Day 13 - It poured rain all night, it is still pouring this morning and we are off with our little backpack of snacks to do a guided 1/2 day walk on Fox Glacier. Good old New Zealand is prepared for this type of weather even if we "flat land prairie people" aren't. The guide service outfits us in proper hiking boots, wool socks, rain pants, rain jackets and woolen mitts (optional - I took those). A short bus ride, a nice brisk hike up the face or rubble part of the glacier, tip-toeing through a couple of rivers and there we are standing on the ice with rain falling by the bucket load out of the sky. It could have been stunning if it was a sunny day, but we had to settle for just, awesome. In order for this glacier to be where it is and how it is, only 300 ft above rainforest, there has to be a lot of precipitation, be it rain or snow, it gets upwards of 55 m of snow each season (they didn't give rain stats - my guess is 55 m of rain - kidding!). This is a very fast moving glacier; it flows 1 m per day. It was also advancing until 2005 and is now retracting, but there is no concern over this condition (yet) as over history this is a typical behavior for this glacier - move forward for a few years and back for a few years. There is also another glacier, Franz Josef, only 20 km away, same deal as this one, only bigger. Our time on the ice got cut a little short because of the rain; conditions were becoming a little un-stable. As it was, the rivers we walked on step stones to cross in the beginning were now running about a foot over the rocks, quite strongly and we had to be held on to as we crossed to make sure that we (the stupid tourists) didn't get washed away. We would have ended up in the Tasman Sea in short order if we had. Hiking boots are not waterproof when the water is over the tops! Well we are happy we sucked it up and did the trip, it was worth every drop of rain. We are done by 1:00 pm all dried up and back in the camper, headed north. We have 1/4 of the south island left to discover and only a short time to do it in. Each town we come to we drive through the centre to see what there is, stopping if we find something we can't resist. We are driving alone the coast and it is gorgeous. Our stop for the evening is a tiny town called Rapatoe (5 houses and a camp ground). The camp ground is right on the beach and we pick a site that has our back window hanging over the pounding surf, truly interesting. The beach is covered with the most perfectly rounded rocks, beaten into submission by the relentless rolling and slamming of the waves. Oh, to have a few truck loads of these at home.
Day 14 - Making tracks again. We have to make it right up to the very north of the south island today. No big deal, we've only got 5 hours of windy, twisty, mountainous roads to do it on. Oh, but the views! An historic gold mine tweaks our interest and we pull over for a rest stop and wander through a bit of history - bits of rusty old iron and dingy tunnels through a sandy hill side. It got our imaginations going though. The highlight of today is a stop at Punakaiki, where the "pancake rocks" line the coastal shore. Perfectly layered rocks formed through forces only God can know and looking like they had been placed by a master craftsman (That describes God pretty well) creating walls for a lovely garden. There are caverns and blow holes and layer cakes, all with lush greenery sprouting from every crevice. Meanwhile the sea tries with all of it's might to smash this monument to itty bitty pieces. Our road takes us inland along the mighty Buller River. The highway clings to the edge of its rugged banks. NZ is famous for one laned bridges and the system works pretty well as the traffic volume isn't great. One of these bridges is virtually cut into the bank (rock) as a three sided tunnel. But if that isn't enough, it is an "S" curve, so each side of traffic has to stop at either end and wait a bit to make sure that nobody is in the hidden curve before starting across - scary! There are a lot of places we would love to stop today, but time is no longer on our side. There are just too many good things to explore here. Our stop tonight is in Marahau at the edge of the Able Tasman National Park on the very top of South Island.
Day 15 - It's day's end now and both Glen and I hurt. We did a biathlon today. We wore off a month of chocolate bars and beer in a single day. At 8:30am, we were at Kahu Kayak's office getting a briefing on our day of freedom kayaking (by ourselves) into the Able Tasman Park. Piece of cake, we've kayaked once before! Long story short, we didn't capsize, which would have been a major catastrophe and we did make it to our destination in spite of our screaming shoulders and arms. Oh, yes, I think there was scenery to see, ummm? Really there was. The most beautiful private beaches of golden sand spaced between outcroppings of rock and trees. The only way into the park is by water or walking, so these beaches are private. We managed a couple of landings to enjoy them while we had a rest and a bit of lunch. Now for normal people, who I thought we were, the kayaking would have been enough for one day, just catch the water taxi back to the start like everybody else. Oh, No. We are going to hike out. Again, we are experienced at this, we've done three hikes here (only about an hour each). Off we go, hitting the path and the uphill incline, well one hour later and much more grumbly and did I mention that this is the hottest day we have seen in about the last two weeks? - we are back at the beach asking where the track to get home is. Directions are now clear and we head off again - the sign at the trail entrance says 12.7 km back to Marahau (I think we water logged our brains!). Man, cold beer never tasted so good as when we finally reach our camper. Yes, yes, we were supposed to re-hydrate, but the water was hot, sitting in the camper all day. I hope we'll be able to get out of bed tomorrow.
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