Fox Glacier.

So, as you all know, I went hiking on Fox Glacier yesterday. The whole experience was incredible. Another one on the ever-growing list of coolest things I've ever done. I took enough physical geography courses at school and had a basic idea of how glacial processes work, but I realized yesterday that I didn't really understand at all. First off, the main part of Fox Glacier is the size of Christchurch City. I couldn't see it, but you can take a helicopter ride up there and see it then hike on the top. I will have to come back some day and do that when I'm very rich. The part we hiked on was basically a little drip of ice that comes down out of the mountains where the melting occurs. Also, the glacier is not smooth at all (I thought it would be...). It's all giant chopped up pieces. The surface of these huge chunks of ice melts in a speckled pattern, like a giant golfball. It's really quite difficult to walk around on. We had to wear crampons and the guide was constantly chopping steps into the ice for us.

We all met at the guiding building at 9:00 am. There are only about 4 places to stay in town so several of the people were at the same hostel as I was. Everyone in the group was really nice. We all had to listen to the introduction and put boots and gear on. The company supplied wool socks and mitts and rain gear, if you needed it. The bus left Fox at 9:30 am. It was only about a 10 minute drive to the base of the glacier where the river came out. We then had to hike into the glacier through the spillway, up 800 (ugh) steps and over a narrow trail along the bluff wall beside the glacier. This area is a rainforest and it was SO hot and humid in there (and we were all dressed quite warmly). I found a lot of cool orchids, but wasn't allowed to take pictures because your hands had to be empty to hold onto the chain so you wouldn't fall off the cliff. You can't go near the face of the glacier because ice is constantly melting off and it's very dangerous. That is why we had to climb up and around and onto the ice. At the edge of the ice the guide gave us all alpinestocks (walking sticks with points on the end to dig into the ice) and crampons for our boots. There were 11 people in my group including 4 other Canadians and one that had graduated from Guelph the year after me. They were all really cool. Also, one of them was celebrating her 25th birthday, so that was fun too.

The rainforest we walked through. This area gets 10 m of rain a year. That's 3 more metres
than the Daintree Rainforest gets! It rains 200 days out of the year. It sprinkled on us, but just a little. There was a strange warm breeze coming off the glacier and the guide said it was probably an indication of a strange weather event about to occur. Then, all of a sudden, the clouds were so thick. We heard the the heli-hike people might be stuck at the top of the glacier because the helicopters couldn't get in to pick them up. They were rescued though when the sun broke through for a few minutes.

On ice. A fitting way to spend December 1.

Our group walking up the glacier. Sort of like Gordon Street in February.

While we were up there, Malisa told us that we had actually crossed over a major fault line where two tectonic plates meet. There is generally a huge earthquake there every 200 years. Right now they are 260 years overdue for a 'big one'. When it happens, the westcoast will most likely be seperated from the rest of NZ for 7 months. No one will be able to get through on land. They have had a lot of meetings regarding this and there are some big hospital ships that will come from Australia to rescue the survivors. I'm sort of glad I'm not over there anymore. Though if the big one happened, all of NZ would shake.

Grade A glacial mud. They collect this for expensive spas. It is very smooth, but I don't really see the appeal.

Climbing up out of the moulon we took turns exploring.

Trying out the ice axe. I don't know how the girls do this all day long.

The ice looks very blue because over time the oxygen moves to the top layer and goes into the atmostphere. The dense ice reflects the blue light and that's what we see.

The rock fall at the side of the glacier. The ice is carving away the mountains and whenever it rains a lot the mud holding the rocks in will let go and the rocks will slide down the side.

The ice features are constantly changing as the glacier flows. The rocks that get mixed into the ice cause all sorts of crevasses and moulans (holes) to form.

Our guide, Malisa, a local girl who grew up on a farm in Fox, and the view out over the front of the glacier down the valley.

