Greetings from the land of Kiwis, where I am currently on Lake Moreaki, in the Southwest New Zealand World Heritage area. It is raining and we have a layover day from biking, which is giving me a great chance to update the blog on the trip so far.
After almost not getting into the country becuase of a jar of Tiger Balm, I arrived in Christchurch and spent a few hours exploring before it got dark. The next morning was an early start. I met my Backroads group at the train station where we boarded the TranzAlpine Express to Moana. There, we had lunch (eating is a really big theme for this part of the trip) and headed out on our first ride!
The fist sites we saw were beaches. We spent a night at Punakaiki in this really cool beachfront lodge. Punakaiki is near the Pancake Rocks, which are some large rock formations that look like pancakes. The rain was driving down so I have no photos, but will be getting some from other folks to post later. The second night we stayed in the little town of Hokitika, where there is a black sand beach! This was right outside my window:
Unlike Australia, New Zealand really has no dangerous animals (they also do not have koalas). The third day we ventured inland to where there are more mammals. This cafe in Pukekura is capitalizing on the local food source and even sells possum jerky and possum pies. I tried some of the jerky and it was not bad. The owner has quite a sense of humor as you can guess from the outside of his store. The place is for sale if anyone is interested.
A note on New Zealand possums: they are not like the ones at home. They are actually sort of cute. In fact, they look disturbingly like cats. The only ones I have seen so far are dead, because there is a huge overpopulation problem. Per the photo below, people set a lot of traps for possums and they even shoot the poor things. National Geographic did an article on the possum issue, including a photo of one still alive, which you can read at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0425_060425_possum.html.
From there, we cycled to Franz Josef where we joined several thousand of our tour bus friends. Franz Josef is a small town near one of two really large glaciers, so it is worth braving all the people. We had a day off biking to explore, and I went for a hike with Pam and our guide Eoin (pronounced Owen). We saw where the glaciers melt into the riverbeds. The water is so cold that sometimes there is still ice flowing by in huge chunks!
Here I am at the bottom of the glacier:
Later that day, we did one of the coolest things ever (no pun intended). We went for a ride in a helicopter over the glaciers! The pilot of our helicopter was about 14 years old.
I'll have more photos later on this from my friend Larry, but here are some previews. It is hard to explain what a glacier looks like until you see it up close. Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are some of the only glaciers in the world that are actually getting bigger rather than smaller! However, there is still evidence of global warming around the area. They just get a real lot of snow there. Read more on Franz Josef at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Glacier.
Here I am at the top of the glacier:
Now, I am off for a hike in the rain - it has stopped for a few minutes so maybe I'll get lucky. Check the blog soon for more on New Zealand, and post comments!
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