Weekend adventures

It has been a while since my last post because when we travel on the weekend we are completly unconnected from life, i.e. phones, email, internet etc....so no time to update you all on our outings. And during the week, well I am supposed to be here to work! 
Outing to the Glaciers

About 1.5 hours south of Hokitika are two glaciers, Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. 

Both are nestled in the Southern Alps, in the Westland National Park, surrounded by rain forest.  They are the worlds steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glaciers. They are near Mt. Cook, the tallest moutian in New Zealand at 12,000 feet, and one of them is a twenty square mile snow field.  Over 100 feet of snow each year is added to the glaciers. That snow field has spawned a glacier which moves ten times the speed of normal glaciers. Fox Glacier plows forward at a rate of thirty feet per day. Due to its speed, it survives down to an altitude of 1,000 feet, where it grinds through rain forest. The bottom edge of the glaciers are only a few kilometers from the Tasman Sea.  It's really amazing......glacier, rain forest, ocean....how's that work?  We drove down there and took a hike to see the bottom edge of a glacier.

The glacier itself runs for nine miles. At its end, tourists can approach within 600 feet of its massive face.

Approaching Franz Josef Glacier

Surrounding landscape

Taking it in

In 2009, two tourists ignored the warning signs to get pictures closer to the glacier. They were crushed by a chunk of ice weighing over 100 tons. One of their bodies was found 6 miles downstream. The glacier can be very dangrous.

Flat ranger, one of their most effective safety signs, telling me to stop here. The full size ranger works in my office.  I haven't got to the nerve to ask him for a side by side photo with the real ranger yet.  I'm told this sign and fencing gets moved ever few days as the glacier moves. 

Outing to the Heaphy Hut

New Zealand has an extensive hut system which is turuly one of the most amazing ways to enjoy the country.There are huts everywhere that you can hike to and stay overnight.  It's like back packing without the need for carrying a tent and sleeping pad.  The region of the Dept. of Conservation has 160 huts in this region alone. There are several "Great Walks" - multiday hiking trails (called treks here) with huts along the way.  The Heaphy Trail is one of the great walks.  We went into the Heaphy Hut for a one night stay, just in and out from one end of the trail, although most of the people we met at the hut had hikes the trail from end to end. Our hike was 4.5 hours all along the coast, in and out of the edge of the rainforest.  The 4.5 hour walk gave me plenty of time to contemplate what I really, really did not need to put in my pack for the next tramp in the woods.  This hut is on a reservation system and accommodates 28 people.  The 10th Mountain huts in Colorado are the things that remind me most of these huts.  Most of the huts are first come first serve so we’ll have to start early in the day to make sure we get a roof over our head!

Karamea - the town at the end of the road before the Heaphy Trek - Lea fits right in!

The start of the Trek - says it's 5 hours to the hut




One of several swing bridges on the trek - max capacity 5 people...are they considering that extra dam person on my BACK



The tramp (trail - not the people)




More Tramping

And more

And more.......

Also went through the bush (forest)

The HUT!  This one is sized for 28 people..kind of tight quarters...listened to snoring choruses most of the night.  This hut is being replaced shortly, it's one of Tom's projects.  It won't have much more capacity but will have more floor space.


Back of the hut, view from the toilets.



The toilets!  Yes, they are flush toilets.  Unbelievable.  Everything at the hut is serviced by helicopter.  DOC owns and manages the huts, it's a big part of their operations.

 

One of the things I don't like about New Zealand are the sand fies.  I now know where the term "little bugger" has come from.  They are mean blood suckers but fortunately were only at the trailhead at the start of the hut and around the hut at night.  This is me in sand fly protection gear.  They weren't going to get me tonight.  They aren't bad at the ocean front with a nice breeze either so I was a little over protected for this outing.

Father -daughter contemplation ---- "What a nice mom you have Lea"  :)

A new friend on the trail - he didn't mind if I am a slow hiker.

Surfing and Seals

After our second day of 4.5 hours of hiking, we found a comfortable motel to stay in for the night and rest our feet.  The next day we found a beautiful swimming beach where Greg and Lea took a surfing lesson and I enjoyed swimming in the ocean.The beach was a perfect location to learn to surf because it had constant waves and gradualy got deeper.  Lots of perfect waves!  It's definitely more comfortable swimming in a shorty or wet suit. 

Greg, Lea and the instructor - rented full wet suits and big floaty boards - they both got up

My company on the beach

Surfs up dude (and dudette)

Hang Ten

 The beach is close to a Seal Colony - the babies were born about 1 month ago


At first it was hard to see the seals but then as you got used to spotting them there were several mommas and babies.  There's one in the middle of this photo to the right of the white thing, just above the grass.