Photos on Facebook

Hi everyone.  I have posted the first album of photos on Facebook, and more will be coming as I have time to go through them and weed out those you really don't want to see (i.e., Lane taking 30 pictures of a particularly interesting plant. He got his camera privileges temporarily revoked for that little stunt.)

If you aren't my Facebook friend and you want to be, just ask!  Students, since you're not allowed to be my friend, let me know if you want to see the pictures and I'll be happy to share them with you via Kodak Gallery.

Friday - Home

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.  Another 30+ hour airline marathon, which we handled as well we could.  Flying into Seattle, seeing the city spread out before me in the sunrise, with scenes of the Olympic Mountains, the Space Needle, the Kitsap Peninsula, and Mt. Rainier, I felt incredibly lucky to be coming home to a landscape so beautiful and dramatic, and that I get to enjoy every day.    The trip was a wonderful experience for our family (and, although we all had our moments, I think we got along pretty darn well considering we were together 24/21!).  We were all delighted with Coen's choice of New Zealand and have so many amazing memories of our trip.

Thanks to everyone for reading; I hope you enjoyed the vicarious experience of visiting New Zealand, truly a land of beauty, wonder, and adventure!

Wednesday – Crossing the Pass

The bridge was repaired and we were able to cross the pass without difficulty, although every river we crossed (and, as you may recall from my tale of all the one-lane bridges) was muddy, churning, and overflowing its banks.  We passed several areas where mud and rocks had been cleared from the roadway.  This looks serious.  Nevertheless, the campervan is returned and we are in Christchurch!  Staying at the Heritage Hotel, which is right on Cathedral Square.  The city is bigger than I expected, and since we are here until we leave on Friday, no more little NZ towns for us.  It’s rather sad, really.  I particularly enjoyed Hokitika and Nelson.  Christchurch is pretty, but just feels like a city.  We saw Rohit’s Indian Restaurant as we drove into the city—no good place to stop and get a picture, but we thought of Coen’s good friend Rohit!  And we had Indian food tonight in his honor.

Wednesday - Crossing the Pass

The bridge was repaired and we were able to cross the pass without difficulty, although every river we crossed (and, as you may recall from my tale of all the one-lane bridges) was muddy, churning, and overflowing its banks.  This looks serious.  Nevertheless, the campervan is returned and we are in Christchurch!  Staying at the Heritage Hotel, which is right on Cathedral Square.  The city is bigger than I expected, and since we are here until we leave on Friday, no more little NZ towns for us.  It’s rather sad, really.  I particularly enjoyed Hokitika and Nelson.  Christchurch is pretty, but just feels like a city.  We saw Rohit’s Indian Restaurant as we drove into the city—no good place to stop and get a picture, but we thought of Coen’s good friend Rohit!  And we had Indian food tonight in his honor.

Tuesday - Flooding!

We are ready to get the heck out of Dodge.  This rain seems just crazy.  I don’t know if it’s just here in the valley or what, but there is clearly no point in hiking up for a view of the glacier—we won’t be able to see a thing, and I suspect it isn’t really safe.  So we’re going to drive up to Hokitika.  This was the plan regardless, but we’re going early, and without seeing the glacier, which is disappointing.  However, we do have glaciers in Seattle, so it could be worse.  It’s just a big piece of ice, right?  Okay, so I’m imagining a giant ice cube right now.  Okay, now I don’t feel too disappointed.  Everything in the van is soggy.  All our towels are soggy.  I’m soggy.  Let’s get out of this storm!

The skies cleared as we drove further north, and after about 30 km we actually had some blue sky to admire.  I think we made the right decision.

Hokitika

Hokitika is a lovely little arts & crafts type of town on the west coast.  Beautiful jewelry and lots of jade work (they call it greenstone here).  The first thing we all wanted to do was to go to the Kiwi Centre:  time to see a kiwi!  We also got to feed giant eels, which was interesting and a little unnerving.  They are truly gigantic, growing to perhaps 8 feet long when they are 80-100 years old, as these were.  And yes, we saw a kiwi!  They are nocturnal, so the enclosure was dim, but we saw him come out and walk around for quite a while, eating and digging around for food.  He was larger than I expected, and so unusual looking!  Since they have no wings at all and no tail, they basically just consist of a body, two feet, and a head with quite a long, narrow beak.  Coen commented that it looks like half an animal—where is the rest of it?  We were quite pleased to see our kiwi, and of course Finn needed to get a stuffed kiwi to commemorate the occasion.

