Blogs from Glaciers, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 9

Where Life Turns Into One Big Bob Ross Painting Quite a challenge finding internet access out in the boondocks, so I'm doing several days postings while I can get logged in. We've long wondered if Bob Ross (God rest his soul) created the landscapes in his painting straight from his idealized imagination ... or if they were inspired by somewhere real. Little did we know he'd apparently spent a lot of time in New Zealand. Snow-capped mountains that descend into lakes so blue and pristine they act as a mirror to the heavens. There are simply not words to do it justice. But I'm certain Bob was a frequent traveller to New Zealand. (Although there still only appears to be one sun in the sky here, and Bob frequently seemed to paint with several sources of ... read more

we might have been forgiven for thinking that the weather gods were not looking over us when we woke at Fox Glacier the following morning. We woke at around 5.30am to hear the rain pouring down and unsurprisingly when we woke up Mount Cook was covered in cloud and our scenic flight was not happening. However this gave us the opportunity to go for a quick walk around Lake Matheson before our glacier hike that was starting at 9.30. Unfortunately the reflections on the water for which this lake is famous only served to dampen the mood and put Jules more firmly into the gloom of not seeing Mount Cook from the helicopter. Nonetheless we headed for the glacier at 9.30 and had a fantastic day - the cloud gradually lifted as we walked through the ... read more

9.10 - 15.10.2005 Tasman Glacier - 7 dni 9.10. (nedela) Konecne sa nam to podarilo! Letime plne vyzbrojeni lyziarskou vystrojou a jedlom hore na ladovec, presnejsie na Tasman Saddle Hut vo vyske 2350 m. Rano sme sa cela partia rychlo vychystali, aby sme boli na letisku uz o 8.30, teda hned ako otvoria. Darren (australcan zijuci v Christchurchi), Duncan (Kiwi), Cameron (Kiwi spravca Irwin chaty, na ktorej sme predoslu noc prespali) a my dvaja sme vytvorili nerozlucnu patku, ktora sa zhodou nahod v ten isty den nachadzala v Mount Cook Village s tymi istymi planmi - letiet na Tasman ladovec a stravit tam cca tyzden skialpu. Plni ocakavania sme nasadli do maleho 6-miestneho lietadla (Porter P-6) a po pomerne kratkom ale velmi scenickom lete (s fotakmi v plnom nasadeni) sme pristali v kvalitnom 1 m hlbokom ... read more

Today we arrived in Franz Josef and talk a little walk in the pouring rain to go and touch a glacier; unfortunately we couldn't touch it because the river bed had flooded so we had to look instead! Stopping in a gorgeous park - with spa's, bars (happy hour in an hour so won't be around long) and hopefully nice hot showers!... read more

So I've not added anything in quite a while. I think the entries will probably get more and more scarce from this point forward. I've been using Wellington as my home-base, as it had free internet and whatnot. I won't be returning there again and per-minute internet is realllly expensive. I've now split from the girls and I'm travelling the south island with my friend Casey, who I go to school with at DePaul. He's been travelling Australia for the last month, and is spending another 30 days here in NZ. We met in Wellington on the 18th, only about an hour after my return from my excursion with the girls in the south. This is our second day together and we've made it as far down as Fox Glacier, which is maybe a 20 minute ... read more