October 27, 2006

Fox Glacier to Christchurch

Unlucky bit of weather we are having… It is raining, which is not a strange phenomenon for the west coast of New Zealand. The warm dry air from Australia makes its way across the Tasman Sea picking up moisture, and then hits the Southern Alps, which cools the clouds and produces up to 45 feet of rain per year. Unfortunately, what we are experiencing today is a rather large front producing loads of rain across the whole of the southern island. So, the Trans-alpine train, which was picked up in Greymouth, was not projected to produce the greatest views. But, by this time in the trip I’ve seen many, many mountains, so the smoothness of the rail system is a welcome change from winding roads by bus. The "All Aboard" call meant saying goodbye to a new friend, which I'm sure will happen many times on this trip.





Surprise, coming out of the 18 km trans-alpine tunnel we were greeted with a mixed sky, which brightened to partly cloudy. This provided for some great viewing from the open vista car.





The one down side of the open car was my running trip total for “lost hats” now stands at two. My new hat hung in there for a good 45 minutes of wind drubbing and suddenly smack, it was gone. A gust caught the brim, launched it to the back wall on the other side of the open car for a brief hopeful glimpse and then whoosh a garment donation was made to the New Zealand alpine bush. (All you can do after loosing your new favorite hat is smile and take a picture to memorialize the moment.)



Today’s unique Kiwi experience was “Pete’s Possum Pies”. Yummy! I actually ate two. This deserves a bit of a preface. Possum in New Zealand is not the “rat-like” road kill creature of North America, but much more like a land borne Koala. This may not sound like much of an appetite inducing improvement, but the pies were tasty. The meat was dark and a little like lamb. (Nice photo of the pained first bite, before overcoming fear and letting the tastebuds take over. Another guy started one pie and needed a sudden exit half way through. The mind can be so limiting some times... haaa.)





I had a great ending to a really cool train ride through the mountains and down to Christchurch. Upon arrival to Christchurch train station, I ask a gentleman getting off the train with me if he knew which direction was the park? He didn’t know but said, “Maybe this guy up here will know.” It ends up that the other man was his friend picking him and a few other Australian travelers up from the train station. These happy go lucky Australians insisted on driving me to the YMCA backpackers from the train station. When getting out of the van at the “Y” I said to them, “Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.” To which the original man from the train said, “We thought you might. Have a great rest of your trip!” That kind of “road rules” generosity can’t help but make your day.

Christchurch is a remarkably easy city to walk and the evening sights reminded me a little of Europe complete with Cathedral square.





Kiwi Cuisine
• Apricots - Simply add dried apricots to anything and everything. Initially, this can be a big taste enhancer with a sweetness boost to most meals, however, even after a week or so it becomes a little tiring.

• Kiwi Fruit – Thus far not the tangy juicy variety digested in California. It appears that a smoother tasting variety is prized. When visiting the orchards between Queenstown and Wanaka there was even a yellow variety, which to my taste had none.

• Avocado – Surprisingly not green. Again, a very bland production without the typical depth of color. The texture was very smooth but very lacking the richness that produces good guacamole. Speaking of guacamole, in New Zealand it is an almost pure mixture of mayonnaise and avocado with the end product a runny drizzle of smooth consistency.

• Sandwich – Comprised almost extensively of bread, but accompanied by various condiment flavoring forms: seemingly always mayonnaise, protein applied to the same thickness as the mayonnaise, and possibly the most incredibly thinly sliced tomatoes, cheese, or lettuce. The sum total of the filling is not to exceed one half the thickness of one piece of bread.

• Pies – Erase any preconceived “Mrs. Smith” or “Marie Calendars” images. These are not of the large fruit variety but of the 4-inch diameter meat filled genera. (Ref. above) The quality is judged by the ingredient content and flavor. In general a meat pie filled with hearty seasoned chunks of protein, enveloped in a flakey crust would constitute culinary success. The opposite would be a pie cavity containing more air and starchy sauce filler than meat. The occasional and very tasty high quality pie keeps me coming back for more.

October 26, 2006

Fox Glacier

A full expedition onto Fox Glacier was on tap for the day’s activity. The weather didn’t appear to want to cooperate as the clouds loomed heavily over the valley, dropping intermittent precipitation. However, a beautiful thing happened and the rain stayed put for the vast majority of the day.



There are two glacial areas within a half hour of each other, Franz Joseph and Fox. Franz is the heavily touristed location while Fox literally has a population under 200. My desire was not to share the day with multitudes of my fellow tourists so I chose the Fox accommodations and tour. We only had a total of 5 people plus our guide for the day. This made for a much more nimble experience where the group was able to climb much higher into the ice fields than when larger numbers are present.



