The Southern Alps

Part of my issue when I travel, is that I get locked in.   I like to set an itinerary and stick with it.   Well that did not work out so well this week.   Our plan was to spend several days in the far Northwest tip of the South Island, on Golden Bay and the Abel Tasman National Park.  It's supposed to be beautiful.   But as I mentioned, it started to rain.   And rain.   And rain, and the forecast was for more rain.  I could not even see across the Holiday Park for the rain, let alone go walk into a National Forest.

So I had to get out of my comfort zone and change plans.   We checked the forecast for the West coast and low and behold, the rain was to stop the next day down there.   So off we went, driving in the rain to Greymouth.  (Just like it sounds...Grey Mouth, because the town is at the mouth of the Grey River).

Greymouth is a small town.   The Grey River is flowing into the Tasman Sea, on the west coast of New Zealand, which is part of the Indian Ocean.   I had never seen the Indian Ocean, so this was pretty cool.

We parked right along the beach and took a nice walk down this beach in the rain.   The beach has very little sand, and is very rocky....small rocks that fit into the palm of your hand, but all rocks.   We found some beautiful rocks, of every color, shape and size.  Naturally our bag will have a few specimens when we come home.  Get ready Grandkids.  

The forecast was right, and the rain stopped just in time for us to move south along the shore to where the highest mountains in New Zealand rise from the ocean.  I like geology, and New Zealand is a geologist's paradise.  You have heard of the Ring of Fire that is the Horse Shoe shaped fault line running 40,000 miles long, starting at the tip of Chili on the South American continent and runs up North America, along the Aleutians in Alaska, down through Japan and to the tip of New Zealand.  This is the most active fault line in the world with hundreds of active volcanos, and frequent "Shakes" as they call earthquakes here in NZ.  

New Zealand lies at the junction of the Indo-Australian plate and the Pacific plate.   Surprisingly the North Island of NZ is being pushed up by the Pacific plate riding up over the Indo Australian.   However, the South Island is the opposite.  It is growing about 6 cm. each year as the Indo-Australian plate rides up over the sub-ducting Pacific plate.   Go figure.  Our path took us right along the coastline at sea level.   So to see these mountains rising straight up to Mt. Cook at 3754 meters (12,300 ft) is impressive.   Impressive is not the right word.   It is downright beautiful.  Definitely a Wow factor.   

Two glaciers fall off the west and southwest side of Mt. Cook.   The Franz Josef and the Fox Glaciers.   If there is one major tourist attraction in NZ, this is it.   We spent the night at the base of the Fox Glacier, and there are no less than 5 helicopter companies bidding to take you up and land you on the snow for 5 minutes, then whisk you back to town.   20 minutes round trip for a mere $230 per person.   Or you can spend big money ($400 per person and land for 10 minutes on each glacier).   I'm cheap.   No thanks.   So we did what any cheap person would do, we drove to the base valley of the Fox Glacier and walked up to as close as the rangers would let us get to the base of the glacier.   You cannot climb up onto the glacier as it is moving and falling, and changing all the time.   But you can see it for free.   

We started our walk up to the glacier around 9:00 am, well before the sun rose enough in the morning sky to shine down into this canyon.   So all the pictures are a bit gray.   But clearly you can see the end of the glacier.   In 1735 it extended a good two miles down this valley, according to a sign we passed on the road while driving to the glacier.  It has been melting back for not only these last 282 years, but actually for thousands of years in this valley.   I won't get into politics about global warming, but the earth has been on this natural trend for a very long time.  Not much of that warming trend is due to man or fossil fuels, nor is the pace of the melting accelerating.    So call me a "denyer" but regardless, it is a precious site, well worth seeing.

I enjoyed the half hour walk from the car park up to the base, for the sheer beauty and awe of seeing this glacier.   Shelley thought it was neat, but really saw it as an opportunity for exercise.  After spending 3 minutes at the top, then "Let;s go, give me the keys to the camper and I  will see you when you get back down".   Crazy.  On the way up, she was in full "Shelley Walk" mode for those of you who know her.    I'm a good 50 yards behind.

Here are some photos of the Fox Glacier and the surrounding valley.

The water flow on the lower right,  is actually out of rocky gray ice that runs just below the glacier

From the Fox Glacier, we continued south down the West side highway until the road ends in Jackson Bay.   There is still 150 miles of coastline below Jackson Bay, but it is the Fiordlands, which are highly unaccessible, except by water.   Undeniably the beauty of the West Coast was amazing. 

 We just missed the seals and penguins, who left for the other places that seals and penguins go, just a few weeks ago.

Jackson Bay, which is the only natural bay on the West Coast.  This is the end of the road.

One of the many estuaries that catch tidal flow every day and are a botanical wonder.

As I mentioned the rain stopped, and we had a beautiful day and a beautiful sunset.