Fox Glacier Village

Dec. 27

Throughout the night we heard the pounding of the rain outside. John snuggled deeper into his 1000-thread count pure cotton sheets and slept like a baby. The weather had made it impossible to call Janice in Australia as he had hoped because the lines were down. They have to connect in just three days at Melbourne's Airport.

Once John woke, he saw a day of mists begin. The air was humid and the road steamed. High alongside the mountains great clouds of vapour sat and hugged them. John went over to the glacier guiding place and got his money back. He had read that he needed moderate fitness, four layers of upper body clothing, pants not jeans, a day pack to carry, a warm hat and gloves - all available, apart from the fitness of course, in the glacier guide store. Not only that but he would have to walk at least 30 minutes in a physically demanding, steady-paced, uphill hike for 30 minutes as part of the four-hour hike. John said to me, "What the hec am I doing? I have escaped winter only to go walking on ice while doing exercise?" Since there is so much demand, the guides were happy to give John his money back - well they reversed his credit card purchase.

Now, feeling guilty John decided to go to Matheson's Lake. There is a photograph of Mount Cook from Matheson's Lake that is iconic of New Zealand. It appears on mmany tourist brochures. So, at about 8:30 he was on his way. The track was easy and within about 15 minutes he found the spot and took his video with a few other early bird tourists. But he noticed that the trail went on further and so did he. The other tourists were left behind as he walked through beech and tree fern forests, coming to one pristine spot after another. He saw ducks playing on the calm waters of the Lake while helicopters and planes reached high into the sky taking tourists up onto the glaciers.

Eventually he came to a sign that said "View of views." He climbed the steps and came out into a dazzling world of many hues of lake, mountains and clouds. To use the word magical would be a disservice. John felt at one with the Universe. He knew his fine camera would try but could not come close to capturing the moment. But John felt that was right. We all experience Nature but we cannot and perhaos should not try to capture it. So, knowing that the moment was his and that the video would not display it properly, he drunk in the scene while a deep peace descended onto him.

Coming down he had his choice to get back to his car - the way he had come or to continue walking around the lake. You know what he decided. Along the way he came across a bird and his mate sitting part way across a field. John stopped to say hello. The birds knew he was still sorry.

Coming back to the car park, John saw a restaurant and sat down to get a cappucino. It was woderful! Half of the foam on the top was covered with chocolate while the other half had a chocolate fern drawn on the foam. John pondered the prices here $4.50 for the cap, $7.50 for a toasted bagel, $22 for a burger and felt sad. It was almost like the tourist industry in Nova Scotia that depises tourists for coming to despoil their world. But with Nature here, this was a very small and transitory feeling.

Next John set off to see Fox Glacier. It was a long but very interesting drive then a long walk across the rugged, stony, glacial moraine to the glacial face. It took about 40 minutes one way. He met a couple from England (Yorkshire, actually) who asked him to take their picture which he happily did. Then he asked them to take some video of him which they, too, did enthsiastically. The path was wonderful, up and down, crossing wild streams with flat rocks placed strategically for people to walk on. You could see people on the trail ahead the size of ants. Once again, the awesomeness of Nature spoke to John and pretty soon he decided he didn't actually need breakfast but he wanted to continue exploring. So, he took the road to the Franz Josef glacier about 20 km up the road.

By the time he got there, a lot of people were already there and he was feeling tired. So he decided on the short 10 minute walk up to Sentinel Rock. No one told him it was uphill all the way! Once again, he said his thanks that he wasn't doing those 30 minutes uphill with a fit guide and young people demanding to go faster. He saw the glacier from the lookout and was satisfied when he arrived back at the car.

Coming home, he said that he had done a full day's hiking and here it was only 1:00pm. He got some coins and soap powder to do his laundry and started that. He was back in his room when the community siren started blaring. He went out to see. A lady from another room came out too and they started to talk. She was 80 and was as sharp as a razor. She is the leader of New Zealand's Euthenasia League, likes sky diving, and had gone off the road at 7:00am and broke her car. So she had to stay in the town overnight to catch a bus home tomorrow so had taken a room at the motel. She was feisty and she and John disagreed in jest on whether Canadian are Americans. John said we are North Americans not Americans while she said, no we are Americans... period. Both were right, of course.

Even though the weather was now magniificent, John decided to catch up on computer video stuff while watching the washer and dryer. That took a long time because John had not updated it since Auckland and there were 250 videos to upload, get registered on the database, and save to the external hard drive.

After that John decided to watch the DVD he had been given in Vancouver called "Zeitgeist Addendum." It took a full two hours and halfway through John went for dinner at the place next door, called the Plateau. His waitress was Canadian. In fact, two of them were - both from Quesnel, BC! They are travelling the world finding jobs along the way. NZ was their second stop, the first being southeast Asia. He also overhead people in the next table saying they were from Waterloo. So, he said hello to them, too - a nice family - and they had a friendly conversation. John had a $22 steak burger that was really quite good and washed it down with a Monteith's original beer.

Finally it was time to watch the rest of the video while I had to write this blog. Some things never change! (sigh)

TRB