We returned to town at 6:00 pm and we were all so exhausted. I went out for dinner with the Canadians and had green mussels and chips and Monteith's Apply Cider. yum. We then went over to the cornerstore and picked up a case of beer and ice cream cake then went back to the hostel to hang out in the room and fall asleep talking about how cool Canada is and how many weird things the Aussies and Kiwis do. I think I convinced them all to come down to Guelph for Hillside Inside and I'll definitely be attending a Toronto Football Club game next summer.

o

Centre of New Zealand!

Right up the hill behind Chris and Mara's house is the geographical centre of New Zealand. We hiked up there. The views out over Nelson were very nice. This is me balanced on the Centre of NZ.


This is what the Centre of NZ looks like from the trail. On May 14 1870, NZ's first-ever rugby match was played at the foot of this hill. Nelson Rugby Club beat Nelson College 2-0 and nobody ever looked back.
The hills over Nelson and the ocean. There are some sheep in this picture, of course.


Nelson's harbour.


I've got SO much more for you, but no time. Stay-tuned though because I'm going to crush 30 posts in November.

Picton Village.

Picton was a nice little town on the north coast of the South Island. The entire place is pretty much under construction right now. I think it's the place to buy realestate and a lot of beautiful houses are being built on the surrounding hills. I stayed at a little hostel called the Villa and it was really nice. I had Canadian roommates both nights. Most people only come for one night after arriving on the ferry, but I wanted to stay and hike out to the point.

I went to visit the Edwin Fox Museum. It houses the world's 9th oldest wooden ship, the Edwin Fox. I'm not sure if that means the 9th ship ever built out of wood, or the 9th oldest existing. It is the only surviving ship that took convicts to Australia, the only ship that took troops to the Crimean War, and the oldest merchant ship still afloat. Though it is barely floatable. At the museum they are attempting to preserve the ship, not restore it. That would cost too much money and not be as effective and eerie.

It was neat because you could go down in the ship and walk around. The sunshine looked much more beautiful and creepy in reallife.


I took a lot of pictures of the crafty things, like knotwork, as is to be expected.





The next day I hiked out to the Snout, or the point of this part of the Marlborough Sound.


On the way back, I walked along the beach because the tide was low and took pictures of all sorts of interesting things.



O, and next door to the hostel there was a Fabulous Dutch Bakery. The slice on the right is a Ginger Crunch. It was candied ginger baked into shortbread with ginger cream icing. Seriously, I think it was one of the best things I have ever bought from a bakery. Seriously. And that's saying a lot.

Kia ora, Kaikoura.

In Maori, that means: Hello, good day, town of crayfish food.

Kiakoura is actually named after a Maori story. The entire name is Te ahi Kaikoura Tama ki te Raki. It means "the fire that cooked the crayfish of Tame ki te Raki". He was on a journey from the North Island around the South Island to find his three runaway wives and he stopped here for dinner. Kai means food and koura means crayfish. And this town fishes for crayfish (which are lobster sized and cost $50 here).

In Kaikoura, I spent a lot of time just sitting on the beach. The hostel was right on the beach. It was very nice and there were some really cool people there. I shared my room with a Swiss girl and an American guy who had met a few days prior to arriving in town. The guy had the same pack as me, only in the boy version. His was 5 L larger, but mine was (slightly) heavier. I don't know how I do it. We had a lot of fun, cooked dinner together in the amazing kitchen (some hostels don't have amazing kitchens, this one did). They actually invited me to come to Nelson with them, but I already have the rest of my trip pretty much planned out! I also met a German guy who had traveled through Canada, Australia, now NZ, and was heading to Thailand. He said Canada was his favourite country (I'm biased, but I can understand what he's saying :)

This was the gravel beach. O yeah, Kiakoura is at the base of a beautiful mountain range. There is snow at the top of the mountains all year round. When I saw the snow, I felt SO happy, like happy homesickness. I'm sure I'll take that back next March.


My NZ wool on the NZ beach. Fits right in.