Check out the scale of the face when compared to the people starting their ice climb ascent. (Hint: look in the upper left portion of the picture above where the ice turns from grey to white. Those specks are actually people.)


The Fox Glacier is situated only a few thousand meters from the Tazman Sea. At one point during the mini ice age of the mid-1600’s the glacier even flowed right into the salted sea. In heavy melt or rain periods a layer several meters thick of fresh water flows on top of the heavier salted at the mouth of the Fox River. Another geological phenomenon is that the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate directly in front of the current face of the glacier. The fault crevice is clearly visible as it intersects the glacial forge, with the appearance of a narrow valley. (This is the San Andreas Fault equivalent for New Zealand.)



To climb Fox Glacier we needed to attach cramp-ons to our boots and patiently follow our guide as he cut stairs into the ice. The progress was slow at times but the views were well worth the slow progress.





Given the overcast day, we were treated to an exceptional show of “blue ice” which would be white washed out in stronger lighting conditions. The “blue ice” is a result of the stronger red, orange, and yellow light waves penetrating the ice surface while the weaker blue waves are refracted backwards.







Two other immediate byproducts of the glacier are evident while hiking, volumes of the purest water available and distinct collections of what is not, i.e. glacial sediment/sludge. This sediment either collects in the bottom of melted pools or incredibly is squeezed from the ice face like play-do. The sediment is prized by spas for facial treatments and is the consistency mercury. (In this picture the water is so pure and clear its level is hard to see.)





New Zealand Geological Interests
• Mountain Soil – There really isn’t much to speak of. Most of the alpine forests are growing in less than three inches of topsoil. This starts as algae on rock, then moss attaches, followed by small ground plants such as ferns, then shrubs. After many years of leaf clutter build up and decomposition, as well as the shading from the mid-level undergrowth an environment conducive to canopy trees develops and beech trees take root. Beech trees are very shallow rooted and reasonably unstable. So, in drought years or foul weather tree avalanches are common. Given the steep slopes and the weight of the trees an avalanche effectively clears everything down to raw rock and the process begins again. A complete cycle can be accomplished is between 50 to 100 years.



• Beech Trees and Tectonics – Beech trees are a truly ancient/pre-historic species. They do not have the ability to raft seeds via streams, as they are heavy, porous, and rot in the presence of standing water. Airborne transportation is not an option either given the weighty and non-aerodynamic seed construction. So the seeds literally fall and start to grow within a branches distance of the parent. Now the link to plate tectonics. The same species of Beech tree has been found in southern Australia, frozen under the ice in Antarctica, and on the southern tip of South America. This then is used as proof of the super continent and continental drift theory, as the presence of the same species of Beech tree in all locations suggests the continental connection of these currently four distinct landmasses.

• North Island vs. South Island – The south island is currently under construction via tectonic plate movement of the Indo-Australian plate pushing up against the Pacific. This forms the Southern Alps, which rise dramatically out of the sea providing snowfields and glaciers practically to the sea’s edge. The only other location in the world with this characteristic is in Patagonia, South America. While volcanic activity is present in the south island, the volume pales in comparison to the north island, which is noticeably volcanic, including multiple hot mud and water locations and a volcano rimming Auckland. Just as earthquakes are commonplace to the south island, there is the expectation of “when” not “if” there will be an eruption on the north island.

October 25, 2006

Wanaka to Fox

This was a beautiful and truly sad day. Wanaka is an amazing location and a highly recommended outdoor recreation spot. The breadth of opportunity in witnessing lambs being born, hiking through the alpine country, four wheel driving, and the warmth of the people will not be forgotten soon.





The little town of Fox is only a four-hour bus ride through the mountains and over to the western coast from Wanaka. The pace of travel fits the local laidback mentality. Total driving time was most likely two and a half hours. However, drivers are required by law to make frequent rest stops and requested by touring companies to make even more frequent stops for tourist traps en route.



However, the occassional stop for an ocean view or waterfall is definitely appreciated.





The little town of Fox is one where literally everyone knows each other and locked doors hardly exist, even in your accommodations. When registering at the Ivory Backpackers, I was surprised not to receive a key. The response from the owner was, “I’ve never seen a crook. If you see one just bring him to me.” So off to my unlocked room I trotted. It didn’t take long to realize why the extra security wasn’t needed. The town of 200 is a little bubble and there is rarely a moment alone for things to happen in secret. My bags were still locked, but they were safe in my room during showers, etc.

In the evening I took a walk to Lake Matheson, which when the clouds are away from the mountains provides a perfect reflecting pool. The walk was great and I met a biologist from the States on the walk, but the falling rain and snow didn’t provide much of a backdrop for reflection.



The upside was seeing a herd of young bulls and that the sunset was incredible.






