Shaking It in Christchurch

A long day in the car. It can't be helped. We've bitten off a full day drive from the Fox Glacier to Christchurch city on the opposite coast (and over the mountains) so that we can catch our flight home tomorrow morning.

At least we mentally prepared the kids by telling them it would take foooorrreeeevvver and we wouldn't get the Christchurch until after dark. In reality it's only about six hours....

We say goodbye to our beautiful little Glacier camp and head back up the west coast first thing in the morning. This time we don't have the gloomy rain of the ride down, but a patchwork of sun and clouds.

Christchurch lays almost directly East of the Fox Glacier, but we have to drive some 180 kilometres north along the coast before we can turn east and pass through the mountains. And there is no wonder, we can't simply drive through the highest peaks of the southern alps! Mt Cook at 3750 meters would be a darn hard thing to put a road over or through!

It was a long day of driving, but we had plenty of amazing scenery to keep us occupied. 

Arthur's Pass is every bit as stunning as touted in the guide books. And it seems like quite a feat of engineering that you can literally drive across a mountain range in a day. Albeit me with sweaty palms during some of the hairpin turns!! 

We had the chance to meet one of the famous South Island Keas up close and personal when we stopped in Arthur's Pass. The cheeky little bugger was busy meeting the tourists by landing on their cars and begging for food.

We reached Christchurch in the late afternoon and what a contrast to the West Coast. It was sunny, dry and very hot. Not wanting to spend too much time at the airport hotel we drove downtown to see what kind of progress has been made since the earthquake.

What's left of the CBD of Christchurch

Of course we've all heard about the devastating 2011 quake, and seen pictures of the damage. But when you don't live in a place you tend to move on. Other things compete for the space in your head. It is the countries most costly natural disaster (some economists estimate the rebuild of the city will be in excess of 40 billion dollars) It killed something like 180 people and toppled the Christchurch Cathedral so you would expect to see some damage. But I must say three years on and I wasn't really prepared for it. As you drive through the city it seems a bit macabre to be "looking for damage" but then, lets be honest, of course we were. Just like every other looky-loo driving past an accident scene. It is a natural fetish to see such things.

You don't see much damage near the airport, but as you get near the CBD it is suddenly brutally in your face. Then entire down town is either gone or cordoned off. Even after three years the devastation is still that apparent. Some may say that the government hasn't acted fast enough, but with the cost for the rebuild likely to be pulling our country into debt for a hundred years or more  - not to mention that the aftershock earthquakes are still hitting the city - I am not quite sure where I stand. Certainly my heart bleeds for the people of Christchurch. Both the ones who have stayed, and the ones who have left.

What really struck me the most was the "new downtown" is built of shipping containers. Stores and restaurants have all popped up back in business, despite the red zone around them. Temporary, yes. But inventive and quite cool. I'd certainly feel safer in one of those than a traditional brick house down here. And it just goes to show that life will go on. Humans are good that way!

So enough of the tiki tour, we grabbed some Hell Pizza (somehow fitting) and called it an early night at our hotel to get some shut eye before our early morning flight tomorrow.

What a fantastic trip this has been. Family bonding at it's best. And another part of our stunning country that we have been able to explore. It is humbling that these blessings are available to us.

Until the next journey.....

What Does The Fox Say?

No Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingering from Ylvis' catchy 2013 Swedish pop song for us today....

No, today the fox speaks in geological term. Ancient terms of water, rock and ice. For today is the day we visit the Fox Glacier. One of the most accessible Crown Jewels in the icy tiara of glaciers that descend from new Zealand's southern alps.

Hiking up to the Fox Glacier - look closely and you will see some small dots on the trail by the river. Those are people, just to give you an idea of the huge scale of this place.

When planning this trip to the South Island one of the things that we saved up for was to end it with a really memorable experience. Something that, hopefully, would be as memorable as the Queen Charlotte Track at the beginning. A bookend if you will! And that is why today we've splurged the extra money to hire a guide and actually walk up and onto the glacier itself. Juliet is too young to go - minimum age of seven required - so we split up into two groups. Us girls in the morning and the boys in the afternoon. So it's up early and a nice little walk into town from our camp site to start our day.

Once we've had our safety briefing at the Fox Glacier Guides and get fitted with crampons we board a bus to take us from the little tourist township up the nearly seven kilometers to the glacier itself. At first the drive is the usual stunning beauty of lush trees and ferns so typical of the south island. But as we gradually get closer the trees become noticeably smaller and then non existent, marking the time when the glacier was this far down the valley. Surprisingly not that many hundred of years past. It's a potent image of how alive this land is, and just how fast this glacier is receding up the hill. No one can fake the growth of trees. As we enter the valley itself the naked rock cliffs towering above us remind us of just how small we really are.

At the glacier terminus. Cameras can't capture the size of this place. See the people standing by the river?

The Fox Glacier is fed by four alpine glaciers and falls some 2600 meters in a giant frozen waterfall toward the sea and paradoxically lands it in the rainforest that covers the coastline of the South Island. And at the moment it is retreating at an alarming rate. The past years of drought and the overall warming that we've experienced has hastened it's retreat. And because New Zealand is a maritime climate (meaning that we get lots of snowfall, but not very cold temperatures) our glaciers are specifically sensitive to global warming.

In keeping with the warming theme, it seems appropriate that today the sun is shining (quite a rare thing for this part of the country) and of course that just enhances the stunning beauty.

