Mt Cook and the Glaciers Beckon...

We left at 6 am this morning to drive to Mr. Cook and the glaciers. It was worth it - Aoraki National Park (formally Mt. Cook) was beautiful. There are over 20 mountains in the park, the largest of which is Mt Cook (12k ft). There are also numerous glaciers. There were so many and the park so vast we only saw the larger mountains and glaciers, and a sampling of the others. We were not able to get as close to the glaciers as we did in Norway (mainly because of time - you have to hike in to them). But these were bigger and more numerous in a relatively small area, than those we went to in Norway.

After a quick lunch we started off on a 4.5 mile hike to get a closer view of Mt. Cook (mom, you'll be glad to know they listed the avalanche advisory as low). The walk included climbing over rocks, up and down hills, and over two suspension bridges. We had gorgeous weather, sunny with some wind (I did not know it was possible to walk into the wind both coming and going). But this also meant we were dustyl tired, and sweaty when we returned - but I kept up with tje others (my asthma really is better out here). The view along the way was unbelievable, and well worth the effort.

The path we walked was called the Mueller lake lookout, because it goes to Mueller Lake, which is formed by run-off of the Mueller glacier. Elyse and Adam - bet you didn't know they named a glacier after you.

Okay, another quote I saw today that fits: ...my tiredness meant nothing; for me it had been a day of triumph. Sir Edmund Hillary, describing his reaching the top of Mt. Cook in 1947. (and, no Bart, you do not want to climb this mountain, as it is 10k feet from the base camp to the summit).

Interesting fact day 11: studying the lichen and plants on glacier moraines (land previously covered by glaciers), they are able to determine the advance and decline of the glaciers in previous centuries.

Another perspective on the fjords...

We traveled through fjordland to Milford Sound. These fjords seem different from Norway in that there seem to be more forests, almost tropical (due to all the ferns and lichen), and more wet. According to our guide, it rains 2 of every 3 days year (7 meters, or 275 inches per year).
There are tour buses everywhere. This is the most tourists we've seen since we started. It's the 2nd highest tourist site in NZ, after Queenstown. But we got pretty good at avoiding the crowds.

We stopped to hike in the woods around Lake Gunn. It's a temperate rainforest (as opposed to a tropical rainforest). Lichen is everywhere, it covers the ground and trees. The forests are NZ beech trees, but they are nothing like our beech trees. The Latin genus for the tree means "false beech".

We saw a couple of interesting plants. One that has tiny prickles is named the Bush lawyer (because once a lawyer gets his hooks in you...). Plants like these are why local trampers have picked up the fashion trend of wearing long underwear under their shorts. Another, the tutu plant has leaves that are poisonous to elephants (thus why no elephants exist in NZ ;). The seeds are poisonous to humans (although the juice and pulp is fine). The third, the Horoeka is interesting because the leaves go through three life cycles, which distinctly changes their look. They call the different life stages: infant, adolescence, and adult. At one time, these were thought to be 3 different plants. We saw one tree that had older (adult) leaves at the top, adolescence leaves in the middle, and newer (infant) leaves at the bottom. Most of the time you only see inevitable of the eyes of leaves but every once in the while you see a combination tree.

In order to get to Milford Sound you must drive through a mile long tunnel called Homer's pass. It's amazing it got built at all (although it did take almost 20 years to build, including a 9 year break during WW2). Most of the workers were depression era men who were required to work to receive some meager federal money. The conditions were rough, as they dealt with flooding, snow, and avalanche. For almost 5 months of every year the sun was hidden behind the mountains. But without these efforts, we would not have been able to enjoy Milford Sound since it is the only road to the area.

We arrived at Milford Sound mid-afternoon for a 2 hour cruise. It was hazy, and rained during most of the trip, but that added an interesting look to the view (very Lord of the Rings). Because of the rain, we got to see several temporary falls on the trip. It was different than what I saw in Norway. As I mentioned above, I think there are more trees here, although I just may have that impression because we drove through the fjords, whereas in Norway we took boats through the fjords. Just like Norway there are tall, thin falls, but here there are also wider falls and multi-layers of falls. Behind the haze, there is a 2nd layer of cliffs higher up that also had waterfalls. Also, these falls are mainly fed by the vast amount of rain and the glaciers, while Norway's is mostly fed by snow melting. Lastly it is not unusual to see dolphins, seals, or penguins at the base of the falls (we saw all except a penguin).

There was one falls called the bridal falls (it is roughly the same heighth and and width as bridal falls in Niagara Falls). In another falls, they referenced it was 3 times the highth of Niagara Falls, and then proceeded to take us into the falls, much like the Maid of the Mist. They definitely seem to be entranced with Niagara Falls back home.

The best way to sum up the day is with a quote from David Henry Thoreau. This was mounted on a sign at The Gorge, our last stop before Milford Sound. After a 15 minute walk through woods, we arrived where a river dropped several feet. The cool part was how the river had sculptured interesting shapes into they rock. The quote was: "the finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time".

Interesting fact day 10: bats are the only land mammal indigenous to NZ (dolphins are also indigenous).

Jan 29 (I'm to to date again!!!)

Left Stewart Island for the mainland this morning. It was raining, and once again the water was rough.

We stopped by the Southland museum, which was a natural and historical museum for this area and the sub-antarctic islands. There were tuataras there. The tuatara looks like a lizard but is not. It is a reptile that is of an order that goes back to the time of the dinosaur - this is the only survivor from this order and are unique to New Zealand (NZ). The tuatara lives a long life (one at the museum was over 100 years old and had children for the first time). They don't have teeth but there jawbone has serrations in it. They have a third eye on the top of their skull, which can only be seen when they are born, after which it is covered with opaque scales.

In addition to the tuataras, they had examples of Maori artifacts, information about the seal and penguin trade of the 19th century (it was cross what they did to turn these animals unto oil, and really sad how .any were killed), and the history if exploration in the sub-antarctic islands.

Passed by the southernmost McDonald's (or at least it used to be - we were debating if it still is). I couldn't get Wynston to stop. It would have been cool to have been to both the northernmost (Roveniemi, Finland) and the southernmost. Oh well, if a new more southern one really has been built, I can just go there.

Drove from Invercargill to Te Anau. The land we passed through is considered The best farmland in NZ. This area has 2% of the population and 12% if the GNP for NZ. Besides farming, the area is also known for tourism and aluminum.

We had a short day today. After museum and several hours of car time we arrived in Te Anau. We made a quick stop before the hotel at a park that had several of the birds of the area in cages.

Winston wanted us to see them in case we do not tomorrow. One of my favorite was the kea. It is extremely intelligent, seems to have a lot of energy, and gets easily bored, which means it tends to be mischievous (I know some people like that). One of the keas seemed to be playing hide-and-go-seek with an empty cage and appeared to be dancing past the connecting doorway.

Interesting fact day 9: the takahe bird of NZ was thought to be extinct (4 birds had been found prior to 1940). In the late 1940's a colony of the birds was found in fjordland. Only a few hundred exist today.