Wonders of Kiwi Engineering

• Chicken Wire as Grip Stop – It seems that almost all wooden stairs or walkways are covered in chicken wire. This idea is miraculous. In wet or snowy weather wood surfaces can get extremely slick. Easy solution, bam, nail some chicken wire down and it works like a charm!



• One lane bridges – Yikes, yes that means “head on collisions” if drivers do not obey the posted signs. One direction always has the right of way and the other “should” yield until the bridge is cleared. This works with remarkable efficiency, but would never work in the rifle focused ballistic driving style of the states.



• Lilliputian Sinks & Faucets – The smallest sinks known to man must exist in New Zealand, with faucets so close to the porcelain edge that the water can not clear one half of the width of your hand, when put side ways underneath the faucet. That roughly equates to one knuckle of clearance. To make things even more fun, the scalding and freezing taps are of course separated by the width of the sink.

October 24, 2006

Wanaka (Aspiring Hut to Town)

We were treated to a real gully washer of a storm last night. The alpine hut weathered the storm perfectly and everyone was snug and warm in sleeping bags. The painful process was extracting ourselves and facing the cold. The temperature in the hut was about 36 degrees and damp. We would likely have been warmer if the temperature had dropped a few degrees below freezing to settle the moisture out of the air. The snow line dropped to within a few hundred feet of the hut, making everything above fresh and white.



The walk back to Raspberry Flat took about three hours, with far too many picture opportunity points along the way.





The wind was in my face and even with gloves on the cold felt like needles pricking into my fingers. The lack of hair on my head gave new meaning to the phrase “brain freeze”. However, since the idea is to sweat as little as possible once my body got up to hiking temperature having the ventilated top side was a benefit. (Come on tough guy manage a smile in the cold... will ya?)



Once back in town, I caught up on e-mail and didn’t realize how deep the cold had settled into my bones until returning to the backpackers. My body ached in the cold. No worries, a hot shower and some warm soup and I was ready for the evening activities.

After the sunset ...



... Cinema Paradiso was the main attraction for two British friends and me. This place was a blast. Instead of standard theatre seats there were couches and lounge chairs. On one side of the theatre a yellow convertible car sat if you wanted the “drive in” experience. Half way through the movie there was an intermission for hot baked chocolate chip cookies. Our feature presentation was the film Wah Wah about a boy’s upbringing in the very British society of Swaziland. I recommend it for those who enjoy a “well produced” independent film.



Kiwi Marketing

• Go Bold and Funny – The Mentos ad showing the visually chilling effects of refreshment on a shirtless guy is hysterical. Awesome humor with direct correlation to brand benefit. (Mpg must be on google somewhere.) Although, the all time winning beer slogan is “Monteith’s, helping ugly people have sex since 1868.” Haaa, can you believe the product benefit honesty. I can only imagine what the focus groups were like to develop that consumer insight.



Even meat pie delivery can show a sense of humor to catch attention.



When in doubt, go vintage with the graphics.



• Messing with Sasquach – I can’t remember the brand of beef jerky, but in this international version of the ad sasquach gets the better of one of the pranksters, when the prankster puts sasquach’s hand in a pot of warm water while he is sleeping. This time very funny, but still struggling with the creative product benefit link of being soaked by sasquach and obviously brand recall.

• Potato Chip Flavors – Winners, “Sweet Chili” or “Burger Flavor”. Loser, “Lamb & Mint Flavor”. Cudos for going bold.

• Event Marketing – Speight’s “Pride of the South” beer was holding their “Perfect Woman” regional qualifying contest when I was in Wanaka. Sorry, no bathing suite contest here. Points were scored across two days of events. The ones I can remember were: 30 second introduction/perfect woman rationale, guy bucking i.e. riding on rugby players backs for time, jet boat slalom course driving, and sheep tipping for sheering. This was quite an event with over a thousand people supporting some 30 contestants who brought their sheep dogs and livestock for props. I even saw one of the contestants rolling her own cigarettes before leaving town after the contest. (Not the winner but shown above with her calf.)

October 23, 2006

Wanaka (Town to Aspiring Hut)

Simply the most wondrous day of my life!

The day started a little rough. I had forgotten that Monday was New Zealand’s observance of “Labor Day”, so naturally most everything was closed including the rental car lot, which presented a sign touting “Call 63. 456. 892 for rentals any time”. Ok, I will. Not so fast. None of the phones in town accepted coins, as in there are no slots on the phones to receive them, only credit cards. For some reason the phones did not like my VISA card. So, I walked to the greatest invention in tourism history, the local “i” site, a tourism center that will help you book anything. They simply made the call and half an hour later I was cruising down the road in a Nissan 4x4 on my way to the Mt. Aspiring bush.