On my second day in Kaikoura, I walked down to the Saturday market. I bought some honey and I had a whitebait sandwich. Whitebait is a local delicacy, it's at the end of the season right now, and apparently it's worth a lot of money. I had no idea what it was, but I thought I'd try. It's tiny little fish fried in a pancake. Yep. Eyeballs and everything. O, and they serve it on a piece of Wonderbread with margarine. HOW is that a delicacy? It tasted pretty good, but I couldn't look at the little worm-fish while I was eating it. Here is a horrible picture of my mostly-eaten whitebait pattie.


And, there's a big thing in Kaikoura. A big crayfish, of course. Since this I've found two more big things in NZ, so watch out for them.


More perfect knitting on the beach, this is going with this and it looks lovely. It'll be nice and warm for the winter back home.


And then I hiked out around the lovely coastline. The seabreezes here were just so refreshing.


I walked out to the end of town to see Fyffe house, the only remaining house from the whaling days in Kaikoura. And this house belonged to the man who brought the whaling industry to this region. I don't know if it's always been pink, but now it's very, very pink. And it's built on whale bones as a foundation. They also used the bones as fences.


A cool cookie cutter in the kitchen cupboard :)


Whale vertebrate on the front porch.


I went down to a wool farm to see a sheep shearing show. That was interesting. This is a picture of Ramman, one of the rams at the farm. I fed him. I can't show any pictures of the sheep being sheared because it was too traumatizing. It took three minutes with electric clippers to shear one sheep, but the farmer can actually do it in 37.2 seconds. In the background you can sort of see the little sheepdog pup that's learning how to work on the farm. His name is Sam! There's also a little bit of a black sheep too. They're both eating the ram's food.


These are some of the lambs at the wool farm. I got shocked by the electric fence for this photo (and it's not even that good...I wanted more lily and spotted lamb face). I'm sure I'm not the first since people come here to see the lambs and I didn't notice any signs indicating the fence was electric. The farmer even told one guy he could go in with the lambs and didn't mention the fence. Anyway, it was just like a flick to the muscle of my left arm and I was totally fine.


On my last day in Kaikoura, I borrowed a bike from the hostel (for free, that was nice) and rode out to see one of the seal colonies and hike around the end of the peninsula.

Baby sealface! Can you see him?


Landseal, right beside the boardwalk. You're supposed to keep at least 10 m between you and the seals. Usually, that's no problem because they stay out on the rocks. This guy was right beside the boardwalk. I wasn't that close, but other people were.


The hike was really neat. There were all kinds of old Maori sites along the way. The ridges you can see in the first hill were actually a Maori fort, or Pa. The town of Kaikoura is around the other side of the point. It was so foggy I couldn't really see the mountains in the background.


I sat up over the ocean and knitted for awhile.

Taupo!

I suppose I should add some words.

I took this picture out the window of the bus on my way from Rotorua to Taupo. The landscape of the North Island is literally shaped by agriculture - sheep farming. You can see how all of the rolling hills have groves worn along their sides. These were all created from the millions and billions of sheep who have grazed across this country.


Taupo is on the side of New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo. The Waikato River flows into Lake Taupo. The river has this beautiful turquiose water. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it. This isn't even a very good example, but I liked these trees growing in the river.


Taupo is known as the place to bungey jump in NZ. This is where my cousin, Jonathan, went to bungy jump (he had the t-shirt). I don't jump off tall things, but I watched for quite awhile. People make really weird/funny sounds when they jump off a cliff. One girl kept screaming as she swung around and as they collected her with the boat below and as she was dropped off on shore. This jump is about 50 m.

I hiked all along the Waikato and went to see the great Huka Falls. I read that this is one of the most visited areas in NZ. It's got nothing on Niagara. I had a conversation about waterfalls with a German-speaking guy I met. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out that he was asking me about Niagara because the German accent makes it sound like Knee-a-Gar-a, or something. Anyway, I figured it out and told him all about the place.

