NZ Photos - 7

From Greymouth to Haast

The Franz Joseph Glacier

Glacial striation carvings on mountainside

This sign means:
"Please be sure to indicate when you are falling off a cliff by waving"

Drive from glaciers to Haast





Great meal in Haast

Partially devoured venison salad

Wife's "best seafood chowder" rated of trip

Yet more great wine

Best lamb of trip - I ate every bite of this plate

Wife's Salmon

NZ Photos - 6

From Blenheim across to Westport and down the Greymouth

Start with the vineyards of Marlborough

The mountains start rising

Then to the West Coast

NZ Photos - 5

Finally got some internet that's fairly fast, so I'm going to try and catch up!

These are from our Blenheim/Keirkora trip - not not int in the right order

The Gardens in Blenheim:

I really loved this tree

Examples of the great colors in the gardens we've seen

Wife stalking 'art' photo

My version of 'art' photo

Mountains and waterfall on the way to Kierkora

Sea lions (or fur seals?) - These are actually pups playing

Elders snoozing

Samples of rules of teachers and students from historical building dating to the 1890's

New Zealand 2009 - Tales of the Camera Sherpa - Part 13 & 14

I am a little delayed in posting because I was having internet hook up problems and because we have just come back from our two day bus/boat trip to the Doubtful Sound in Fiordland. Fiordland is the Southeastern section of the South Island. If you look on the map you will see that like Norway, the coast is completely indented with sounds, bays and fiords.

We started our trip on Sunday morning being picked up at our hotel at 8:15 and taken to the Real Journeys staging point in Queenstown. Our route to Doubtful Sound starts with a bus drive that takes us around one of the major lakes of the region, past numerous peaks of the Southern Alps and through the rolling countryside of North Southland (I'm not making that name up). It's a little like going throug parts of the Montana and the Dakotas. Sheep are everywhere as are deer which are also farmed for venison.

Miracle of miracles it is a sunny day! We can actually see the mountains even thought the tops are still shrouded with roiling clouds the remnants of the prior bad weather. Then we reach a rendez-vous where others are joining us who have driven. We now take a 45 minute boat ride that ferries us to the next rendez-vous. Some who are taking shorter trips go on one bus while those who are on the overnight cruise go to others.

Our second bus ride is 45 minutes. It takes on a winding gravel road over the Wilmont Pass. It was doing some major snow here yesterday because of the storm that I wrote about in my prior posts. This is one of the few temperate rain forests in the world. They get over 21 feet of rain a year! All of the trees were covered in snow. As you reach the top of the pass, you get your first view of the Sound with boat waiting below. it's about 1 in the afternoon now.

After getting on board and into our cabins, the boat sets out. I am not a sufficiently good writer to tell fully just how spectacular a place this is. High mountains tower over each side of the fiord. There are numerous arms of additional fiords branching off the main channel. Trees cover the mountains with snow on the tops. Waterfalls come down from close to the tops and fall to floor. And this goes on with variations for miles and miles and miles with no one else at all on the water with you. I don't know how else to describe it other than as being intoxicated with natural beauty.

After a couple of hours into the boat ride it is time for activities. You can go on a small boat with a guide or you can kayak. The water today is totally calm. I opt for the kayaking. It's my third time kayaking. The water in this area is around 44 degrees. Not stuff you want to be in. It is yet another feeling to be out so close to the water with it being so quiet as when you are on the kayak and being in all this beauty. We're out for about 40 minutes. After exhilaration of the kayaking it is 4 PM and they are serving some hot soup and we decide it's time to start drinking.

Then we head to the mouth of the Sound where it empties into the Tasman Sea. We're looking to experience that change, find fur seals and penguins. The sea is pretty rough. You can tell almost immediately the difference. Wife and I are right in the front of the boat and there is plenty of rocking and rolling. I don't feel great but there are no breakdowns. We do we some the seals but the penguins are not cooperating. It's back into calmer water. Wife and I are both happy for that.

We move to a quite side channel and anchor for the night. Dinner is a pleasant affair. We're meeting all kinds of people from Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, the U.S. It is a full moon tonight. With the clearness of the sky and the calmness of the water, the moonlight is rippling over the water. I'm helping wife as she's taking long timed shots by holding my jacket up to cover ships lights that are getting in the way. It's a pretty special time.

We head to bed because we want to be up early on Monday to see the moon on the other side and catch sunrise.

Wife and I are on deck at 6 AM. There's only one other person with us, a local profession photographer whose out on this cruise for enjoyment photography. Unfortunately the moon has ducked behind mountains quite some time earlier so we've missed out on that. But we get the full sunrise experience with the sky gradually brightening and the sun starting light parts of the mountain range. I'm standing watching the difference in the water as there are slight ripples on some sections with others being totally flat as the current works its way down the channel.

As the boat moves on again, they continue to look for the elusive penguins. We see a few in the water. They are so small and far away that you can just make them out before they disappear. This morning the skiy is absolutely clear and blue; a total contrast to the white capped mountain tops. Everyone is out taking pictures. It is also freezing out with a bit of a breeze so everyone is doing a shuttle going outside to see and/or photograph as much as they can before the cold chases them in to warm themselves up for another go. If anything the vistas are better this morning than yesterday. Our wake trailing in the totally calm water makes a surreal tableau for the reflecting sunlight.