While walking to the car lot, I ran into the “calf contestant” from the Speights contest. The calf was now almost 50% older at a whopping 5 days.



The trip included about 30 kilometers of dirt roads and stream fording through spectacular alpine valleys, despite heavy cloud cover from the impending snowstorm.



This was when I came across another vehicle pulled to the side of the road. Similar to the affect in big cities when one person looks up and before you know it an entire crowd is gaggling at nothing, I stopped behind the other car to figure out what the specific interest could be.







A sheep had just given birth to a baby lamb and was in labor to deliver the second. Not more than 15 yards away I witnessed the birth of a brand new sparkling white lamb. Incredible! Within 10 minutes or so, this new, wobbly, creature made its way to all fours. Up and down, wiggly rise and fall, then magically stability. Mom was there all along with little helpful nose nudges under the rump to get things started.





After arrival to Raspberry Flat, I was off for a 3-hour pastoral hike up the valley toward Aspiring Hut. This was literally “pastoral”, walking between unfenced sheep and cattle along the riverbanks, waterfalls, and hills. The pack weight cut into my hips, shoulders, and chest, but seemed to fade as the hours passed. (Later, the reward would be surprising bruises on my hip-flexers.) After reaching Aspiring Hut at about 4:30pm, feeling so exhilarated there was absolutely no way I could settle down for the night that early, I jettisoned my pack and raced up the valley. The Department of Conservation office had talked me out of continuing up to French Ridge Hut, due to the big storm to hit in the evening, but I was determined to get to the views despite.



Literally, jogging in the newfound ether of pack-less travel, the end of the valley and French Ridge was in view in just less than 45 minutes. The sun was setting and the “alpine glow” was tremendous, but where was the storm? Things actually appeared to be clearing.



Simple answer, captivated by the summit views, I was looking the wrong direction. Turning to walk back to Aspiring Hut, smack, there it was grey, black and ominous. The storm front was like an octopus with long dark tentacles sweeping the valley floor and brooding head looming over the mountain peaks. The grey ink cloud of precipitation followed the initial storm body and covered everything in its path.

Announcing the introduction of the “Alpine Sprint”. I raced across winding trails and wobbly hanging foot-bridges little wider than a boot length to beat this literal tempest back to Aspiring Hut.





The pre-mist met me first as the pressure of the storm pushing up the valley launched forward gusts of wind and moisture ahead of the main complex. In classic form, just after reaching the hut and taking my boots and jacket off the deluge let loose. The drops beat heavily against the glass and then sheets of water flowed. Surprisingly, no snow fell. In the morning, the sky was still grey, but the mountains visible below the cloud deck were covered in a crisp white blanket. The snow line had stopped just a few hundred feet above the hut.



Sheep Anyone?
• It is true - There are more sheep in New Zealand than people. The ratio is over 10 to 1 with 55MM sheep and just 4.5MM people. This is actually down from the high water mark of 75MM sheep. The population has been reduced as deer farming has taken off to meet China’s demand for budding stag antler, which is ground to powder and believed to be an aphrodisiac or general tonic.
• Maternity Ward - Lambs are not born, but “dropped”. The season of birthing is called “lamb dropping”. Coastal, warmer regions will begin dropping in September, while cooler alpine environs won’t really begin until late October. An entire flock will drop within a week.
• Sex Ed 101 - Rams can inseminate between 25 and 40 ewes a day. A ram is given a “chest ink pack” of sorts to mark the rump of each ewe he mounts. Each ram is given a different color ink pack. The ewe’s cycle during this season is just over 24 hours so if not successfully inseminated on the first day try again tomorrow. Generally a ewe will only allow mounting by one particular ram each season, apparent by the consistent ink splotch color on her back.
• Housekeeping & Hygiene - After about a month the lambs are counted by running them through a shute, which separates them from their moms. Ewes and rams are sorted and tagged with a different color ear tag. Then their tales are clipped off, to help prevent something too gross to describe here. (No worries, moms and lambs are then reunited and live together for about a year.)
• Twins are Best – Ewes are sorted and kept by their ability to consistently bare twins. Solo birth ewes are typically given one more season to produce twins and then are “sent down to the minor leagues” so to speak. Hmmm… tasty.
• How old did you say you were? – Sheep’s age is measured in teeth. At about 18 months they should have two teeth, which is the earliest age a ewe would be “given to the ram.” Each year there after they gain two more teeth, until eight teeth which is middle age for a sheep. At the ripe old age of eight teeth, you are either producing or you are product.
• Yellow First, Then White – The firstborn lamb is almost always yellow. This is actually a protective coating to keep it warm while mom is busy giving birth to the second lamb. The second lamb is typically white and the first to nurse.