Fox Glacier, NZ, 28 Feb 09
This morning Janet was booked to go on a glacier walk but she was feeling so bad that she was going to have to cancel. I went down to see our host for breakfast and asked if he could call the company to warn them and said she realised she'd still have to pay the money as it was too short notice (one hour before her pick up time) but he said that they'd just called to cancel the tour as their driver was injured. Phew. Well, sad affair for the driver of course, but it saved her about $85, which is not bad considering that we'd just done our accounts and have spent over $2,000 each in the last 12 days, eeeek. Shocking. I even enquired about renting a camper van, for future ref, in case it'd work out more cheaply, but at $200 per day, it would save no money :(
We were also considering going on a White Heron Sanctuary cruise but our host said it was the end of the season now and we wouldn't see many so we gave up on that. It turned out to be a good thing as the weather got worse as the afternoon progressed so we would have wasted more money. Moral of the lesson here: wait & see !
So we just enjoyed the day in quiet ways as I didn't want Janet to over-do it. We took a stroll in Franz Josef park to see the glacier a bit closer (well, she walked all the way, I only got up to half way, by a waterfall as I don't have a huge interest in glaciers myself). We then drove to Fox Glacier National Park, for more of the same... in fact, glacier landscapes are so similar that I did wonder if we'd driven back in full circle -- that's how much I know ! But I realised there was no big waterfall there...
It was pleasant enough, and I needed the [gentle] exercise really. I am puffing away as soon as we go uphill. Not good. We then drove to Lake Matheson, the 'must do' walk in the area, as 'any decent NZ guidebook will have a photo of Mt Cook perfectly reflected in its tranquil waters'... *except* on a rainy day, that is, as the countless rain drops kept fuzzing the 'mirror effect'... and the mist on the horizon also made the snow capped peaks disappear into more fuzz... so, that was our dull experience of Lake Matheson. The postcards showing the perfect reflection on a perfect day just makes us want to cry with frustration basically. It was still a pretty walk, very lush, with moss on many trees and on the track edges. It did look like Jurassic Park territory and sure enough, when we got to a little plaque I read the following : 'South West NZ is one of the great wilderness areas of the Southern Hemisphere. 10% of NZ's land area (2.6 million hectares) was granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1990. In this setting live some of the best example of animal and plants once found in the ancient super continent Gondwana'. And for the ones not in the know they added 'World Heritage is a global concept that identifies natural and cultural sites of world significane places so special that protecting them is a concern to all people'.
And that was the end of our day. By the time we'd finished our walk the rain got heavier and heavier and we are now back at Franz Josef (only one small main street, 6 shops, a few places to book activities, 4 restaurants and that's about it ! and Fox Glacier township is even smaller, if you can believe it). The craft shops are very quaint though and we could browse around those for hours, very beautiful items for sale, all on a nature theme of course, mainly the silver fern (that the Maori people used to find their way back in the forests -- on one side the leaf is a deep green, on the other it's quite silver-ish and shines in the moonlight). To mark their way, they would turn some leaves over and just watch out for the moonlight reflections on the way back. Clever or what? I was very impressed.
On this note, I'm off to grab some dinner. Tomorrow we have a 7 hour drive ahead, all the way to Queenstown and there is lots to see on the way but the weather forecast (if you dare believe it), is.... oh surprise: rain. Oh well, que sera, sera... c'est la vie ... as we say in Froggie Land.
This morning Janet was booked to go on a glacier walk but she was feeling so bad that she was going to have to cancel. I went down to see our host for breakfast and asked if he could call the company to warn them and said she realised she'd still have to pay the money as it was too short notice (one hour before her pick up time) but he said that they'd just called to cancel the tour as their driver was injured. Phew. Well, sad affair for the driver of course, but it saved her about $85, which is not bad considering that we'd just done our accounts and have spent over $2,000 each in the last 12 days, eeeek. Shocking. I even enquired about renting a camper van, for future ref, in case it'd work out more cheaply, but at $200 per day, it would save no money :(
We were also considering going on a White Heron Sanctuary cruise but our host said it was the end of the season now and we wouldn't see many so we gave up on that. It turned out to be a good thing as the weather got worse as the afternoon progressed so we would have wasted more money. Moral of the lesson here: wait & see !
So we just enjoyed the day in quiet ways as I didn't want Janet to over-do it. We took a stroll in Franz Josef park to see the glacier a bit closer (well, she walked all the way, I only got up to half way, by a waterfall as I don't have a huge interest in glaciers myself). We then drove to Fox Glacier National Park, for more of the same... in fact, glacier landscapes are so similar that I did wonder if we'd driven back in full circle -- that's how much I know ! But I realised there was no big waterfall there...
It was pleasant enough, and I needed the [gentle] exercise really. I am puffing away as soon as we go uphill. Not good. We then drove to Lake Matheson, the 'must do' walk in the area, as 'any decent NZ guidebook will have a photo of Mt Cook perfectly reflected in its tranquil waters'... *except* on a rainy day, that is, as the countless rain drops kept fuzzing the 'mirror effect'... and the mist on the horizon also made the snow capped peaks disappear into more fuzz... so, that was our dull experience of Lake Matheson. The postcards showing the perfect reflection on a perfect day just makes us want to cry with frustration basically. It was still a pretty walk, very lush, with moss on many trees and on the track edges. It did look like Jurassic Park territory and sure enough, when we got to a little plaque I read the following : 'South West NZ is one of the great wilderness areas of the Southern Hemisphere. 10% of NZ's land area (2.6 million hectares) was granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1990. In this setting live some of the best example of animal and plants once found in the ancient super continent Gondwana'. And for the ones not in the know they added 'World Heritage is a global concept that identifies natural and cultural sites of world significane places so special that protecting them is a concern to all people'.
And that was the end of our day. By the time we'd finished our walk the rain got heavier and heavier and we are now back at Franz Josef (only one small main street, 6 shops, a few places to book activities, 4 restaurants and that's about it ! and Fox Glacier township is even smaller, if you can believe it). The craft shops are very quaint though and we could browse around those for hours, very beautiful items for sale, all on a nature theme of course, mainly the silver fern (that the Maori people used to find their way back in the forests -- on one side the leaf is a deep green, on the other it's quite silver-ish and shines in the moonlight). To mark their way, they would turn some leaves over and just watch out for the moonlight reflections on the way back. Clever or what? I was very impressed.
On this note, I'm off to grab some dinner. Tomorrow we have a 7 hour drive ahead, all the way to Queenstown and there is lots to see on the way but the weather forecast (if you dare believe it), is.... oh surprise: rain. Oh well, que sera, sera... c'est la vie ... as we say in Froggie Land.
posted by Sylvie at 5:58 AM
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