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Published: January 26th 2007
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Hello there!
Well, 1-23-07 started off with us heading west from Christchurch. We were headed through Arthur's Pass, which based off of my other experiences in some of these mountains, I was a little worried about. The road turned out to be much more tame than expected. We were able to see some beautiful mountian views, even some with snow on the top. They also have beautiful wildflowers on the side of the road (lupines, I believe) that are a beauty to look at and have a sweet fragrance. We made it through the mountains with no trouble and headed for the coast.
We traveled along a beautiful coastal road that afforded some beautiful views of the Tasman Sea. We were able to stop at a beach in a little town called Rapahoe. The beach was entirely made up of rocks varying in size from pebbles to larger stones. It was beautiful and the sound the waves made on the rocks was something really new to me. We stopped numerous times down the road, stopping to snap pictures. One of our main destinations was Punakaiki (or Pancake rocks) - a limestone rock formation off the coast. Due to the
wearing away of the limestone, the rocks look like stacks of pancakes. It was really a beautiful sight.
We continued up the coast and decided to stay at a "trailer park," as Bishop likes to call them, in a town called Westport. There's really nothing much in Westport (very industrial), but the holiday park we stayed at was outside of town right next to the Tasman sea. It turned out to be a really nice place.
On 1-24-07, we started down the road early to a seal colony. It was great to see so many seals at the bottom of some cliffs. We were there very early, and we were able to hear them "talking" to each other and saw babies nursing.
Then we headed north to the bustling metropolis of Charleston (population 30) for an underwater rafting trip. Lots of the towns along the west coast are former gold rush towns. Charleston used to have upwards of 30,000 people during the height of the gold rush. One thing I didn't know is that some of the same "gold rushers" in the CA gold rush probably were here in NZ. Evidently, some made a habit of traveling
the world to the next gold rush site. The cave tour was awesome. We hiked through several kilometers of caves then rafted through a cavern with glowworms until we made it out of the caves and onto the Nile river. Unfortunately, you can't capture the glowworms on camera, but it feels like you are in a planetarium looking at the stars. They group themselves together and end up looking like constellations. Glowworms are larvae that light up to try to attract wayward bugs in these caves. They have web that they hang down that catches their prey as the prey is heading toward the light. Since there is no other light in the caves, a disoriented fly will often head toward the glowworms, thinking it's an exit. It was a really fun morning and an experience I don't think I'll have again.
After the cave trip, we still headed sorth through a variety of towns until we stopped for the night at the Franz Josef glacier. We ended up camping next to a river that night.
On 1-25-07, we took a glacier hiking trip on the Franz Josef glacier. It is a unique glacier because it reaches the
Tubing down the Nile
Not quite Egypt, but still a ton of fun. bottom of valley in a rainforest. Some parts of glacier move as much as 5 meters per day. During the year, the top of the glacier can get as much as 45 meters of snow! It was a nice trek, but a little slow and scary at times. While we had crampons on our boots (little spikes to grip the ice), it often seemed like we could easily slip off the path and down into a crevass. A highlight was being able to go through a blue ice cave which no one had been to before. One thing I didn't realize would be a part of the trip was that while we were hiking, our guide actually had to cut the track for us (which is why it was slow). Due to the melting ice and shifting of the glacier, they constantly have to work on the track. Once we finished at the glacier, we headed further south to a town called Haast (named for the person who discovered the Franz Josef glacier). It was a very small town, but we were able to find a place to stay. About 40 minutes down the road, there was supposedly a penguin
Where to next?
A neat sign at the seal colony. colony. Once we got our accomodations situated, we went in search of them. We didn't find any, but we stopped where the road ended at a place called Jackson's Bay. It was a tiny (I mean, tiny!) fishing village that had a great coastline with huge rocks. We had a great evening exploring the rocks and watching the sun go down.
On 1-26-07, we headed out early for a day full of driving. We are headed to Milford Sound and the Fjordland area, one of the most picturesque areas in New Zealand. We've stopped for lunch and to download our pictures (the memory cards are full!) and then we'll be in Milford Sound tonight. On our drive today, we saw more beautiful scenery. We stopped at a place in the forest called Blue Pools. We meandered through the forest and ended up at the river with the most beautiful blue pools - clever name! Anyway, it was really remarkable to see how blue the water is all over New Zealand. That is one of the things that has impressed me most - you never get tired of looking at the water here. Whether it is a stream, river, bay,
or sea, the color and clarify is unlike anything I've ever seen.
One extra highlight of the trip has been a comet easily viewable in the night sky. It's called the McNaught coment and it has a beautiful tail. Evidently, it is the second brightest on record here in NZ. You can check out this website to view pictures (I haven't been able to capture it yet):
http://spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_mcnaught_page16.php
I hope you are all well. You're in my thoughts! Take care until next time.
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Jenn
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Next Assignment
Is your next assignment National Geographic? :) Sounds like you're having a ball (you know I'm jealous...) and we're so glad. Though, more times than I can count, Miss Em says, "I miss CiCi." Me too. Glad you're sending these messages. It's very cool for us to be able to live vicariously through you. Keep it coming! :)