While I was hiking back from the Huka Falls, I came across a hotwater swimming hole. The water was really warm. Even though it was quite cool out (about 12 degrees that day) there were quite a few poeple swimming. As I walked along the river, I thought I would feel to see if the water a little further up was warm. I went down to the riverside and slipped and slid into the water. It was not warm. I was pretty embarrassed, but I knew I'd dry off quickly because the sun was out and the wind was dry, and there wasn't anyone around to really see me. OF course, as soon as I got back to the trail, I ran right into a guy I had met in Alice Springs in Australia. He laughed at me for falling into the river. Thought I was going to get away with it, but not in this small world. By the time I finished chatting with him I was dry and headed off to catch my bus.


Some sheep.
The red tiki at Taupo.

Ngaruawahia.

I've spent the last week at a small farm in a little town called Ngaruawahia. It's just north of Hamilton City in the North Island. There were three of us wwoofing there, myself, Tim from Germany, and Simon from Austria. The family who owned the farm were Don and Davina, plus their three adopted children, Martin (5), Dallas (4), and Chance (3). Don and Davina actually have four of their own children who are all in their 20's now. Davina's family is Irish, so two of her kids live in Ireland and two live in Auckland and Hamilton. The three little kids come from Maori and Pacific Island families. The boys are full brothers. Dallas is actually from a completely different tribe who actually fought against the boy's tribe.

Once the older kids moved out and Don needed to cut back on the hard farm work, they started having wwoofers stay. The three of us had bedrooms in the part of the house that the older kids used to live in. They treated us very well and I had a great first wwoofing experience. Davina is an avid knitter and there really wasn't much farm work to do at this time of the year. So I mainly spent time cooking for parties, hiking, and kayaking. We did paint some fences, cut some firewood (well, I stacked some firewood while the boys did the cutting part), and helped out feeding the animals and things a bit too. We played in the backyard a lot. The kids have two big trampolines and we tried to teach them to play soccer. This is Dallas. She currently has a broken toe, which happened on the playground at Kindergarten, but nothing slows her down. We tied Tim and Chance 3-3 in the first soccer game.


Martin and I at the Guy Fawkes Celebration. The neighbours invited everyone over for a potluck and fireworks. I spent the afternoon cooking and made: potato salad, bean salad, broccoli/cauliflower/tomato salad, and deviled eggs. They all got eaten up very quickly.

On my third day there, we went on a HUGE hike. It took about 6 hours and was very, very hard. SO much uphill scrambling and tough downhill parts. And there weren't even many places to enjoy the view. It was fun, but is was really tough too.

This is Tim and one of the trees in the massive Kauri tree grove at the beginning of the hike.


One of the viewpoints, also at the very beginning of the hike. Beautiful view here, but no more for the next five hours of slogging through the mud.


We did find a lot of interesting trees and things. Me looking up at some huge palms.


And luckily I decided we needed to pack a lunch. It's hard to see just how muddy I am in this picture, but I was very muddy.


At the other end of the hike we found this dam that the local waterworks uses to control the flow of the river. We sat here for awhile. Pretty exhausted.


Then we sat at the bottom of the waterworks, still pretty exhausted.


A few days later, Simon and I took the flat water kayaks down the river. Don drove us up stream and dropped us off and we paddled for two hours back home. The river was really beautiful and we had a great time.


Davina put Simon's camera in an old Powerade container for us to take along so we could "make some pictures".

And at the end of the paddle we found a cool little waterfall to explore before we went to the shop for ice cream. The tropical rainforest vegetation continues in the North Island. Apparently things are very different in the South.


Yesterday, the guys left to go to Raglan. It's a surfing town on the west coast of the North Island. I decided to continue heading south though because I only have a few more weeks to see the rest of NZ! Today I'm in a town called Rotorua. It's full of hot springs and Maori cultural areas. The entire town smells like sulphur. Tomorrow I'm going to the museum and maybe to see one of the Maori shows and traditional dinners. This is supposed to be the best place to do that.