As we walk up to the terminus you can hear the sounds of water rushing out of the glacier and the occasional rock or slab of ice rumbling down. It's like a great beast rumbling in it's own growly language.

On go the crampons and up we go onto the ice itself. The guide has hacked out steps into the ice, and all safety precautions have been observed, but still we feel quite the rugged individuals. There are quite a few tourists on similar groups (mainly Chinese) so we don't feel isolated, but for us this is not about solitude as much as it is about feeling nature in its grandest form and connecting with the last vestiges of the ice age.

The girls loved it. Sister bonding at it's best. Even when Clara fell down a slope and landed on top of some rocks (which were plugging up a rather deep crevasse) it didn't dampen their spirits.
Although I must say that when she landed in the crevasse and the sound of rock falls hit us, both the guide and myself had a small panic attack while getting to her. Scary though it may sound, with Clara you get used to being put into such situations! She got a bruise and a reminder to stay on the trail. (And the guide got his first gray hair.) And we all laughed at the end.

The highlight for Liana was drinking the pure glacier water that was pouring off the ice. We filled our bottles and brought some home to enjoy at the camp site. 

All in all we were on the glacier about three hours. It was hot, it was cold, it was spectacular, it was an immense feeling to be amongst the natural grandeur. And everyone needs to be humbled from time to time. It's good for the soul.

The boys had an equally good time in the afternoon and we spent our last night in Glacier Country bbq-ing in the shadow of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. What an amazing time that we live in that such wonders are available to us mere humans. I hope that our descendants will have the same views when they have their turn through this world a hundred years or so from now.

The glacier was the perfect way to cap our explorations of the South Island. Tomorrow we are in for a long haul across the country to Christchurch.

Driving, Cape Foulwind, Pancakes and Pounamu

Oh no, Juliet, don't leave Koala behind!

It was a long day of driving from Golden Bay to Westport. And I am glad that we didn't decided to drive any further that day. Any more driving and the beauty of the place all blurs into one long car ride and takes the fun out of the trip.
Most of the day was spent heading over the mountains and down the Buller River gorge to the wild west coast. There were several wonderful road side fruit stalls and an aborted picnic at a place the kids aptly dubbed "sandfly river" (we ate in the car, with the windows up), but mostly we drove on enjoying the scenery as it passed by. And luckily the weather gods are still on our side with fantastic blue skies all the way.

Views of Tauranga Bay, Cape Foulwind

Westport is our stopover point where we checked in to our next Top 10 for the night. Westport is kind of a gloomy town, being on the dieing side of the coal mining industry, and lashed with the wild west coast weather, but we did make it in time to check out the Fur Seal Colony at Cape Foulwind which was well worth the stop!

The stunning beach at Tauranga Bay, Cape Foulwind

Cape Foulwind Lighthouse

Cape Foulwind was named by Captain Cook who encountered the famous west coast weather on his trip through the area in 1770. It took his ship three months to pass this cape, poor souls. It's surprising that his name for the Cape wasn't a bit ruder! The walk out to the Fur Seal Colony was the perfect way to stretch out the car cramps and the baby fur seals were just adorable. Once you adjusted your eyes there were heaps of them bouncing around under rocks waiting for mum to come home and feed them. Lucky for us we still had the stunning weather to highlight the pristine beach that stretches along this lonely, seemingly forgotten coastline. 

In the morning we are off to check out the Glaciers!

Punakaiki Coastline, one of Lonely Planet's top ten most scenic drives

Sister Power

The drive from Westport to Glacier Country is rated by Lonely Planet to be one of the top ten most scenic drives in the world. Sadly our pact with the good weather god ended and we awoke to rain. I suppose it had to happen and truth be told the weather added a bit of mystery to the surrounds. The mountains were wreathed it low lying clouds and seemed both distant and intimate at the same time. Huge cliffs dripping with water and ancient vegetation plunge into the storm swept seas that churned with giant sea kelp and rolling breakers. Lonely planet did not lie, it's dramatic scenery whatever the weather.

Walking through the fields of flax to see the Pancake Rocks

We stopped at Punakaiki to view the famous pancake rocks that stick out into the ocean here. They are made from limestone, but geologists are still puzzled as to why they developed such a unique look to them. The rain had lifted enough to allow us to take the walk around the rocks and view platforms. It is very well laid out for visitors and with all the Chinese tourists that are starting to flood the tourism sector here I would say it's a good thing. Clara had her picture taken by several Asian tourists all in love with her bronze-red hair!

Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki

Pancake Rocks

And it's back on the road. Once past Greymouth the scenery starts changing and you can feel the presence of the glaciers up in the hidden mountains above us. These are the Great Southern Alps that we are starting to encounter and every few kilometers or so that we drive south we cross another raging glacial river running out of the hills. These mountains and rivers are where the pounamu (Nephrite Jade) was traditionally harvested by the Maori, something they used as money and status. They would travel long distances and fight many a battle to come into possession of this most sacred taonga (treasure). Looking at the raging rapids and milky glacial waters I have a new found respect for those first settlers of New Zealand who traveled through this inhospitable country.

The kids are good troopers and we stop whenever needed - even by the side of one such raging glacial river! At one turn off we made a stop to see if we could fossick out any jade, but the sand flies were too big for us to stay long.

Finally we arrived in the little town of Fox Glacier, a town built solely on the tourist trade servicing the glacier. Tomorrow we are going back in geological history to climb one of the last vestiges of the ice age - the Fox Glacier.

Campsite for the night.... In the shadow of giants....