We get to the dock around 10 AM. We retrace our route. Everyone is pretty tired and quiet on the way back. The mountains we passed in the beginning are even more clear and beautiful than when we came.

We get back to Queenstown at 3:30 and get taken back to our hotel. We go into town for a little shopping and dinner. It's been a wonderful two days.

New Zealand 2009 - Tales of the Camera Sherpa - Part 12

All through the night it rained and was still raining in the morning. In addition the temperature has dropped. A quick check on the Internet shows that there have been heavy snows through out the mountains of the South Island. We are scheduled to be crossing one of the passes today, the Haast Pass.

For those following on Google Maps our route is going from the town of Haast to Queenstown.

Because of our recent history of having things clear up later in the day, we decided to not rush to get going in the morning.

While it is raining still, it is not coming down in the buckets it was last night. I’ve checked with the hotel and they’ve told me the pass is open. Up we go. There is no sights to be seen or pictures to be taken on this leg because of the rain. As we are getting toward the top of the pass, the temperature is dropping – 4 degrees centigrade, 3, 2, 1, 0 – freezing. There is slush starting to appear on the road. Fortunately in spite of being a mountain pass, this is not as winding as many of the roads we’ve been on. As we start down, the road quickly clears and crossing the pass turns out not to be that bad. As we head down we are going into a wide valley with a large lake.

Our luck once again holds and in total contradiction to the weather forecast, the sky clears. We are treated to some of the best vistas and mountain scenes of our trip. On both sides of the lake are mountains with fresh snow covers and turbulent wind/snow swirls. At one point we are looking down the lake and there is a rainbow forming at just over the height of the lake. Glo is again getting lots and lots of pictures.

We stop at a small café along the way for lunch with view over the lake to the mountains. Then we head on to Queenstown. On the way we stop at the site of the original bungee jumping location, an historic bridge over a gorge. The firm that started it all still is running the operation and people were doing jumps as we were there.

Tomorrow we are going on a two-day trip that will take us into the Fiordlands.

A note on driving – The entire drive on the left activity is getting pretty normal by now. There are still occasions where I forget but not many. Glo gave me a high compliment the other day. She said she’s no longer totally terrified.

New Zealand 2009 - Tales of the Camera Sherpa - Part 11

A tale of two days. It was the worst of days. It was the best of days.

For those of you tracking us on your Google Map of New Zealand, we were going down the West Coast from Greymouth to Haast, an area that would take us past numerous beautiful vistas, two glaciers, and views of the Southern Alps.

We started out with the rain pouring once again. For the entire morning until 2 in the afternoon there was nothing but downpours and total socked in greyness. Things were very depressed in the car. We did stop at a bakery to pick up some bread. I noted the cool looking oven in the back. The people at the bakery invited us back and we got a tour of the oven. It is over 50 years old, uses electricity but is lined with a refractory type of stone that retains the heat. It was very cool and I appreciated the baker telling me all about it.

We arrived at the Franz Joseph Glacier at around 2 PM. It was still terrible out. We decided to watch a movie in the visitor center since nothing else was happening. By the time we were done, the rain had stopped and there were even patches of blue in the sky. We decided to take the short hike to the view point. It was well worth it. No rain and I must admit that though this is a 'touristy' thing, I really enjoyed it. We then went 30 kilometers to the Fox Glacier. The weather was actually clearing.

Then down the coast where we stopped at two lakes, one scenic overlook of the Tasman Sea, and one beach. Wife took around 300 pictures during the afternoon and got some of the highly prized golden light scenes at the last beach.

We finished up by having our best meal to date in NZ. We're in a hotel in Haast which is no where. The hotel restaurant is closed. Only the bar is open. Wife had another seafood chowder that was better than any of the others. I had a venison salad - best salad on the trip with not over cooked venison. She then had an excellent salmon with new potatoes and green beans. I had a roast rump of lamb with roasted cherry tomatoes and mashed potatoes. Everything was excellent. I was in lamb heaven. All the veggies were good. We enjoyed another Central Otango Pinot Noir. There was not one component of the meal that we didn't think was good. A great end to our day.

Note on pictures - it is just too, too, too slow for me to get them uploaded. I may have to wait until we are back before I can show more.

New Zealand 2009 - Tales of the Camera Sherpa - Part 11

Being a camera Sherpa is a lot like be in the infantry - long periods of boredom followed by short periods of intense activity (not exactly terror.

Today we spent most of the morning driving from Blenheim near the North coast to the West Coast. We had our second really sunny morning. So I'm thinking that Wife will be wanting to do lots of picture stopping. But no - there are no photographable sights.

So we finally roll into Westport around 1:15 and have lunch. Then on to down the coast where even though it is getting more and more overcast she finds zillions of things to shoot. She ended up with over 350 pictures.

For those of you tracking us on your NZ maps we are staying in Greymouth on the West Coast tonight.