The West Coast is a lovely place to visit, and is sparsely populated. Four cars constitutes a significant traffic jam. We were still giggling a little about the owners of the Do Duck In bakery having Ducked Out on the public holiday (Monday after christmas). I love some of the slogan and names here. "Once bitten .. forever smitten" is another one for sandwiches. "Snacks on Tracks" for the rail cafe car.
Our day to the glaciers (pronounced glass-e-r over here) started out with a soggy, driving rain. There were 10 of us on the outing, and our guide was commenting it's usually only 2 or 4 people. We headed further south, where our specially equipped van had windows that turbo-fog when there's wet or humid weather. Our guide valiantly tried to point things out along the drive, but all we saw was fog on the windows. The West Coast is truly the Wet coast in this country. Think Seattle on steroids, with rain building up the further south you go. The Fox Glacier village has about 5 meters of rain each year! This is, in fact, the rainy season.
A soggy day sounded like no fun, so I tried to channel Ngaire's Maori weather juju. It worked! By the time we arived in Hokitika in about 45 minutes, the rain had nearly stopped. The van windows were clearing nicely, and life was looking up! An older couple had lost a prescription eye medication, without having an extra copy in their documents. The couple asked the Hokitika pharmacy for a refill. The pharmacist needed a prescription. Seeing the couple did not have one, he took the initiative to phone the local doctor. The doctor discussed the matter with both pharmacist and patient, then authorized the release of the eye medication. The pharmacist administered a dose of the medicine for the patient, along with swapping a few stories of New Zealand and England's cooperation in World War II. I was really impressed how resourceful the pharmacist was in getting the situation resolved.
We got to the first glacier and everyone gamely took a walk up to the lookout stand for the Franz Joseph glacier. It is magnificent, not only because of its mass but also because it has receded so dramatically over the past 250 years. The people who climbed onto the face looked like the tiniest of specks from our vantage point. We then headed to a great restaurant at lake matheson, just outside the Fox Glacier. It reportedly has crystal clear reflections of the glaciers, with nary a ripple in sight. We were not so lucky - the clouds had descended again over the glaciers, and the lake was riled up. The Fox Glacier had a hike in about 2 kilometers to near the edge of the glacier. We crossed a couple of streams until we hit the "DANGER! DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT EXPERT GUIDE" signs. Gary was so thrilled with this adventure .. climbing rocks, nearly getting his feet wet in the streams, taking hundreds of pictures .. it did not get much better than that.
We were lucky to stay at the Fox Glacier town, so we got dropped off first and picked up last this morning. The proprietor recommended a fun restaurant about 2 blocks down. We were pretty tired from all the hiking, so headed to bed. I went to open the mini refrigerator to have a glass of wine before bed and - WHAM! - the bottle rolled out, shattering in about a gazillion pieces. Ugh .. had to clean that mess up for a good half hour and hoped to get the glass shards off the tile floor. Pounding rain kept us up part of the night, and the corrugated iron siding made sure the wireless internet would not reach our room.
We got up around 6 this morning and started to prepare breakfast. I had a 'brain fade' and dialed the toaster to my usual setting at home. With 220 volt power, you need a lot less toasting time. Sure enough, the toast was borderline burnt to a crisp. There was no hope of a replacement. I sighed, sat down to kill the taste with jam when the smoke alarm went off with full force and effect. We were opening the windows & doors, as the ceiling was about 12 feet so we couldn't reach the reset button. The neighbors must have loved that .. not!
We finally got ourselves reorganized and waited for our coach to Queenstown. We were riding on Newman's coaches ('First Class, all the time') and met our master and commander, Big George. George takes great pride in his job, and loves everything traditional and English. The trip was accompanied by a running commentary from George, which to my ear resembled a cross between the page on 30 Rock and an old English comedy. He let us know that if we were cold in the back, he could turn down the air conditioning because, NOT ONLY is there a name on the side of the bus whose history and reputation must be upheld at all times, there are also those GENTLEMEN .. first in the pink hats and then in the black hats who had driven passengers for decades before him, and their reputations and contributions must also be upheld!! He went on to observe that, if fabulous British men he'd met on our coach were an example of British men today, he thinks he'd like to see more of them in New Zealand. It was both endearing and funny at the same time.
This area, in addition to being quite wet (hence the lush coastal rain forest) is very prone to rock and land slips – what we call landslides and rock slides. Newman's was the coach company selected to transport the Premier, the other dignitaries and invited guests to the ceremonies marking the completion of the road in the late 1930's. No sooner did the frivolity reach a peak as they neared the ceremony, but the driver encountered a rock slide from a few hours earlier that blocked the road. He turned the coach around to return the guests to the starting point, only to find a second rock slide had blocked the way out. The coach was trapped for one week's time, and the passengers had to be helped over the mass of rocks and transported back to the North Island. As the guide said in Greymouth, one of the hotels is where the Queen of England always stays when she visits – like once, on her coronation tour 75 years ago.
We got into Queenstown around 4:30 pm, taking a hike up to our hotel. It's gorgeous here .. a cross between a ski resort like Vail and Gerainger Fjord in Norway. We had a lovely meal on the waterfront and played 'guess the wine pairing' with the sommelier. It was a lot of fun, and he did a great job matching the wines to the courses. A snowstorm is raging at the mountaintop level, and most are wearing shorts and flip flops down at the wharf. What a city!
It's about time for bed. We leave for auckland tomorrow morning on the 9:40 flight. Our proprietor thinks it's ok to leave here around 9 am, as it's solely a domestic flight. Folks, I've been living with TSA for a little too long. We settled for 8:30 am as a departure time. Looking forward to seeing June's smiling face at the Auckland airport!
Cheers, Anne