Another two excellent meals (for most of us—Finn is eating mainly bread and fries…):  lunch at Café de Paris and dinner at Hokitika Cheese & Deli (or something like that…) with amazing food, a working hive with a glass window opening into the restaurant (you can buy their honey) and even their own little walk-in refrigerated cheese room.  I recommend both restaurants the next time you find yourself in Hokitika.  :^)

People weren’t kidding when they said a lot of things would be closed the week after Christmas.  Apparently Monday is a holiday, as it is the day people get off work due to the fact that Christmas was on a Saturday.  Tuesday is also a holiday, since that is “Boxing Day Observed.”  Even the drugstore is closed!  (I need contact solution, and have been looking for a drugstore for three days.  Finally found one in Hokitika and it was open for one hour today!  I am not kidding.)  Even on a regular work day, everything seems to close at 5 p.m.  One of those things I just take for granted in the U.S.—anything that makes money, the stores will do.

Later:  Found out that there was flooding all up and down the west coast yesterday and this morning.  Cars in Hokitika were actually swept away!  The bridge over Arthur’s Pass is closed, and that’s how we have to get to Christchurch tomorrow to return our campervan!  Yikes.  We’re supposed to find out in the morning if they manage to repair the bridge.  Lots of landslides, boaters in trouble, houses flooded…  AND, as if that isn’t enough, we also just found out that on Sunday there was an earthquake aftershock in Christchurch.  My goodness.  Fingers crossed.

Monday - Franz Josef Glacier

Sitting here in the campervan at Franz Josef Holiday Park in the pouring rain.  It started raining just a bit as we were driving into town, but obligingly stopped so we could unload and reorganize the van for the evening.  We have all been sleeping surprisingly well in the campervan—I can’t remember the last time I got 9 hours of sleep that many nights in a row.  Probably never. 

The rain started up again in the middle of the night.  I have always found rain very restful and relaxing in the middle of the night.  Less so when I wake up in the morning and need to use the bathroom.  I waited for about an hour, reading in bed, to see if it was going to let up before I made the trek to the ladies’ room.  No luck.  Three hours later, it’s still going.  We decided today would be a good day to stay holed up in the camper, get caught up on reading, blogging, and (for the boys) homework.  I imagine we’ll get stir crazy after a bit, for for now it seems cozy.  The idea of climbing up a glacier in this weather is less than appealing.

Later:  Still raining.  We went to the Glacier Hot Pools, which were simply delightful.  The tarps keep most of the rain out, and what comes through feels refreshing as we relaxed and played in one of three hot pools:  36°C, 38°C or 40°C.  My favorite was 38°.  Then we showered and had a pleasant dinner at Monsoon restaurant & pub.  Monteith is the local beer, and must be popular since I actually heard someone calling her son by that name!

Later:  Still raining.  The pot we left outside on the picnic table has been filled and emptied twice and is now on its third go-round.  We estimate 9 inches of rain has fallen. (!)

Sunday - Glow Worm Caves

Our activity the next day was the Glow Worm Caves in Charleston.  Coen and Lane opted for blackwater rafting, while Finn and I took the tamer walk through the caves (F wasn’t old enough or a good enough swimmer for the rafting option).  I had never really been through a cave like that before—to see all the stalagmites and stalactites, and contemplate the amount of time responsible to create them was incredible!   The glow worms were rather magical as well, although I actually preferred a place where the dark, dank cave opened up to the outside in a magical scene, with water gently coming through an opening in the ceiling to form a small pool in the rocks, and the wide mouth of the cave showing greenery and sunshine, framed by the cave walls.  I wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if fairies had flown in and begun flitting about.  This was quite a lot of fun.

On to Franz Josef to see the glacier!

Driving:  The west coast is amazing!  So wild and beautiful, with many more scenes of rocks and incredibly huge, crashing waves.  I have never seen anything like it.  We stopped at the side of the road a few times just to watch in awe at the power of the sea.