New Zealand day 17

            The next village south of Franz Joseph is called Fox Glacier, named for the huge glacier nearby (which, as you recall is one of only three in the world that end in a subtropical rainforest).  Here, there is a postcard view of the tallest mountains in New Zealand—Mount Cook and Mount Tasman—with beautiful Lake Matheson in the foreground.  Everyone told us to go early for the view, when the lake is perfectly calm and the reflection of the peaks is clear.  So, knowing we had a long drive ahead of us today, we were up at six and ready to go by 7 for the 25 km drive to the lake.  Only, outside, the place was caked with fog.  Not shrouded.  Caked.  You could cut it with a knife.

            But all packed up and ready to go, we headed for Fox Glacier and said our prayers for the sun to lift the fog.  Halfway there, after an upward rise of a thousand feet or so, we broke through into bright sunlight.  As the cheers subsided, we noticed that below us were the thick clouds that we had just exited.  But we pressed on and, detouring to the parking area for the glacier itself, found the clouds/fog thinning enough to try the walk.  By the time we climbed to the base of the glacier, the sun had done its job and we were rewarded with a great view of this magnificent glacier and the huge milky river runoff created by the melting.  Signs were posted marking past ending points so that it is obvious this one is shrinking rapidly.  The views along the glacier canyon and of the waterfalls along the way were amazing, as usual.

 Fox Glacier

            Although it was time to get on the road south, we couldn’t resist doubling back to see if the fog was cleared from Lake Matheson and, of course, it was gone.  We hurriedly did the one-hour walk around the lake in 30 minutes, soaked up the magnificent view, and headed south.

 Cook  and Abel Tasman Mountains in the background

            We drove for hours past high waterfalls, higher snow-capped mountains, cobalt lakes 1,500 feet deep, beautiful coastal vistas, and rushing mountain rivers filled with boulders as big as school buses.  We have run out of words.  Our thesaurus has run out of synonyms.  We have seen a very few places where a person would be content to spend an entire day in one spot just drinking in the scene; the rim of the Grand Canyon and the north end of Santorini in Greece come to mind.  Standing in these places is almost a religious experience; their grandeur is almost unimaginable.  There must be dozens, if not hundreds, of such places in the southern half of the South Island of New Zealand.  You really should put this place near the top of your bucket list.

            One of the deep lakes en route

            Late in the afternoon we stopped in the town of Wanaka to buy extra minutes for the cell phone.  There, we noticed a place on the waterfront called Tango’s.  Just out of curiosity—and not because everyone seated out front was eating ice cream—we popped in to take a look.  As we drew close to the front of the crowd of waiting customers, we noticed a huge selection of ice cream on display.  The beauty of the day must have caused some disorientation on Tricia’s part, because before I could stop her, she had ordered a waffle cone with a double scoop:  one of rum raisin and one of mascarpone.  It would have been unthinkably gauche to allow her to eat alone, so I chose a more conservative regular cone of a flavor called gold.  The proprietor informed me the gold flavor was a modified hokey pokey with chips of crunchy chocolate.  It was almost as good as plain hokey pokey, the national flavor.  The mascarpone wasn’t bad, either (you knew Tricia would insist I try it); but I haven’t yet developed a taste for Italian cream cheese as ice cream.

            We finally arrived in a town called Cromwell, where we kept ourselves from asking the locals why anyone would name a town bor a brutal despot who was so hated his body was exhumed several years after his death and executed posthumously.  For some reason Pat Benatar is doing a concert at a winery near hear tomorrow night.  We will have to miss it, but instead went down to a waterfront Italian restaurant named Armando’s.  Armando was there, and the 5 servings of tapas he made for us would have been a great ending for a fantastic day.  Except for the fact that after the meal, a scoop of berry-and-coconut gelato from his freezer was a really great ending for a fantastic day.

Charlie & Tricia

©2013

New Zealand day 16

 Looking up from the village of Franz Josef

                        The Franz Josef Glacier, within sight of the Tasman Sea about 9 miles away, was named for an Austrian, Emperor Franz Joseph.  Old Franz never saw the glacier, or New Zealand—or anywhere else outside his empire, for that matter.  But Austrian explorer Julius Haast, who had named just about everything around here for himself, was running short of money, and thought naming something special for someone rich might help his finances.  Sort of like University presidents in our country do from time to time.  So Julius, claiming this giant glacier reminded him of the emperor’s beard (never mind that the emperor never could grow much more than a stubble of a beard), named it accordingly.  And sure enough, next time Julius was received by the emperor back home, Franz awarded him a significant stipend.  And since there are around 300 glaciers in this area known as the Southern Alps, you might want to consider coming down and naming one of them for Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.  You never know when it could bring great profits to you, as well.

