April 21, 22 The Glaciers! Franz Josef and Fox

April 21, 22  The Glaciers! Franz Josef and Fox

We woke up and had a leisurely breakfast before heading to the Wildlife Centre!  There we spent half of an hour by ourselves with two of the rarest of the five kiwi species (the Rowi).  This enclosure was open (just a small fence without glass above it) so we could really get a great look at the kiwi!  They also had an interesting information section on the glaciers.  Franz Josef was named after an Austro-Hungarian Emperor and Fox Glacier was named after a Prime Minister.  There are many, many smaller glaciers and lots of mountain ranges around here in Westland.  There are three places in the world where glaciers end right up in a rainforest, two are in NZ (the Fox and Franz Josef); the third is in Argentina.  It is pretty amazing, our room was surrounded on two sides by rainforest, yet we could see beautiful mountains and glaciers just beyond.  Some of the mountains are covered in thick rainforest vegetation, while others are barren and ice covered.  They get up to 55 meters of snow on the glaciers and 7 meters of rain in the rain forest.

We did several walks today, Peter’s Pool (named after a young boy who discovered it).  It had a lovely reflective view of the glacier.  We also did the Franz Josef Glacier view walk which led to a mountain view of the glacier, and the actual glacier walk which led you up as close as is safe to the glacier wall.  The first part of the walk is in the rainforest while the second part is an open and rocky plain that can flood in the rain!  We then played in the local park and explored the very small town of Franz Josef before turning in.  

Wildlife Centre Franz Josef-

home of Rowi Kiwi (no photos of kiwis allowed).

Peter's Pool-cool reflection

The bottom of the Franz Josef Glacier.

Waterfall on way to the bottom of the glacier.

The very bottom of the Franz Josef Glacier.

On April 22nd we woke up and quickly ate before heading over to the Alpine Adventure Centre for probably the coolest thing we have done on this long family adventure.  There we had an early morning helicopter flight over both the Fox and Franz Josef glacier.  We also saw Mount Cook as well as other spectacular views!  The coolest part was landing on the glacier and getting to throw some glacier snow and ice around!  The overall flight was forty minutes with ten minutes on the glacier itself!  We then checked out and started our very, very long journey back to Winton.  This was a longest trip in terms of time away from Winton and the greatest distance.  We are a little sad to leave, but excited to get back home.

The Franz Josef Glacier.

View from the helicopter.

Brody on the glacier.

The kids play on top of the glacier.

The family and the helicopter on the Franz Josef Glacier.

Dad and Tara on top of the world!

Tara is excited in the helicopter.

High above the clouds!

On the way back we stopped at Arrowtown (It reminded me of New England with all the fall colors and stood in sharp contrast to the relatively dry Wanaka, the rainforest around the glaciers, and the stark beauty of the glaciers themselves).  We also did the Roaring Billy Falls walk.

Roaring Billy Falls.

Tara points out a cool tree growing off the side of a larger tree.

Arrowtown's Autumn colors.

April 18th-19th-20th Wanaka

April 18th-19th-20th Wanaka

Ursula got out 1.5 hours early on Wednesday the 18th so we could drive to Wanaka -a small but beautiful area with lakes surrounded by mountains.  We stayed in the “Barn.”  It was probably the nicest place we have stayed.  It had a full kitchen, heated tile floors, and was right near the lake (Lake Wanaka).  

On the 19th we woke up and walked along Lake Wanaka.  The amazing thing is only a tiny fraction of the lake has any homes or businesses on it.  The vast majority is pristine.  After a lovely walk we drove to the National Toy and Transport Museum.  This huge facility is packed with cool toys and vehicles of all sorts.  Brody’s favorite was the giant howitzer like field guns (the kids could sit on them and really turn and raise/lower them).  Gabe’s favorite part was the field guns and some really cool pedal cars.  Tara loved all the Barbie toys and doll houses.

Next, we played at Dinosaur park right on the lake near the i site (i sites are information centres in almost every town in NZ).  After that we headed to climb Mount Iron.  This was a brutal walk.  It was not shaded and the strong NZ sun was constantly beating down on us as we trudged uphill.  The views from the top were spectacular and again, amazing for the almost complete lack of houses or businesses.    When the ice age was here, Mount Iron was under 1000 meters of ice!  It was time for some NZ gelato and then a paddle boat ride on the Lake!  Gabe and Mom went on an evening bike ride.

The Homestead in Wanaka-very nice.

Lake Wanaka

Walk around Lake Wanaka

Fall in Wanaka

National Toy and Transport Museum

The kids liked all the Star Wars

Cool pedal cars

Brody and a friend man the guns.

Dinosaur Park

The top of Mount Iron.

View from Mount Iron

Dad and Tara on paddle bike.

The morning of the 20th the boys and dad borrowed some bikes from the hotel and road all along Lake Wanaka.  We stopped at the dinosaur park again.  We then checked out and headed to the Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World.  The kids loved the tilt house (it mad Dad a little quesy) and the following faces room.  It was an interesting attraction started by a kiwi couple in the 70’s (Stuart and his wife).  They sold their house in order to get the money to start the tourist attraction after the bank refused them a loan. 

Next, we did the Paddle boats and played at the park again before heading northwest to glacier country.  We stopped on the way at the Blue Pools walk.  The water is an amazing blue thanks to the pristine glacier water.  We were also able to walk across another long suspension bridge.  Other walks included Fantail Falls and a several cool stops including the Knight’s Lookout!   After almost six hours we arrived at our hotel, 58 on Cron in Franz Josef, NZ.  

Puzzling world.

Room of faces-they all followed you as you walked around.

The Ames Room-Ursula is on the far right, Brody leaning

against the wall on the far left.

Blue Pools

An amazing clear water and blue color.

Glacier water/Blue pools.

The family on the suspension bridge.

Fantail Falls

Knight Point

April 13th-15th Te Anua and Milford Sound

April 13th-15th Te Anua and Milford Sound

We headed back to Te Anua (our second time here).  This time we stayed at the Red Tussock.  After treat night on Friday we got up early on Saturday and drove to Milford Sound.  This area is technically a rain forest and rains about 300 days a year.  Our last trip was indeed filled with rain.  This time we had nothing but sunshine!  We enjoyed a lovely, albeit much more crowded, cruise down Milford Sound.  We saw lots of bottle nose dolphins.  According to our guide they grow much larger here because of the colder water.  

After the amazing cruise we stopped by the Discovery Centre.  They are not allowed to put any permanent structure within the reserve grounds so it is floating.  It made us all sympathize with poor Grandpa Livermore and his Navy days.

We were also able to go on several very nice walks.  One was Boyd Creek Tops.  It led to a very nice waterfall.  The Chasm was wonderful as well, a strong river had eaten away at beautiful black rocks until it looked like swiss cheese.  Mirror Lake was just that, so calm it looked like a mirror.  It was very cool to see the mountains reflected in the water with fallen trees and rocks in them.

Drive into Milford Sound.

We were above the clouds!

The Chasm walk.

Chasm.

Milford Sound waterfall.

Bottlenose dolphin

Discovery Centre.

Looking up after climbing down the stairwell.

Side view of Discovery Centre.

Mirror Lake reflecting mountains.

Boyd Creek Falls

Kererū (NZ Pidgeon).

Kea (NZ parrot)

Te Anua walk.

Manapouri walk.

B, G, and T on some stained driftwood on Manapouri walk.