellington today in bright sunshine. When we go up it was + 13 degrees but warmed to abut 18C. A nice drive down to this port town. We almost felt like it was driving into Oslo in Norway, which we have done several times.

Parking is a bit of a pain and expensive so we are staying only one night in town, then moving out to Poiruru for 2 nights before catching the mid day Inter Islander ferry to Picton. Internet is still slow here, and very expensive ($5 per hour). I don't expect to update again until we are well into the South island.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Te Papa museum, supposed to be the best on NZ and Maori culture. Weather is supposed to hold, although it has been cool south. It is fall here afterall, and there are a few trees just starting to show their fall colors.



Napier and Mission Wine

After a rainy crossing from Taupo, we arrived in Napier on the east cost. A very nice town with art Deco store fronts. We walked along the shore and found a nice motel near the waterfront which faces the Tasman Sea.

The next day we headed out of town and found the Mission Winery for tasting. Some nice wines and then headed south and looked up a Honey producer. A very interesting display on bees and about 10 different kinds of honey as well as many health and cosmetic products made with honey!

Then, a long and winding drive out to Palmerston, a university town a days drive from Wellington.

We drove up over a huge escarpment which separates east from west at the south end of the North island. Many wind generators operate on this area to add power to the grid.

Tongariro crossing

Today's plan was to head out to hike the Tongariro Crossing near Mt. Ruapehu, one of three main volcanic cones in the Turangi/Taupo area. Unfortunately, it had clouded up as the weather was forecast to do and a mist greeted us in the morning.

So we drove to the start of the trek, just under the cloud layer, and could see nothing of the views that we knew were there. The trail was officially closed due to weather, So we headed out to continue the drive around the whole area. It poured rain for the last half of our 220km day. Back in Turangi we cooked a chicken dinner and made plans to head out to the west to Stratford and Mt. Taranaki in the Egmont National park. Heavy rains are expected tonight but easing by noon, so fingers crossed. Thus concludes our first week in NZ.

The photo is of the start of the crossing - only fog and cloud above us and trail was closed for a few days.

Impressions: Friendly people, good coffee, excellent meat pies, lots of Greenstone (we call Jade) in traditional carvings of a fern, fish hook, eternity symbol, etc. clean water, neat roads, sulphurous mineral pools, lots of sheep and cows, pines, cabbage trees, and flax (a plant that the Maori make rope and grass skirts out of, expensive groceries, gas is $2.18 per liter, about double the cost of home! More later.

Geysers, mineral pools and mud pools

Today was another nice sunny day up to about 23 degrees. Unfortunately, the weather is supposed to deteriorate tomorrow, just when we are within range of the Tongariro area of 4 volcanic mountains. We left Rotorua and drove to Te Puia, a geyser area just south of Rotorua. The center there took us on a guided tour of the mud pools (mud boils up out of the ground and thick bubbles burst like jumping frogs) and through an area with sulphurous steam vents, boiling water and the Te Puia geyser which shoots up steam and water 7 meters.

There is a Maori village and we were given a glimpse into old village life. We hiked around the trails and then headed towards Lake Taupo after a stop at Huku Falls. taupe did not have much for us so we continued to Turangi at the south end of Lake Taupo. Found a nice inexpensive motel and barbecued steak and veggies. With the weather deteriorating we are told the Tongariro crossing will not be in shape,nor will the shuttles run, so we will likely drive all around the Ruhapeu area and see what we can see. The peaks were already clouded over early afternoon. Internet is a bit of a problem here - generally clunky, sloooowwwwwww, and expensive. (It was faster in Nepal 8 years ago.) Free WiFi is available in McDonald's and some coffee places.

All for now. Neil

Waitomo glow worms

 

After driving from Hamilton, we decided to take a country road to the Waitomo caves. We arrived late morning after negotiating the left hand side of the road! The tour of the caves was interesting. The caves are limestone, form stalagmites and stalactites and are sacred to the local Maori caretakers so no photos are allowed except at the entrance and exit. The boat ride was a quiet float in the caves and suddenly the glow worms showed their lights like a starry sky about 5 meters above us. They are related to spiders but are the larva stage of a fly. They drop down 8 - 10 inch strings of sticky thread to catch flies and othe insects including other glow worms as they are cannibalistic. Headed off to see Val and George in Putaruru arriving mid afternoon. We went for a hike to the Blue spring, which is formed from water that takes 20-50 years to percolate through the soil. It is crystal clear, a nice blue and has brown trout swimming in the steam. A nice hike through the cattle farm. Val took us to a local cheese producer for cow, sheep, goat and bison cheese. All very tasty especially with a nice Gewurtztraminer. We enjoyed a great dinner and more wine and hit the hay late. (I know Val from a trek to Nepal in 2004.) After breakfast we doddled and left near noon to head to Rotorua. We bbq'd some lamb, veggies and enjoyed a pleasant Cabernet Sauvignon. Tomorrow we head to a geyser and then on to Taupo, a Maori center. Unfortunately I have discovered that the iPad does not work with blogspot to upload photos for some reason! Photos will be added when I have a pc to access.

Driving on the left!

Well, we got up early, went to Budget to rent our car, loaded up and headed out on the motorway - driving on the left. What a weird feeling entering the freeway going the wrong way on the ramp and on the left hand side. We rented a nice compact toyota corolla and began to get used to driving here in spite of turning on the wipers each time I needed to signal! My GPS works well here and Gloria is having a tough time sitting in the driver's seat :-)

WiFi is a little clunky here with slow uploads and response, blockages, errors, etc. so not sure how often I will be able to update this, especially with pictures. We had a wonderful day with Elaine and Art who toured us around Hamilton, to some amazing gardens, out for ice cream and a delicious dinner. Off to the glow worm caves in the morning befor heading to visit Val in Putaruru. More to come...

Auckland - City of Sails

  

We arrived yesterday at 6 am in the morning, made our way through customs, bought a sim card and coffee, then headed to the YHA hostel downtown. Our room was not yet available so we headed down Queen Street, the main street of Auckland. The weather was amazing, sunny and about + 23 degrees! The Sky City tower which rises up over Auckland. Great views in 360 degrees out over the harbor, volcanic islands and old volcano cones scattered in the city.

We found the fish market and a huge sailboat which raced in the America's Cup a few years ago. My usual good sense of direction was totally put off by an interesting phenomenon...the sun moves across the northern horizon, not the south like at home. East and west are normal but I navigate by the sun so that really threw me off. The sun is still high in the sky and quite warm. This has been a very wet and cloudy summer and some good weather is most welcome. For us, any temp above zero now feels great!

Today is March 5 and we headed out to catch the Hop on- Hop off Bus that takes you to 14 prime locations in the city. We got to the Auckland Museum, Mt. Eden (an extinct cone 196 m above the city) and several shopping areas, stadiums and the harbor front. A cruise ship was in so made the sightseeing quite busy. Tomorrow we plan to head out to the harbor for a cruise of some kind. Oh yes, forgot to mention the delicious meat pies they have here...absolutely, incredibly tasty! Probably rich and fattening too!