 Franz Joseph Glacier from the ground

            The glacier is one of only three in the world that flow into a subtropical rain forest.  The second one, Fox Glacier, is just down the road from us, and the third one is in Argentina.  The little village of Franz Joseph is by far the warmest place we have been on this trip, and the glacier is melting like crazy.  While it is advancing down the mountain slopes at a rate of up to 15 feet a day (three feet on slow days), the bottom of the glacier is melting faster than that, so it appears that the glacier is retreating.  But as we all know, glaciers never retreat; they just melt away.  In fact, this glacier is melting rapidly, and has been doing so for more than 150 years.  If you want absolute, irrefutable proof that global warming caused by humans is a myth, here it is.  The melting here, and elsewhere, far predates the industrial age.  Of course, if you want absolute, irrefutable proof that humans are a significant factor in global warming, visit Greenland or the area in northernmost Canada.  As for me, when it comes to information on global warming, I rely on whatever I am told by Fox News, MSNBC, politicians, and editorial writers.  Those guys all know far more than the stupid scientists.

 Only way to arrive on a glacier

            The principal reason the glaciers exist here at all is the huge amount of annual precipitation.  The village gets an average of 9 feet of rain each year; and at the top of the glacier, the moist winds coming in from the Tasman Sea to the west dump around 30 feet per year.  Friends,  that is a lot of water.

 

Franz Joseph from the helicopter

            On a beautiful, absolutely clear day, a group of ten of us took two helicopters up a couple thousand feet and landed on this magnificent glacier, followed by a guided tour of two hours.  We walked and gawked quite a way up the glacier, pausing to watch pieces breaking off high above us. The hike lasted for more than two hours,  and was a real adventure.  We passed through little ice caves, crossed tiny streams of glacial water runoff, and climbed up to see a waterfall within a glacier.  It was so incredible that we can only give you a few photos to convey the feeling.

  Just a small waterfall 200 yards behind us

Climbing down an ice cave

 Blue ice crevasse

 

Cool drink of glacier water

 To give a little perspective

            To celebrate this most impressive day of our journey, Tricia went through the local shops and Charlie went back to the room to do laundry.  But he was distracted by a display of ice cream in the local wildlife center.  The lady at the counter tried to talk me into the Hokey Pokey, saying it was the favorite of American author Steve Berry when he passed through here a couple of years ago.  But I had already experienced a delicious cone of that national flavor, and wanted something new.  The caramelita flavor in the freezer was a bit too much like plain caramel, but the macadamia dulce—indescribable.  As you know, the macadamia flavor is a subtle one, and bringing it out so those with mere ordinary palates can appreciate the taste—well, that is an art.  It can be reported accurately that whoever makes the ice cream for the wildlife center in Franz Joseph is a genuine artiste.  If I hadn’t been afraid Tricia would catch me, I would have sneaked one more cone of it.

            To rest our weary bones, we spent time soaking in the local thermal pools and opening the bottle of special wine we had purchased in Marlborough Country for just such an occasion.  We also spent some time wondering how we are going to top today’s experience.  That will be quite a challenge.

Charlie & Tricia

©2013

New Zealand day 15

            As we spend 8 hours or so driving south you deserve some information about taxes in New Zealand, in the event you are thinking of a move. The top national rate on income is 33%, close to the top rate paid in the USA by all but a small percentage of taxpayers.  If that seems a bargain, consider what they call the GST—another federal tax, this one on all goods and services, amounting to 15%.  This includes haircuts, stocks, medical services, sales of real estate of all kinds, and just about every other transaction you can think of.  So when you buy your next home, think about adding 15% to the price, plus 15% to all the services you might incur in connection with the purchase.  Think about the additional property taxes levied by local “councils” on all property in New Zealand each year.  Think about how 4 million people in a country the size of Georgia and Florida combined can pay for all the free health care, highways, and education for its people with low taxes.  Think again about moving here.  But it is a beautiful country.

            We enjoyed some of that beauty as we traveled along the mountainous highway, passing dozens of rocky rivers on the way to the coast.  And when we arrived at the Tasman Sea, the scenery only grew more beautiful.

 

Along the Tasman Sea coast

  

            We stopped for a hike at a place called Pancake Rocks, where dozens of layers of sedimentary rocks built up over who knows how many years have created a unique scene.  We marveled not only at the rocks, but the water and mountains in the background, and the sea crashing onto the rocks to form caverns and an arch in the sea.  The country grows more beautiful with each passing kilometer.

  Pancake Rocks

 Pancake rocks up close

            We haven’t mentioned the numerous one-lane bridges all over the country, but you come upon them pretty often.  And we are not talking about side roads; it seems half the bridges on the national highways are one lane only.  You get a warning a hundred yards or so before you come up on one, with a sign showing two arrows.  One small arrow in red points away from you, and one large arrow in black points toward you.   Only the very brightest of foreign motorists is able to discern from this which direction has the right-of-way—or what to do when you enter one end of the bridge at the same time someone enters the other end.  And some of them are curved, so you can’t tell whether someone has entered the other end, which makes for a real thrill.  There is even at least one such bridge that is shared with a railroad, with tracks running down the center of the bridge.  And there is no sign indicating whether the train would have the right-of-way.  But even the most severely challenged of drivers should have no problem deciding what action to take in the case of a train coming from the other end.

 One way bridge shared with railroad

            We have finally arrived in Franz Joseph for the night.  Get ready for excitement on a glacier tomorrow.

Charlie & Tricia

©2013