This post may take some time to re-organise. I am more than a little frustrated, trying to make blog posts from home. Despite upgrading my Telecom NZ ADSL contract I honestly have to say that the experience of 'broadband' here is bringing back memories of the days of ISDN connections in Finland well over 10 years ago. Well, actually, that was quite reliable but slow compared to our modern-day broadband. The ADSL here is just totally unreliable and slow. The worst 'feature' is that my net connection actually drops off the Internet totally about once every ten minutes! So whatever process is happening then it's time to start again from zero. Things are a little better at the university so I expect I'll have to complete my blog posts there next week.
This post is about day 3 of our recent trip to South Island. We left Hokitika and continued heading South down State Highway 6 towards the Southern Alps and made our first stop at the old gold mining town of Ross. The Ross gold fields were famous within the gold rush of the 1860s but the majority of gold mining activity ended already in the early 1870s. Ross provides good opportunities for visitors to explore the spirited days of the gold rush when, for example, there was so much gold being dug that successful miners were seen lighting cigars with bank notes in the saloons and the largest nugget found, the Roddy Nugget, was used as a doorstop in a hotel. I also heard that some geologists believe that the town (village?) is actually still sitting on a mass of gold deposits and that 'it would be a good idea' to bulldoze the whole place and mine it thoroughly. The residents of Ross are, no doubt, of a different opinion.
After briefly experiencing the modern-day landscape of Ross and its photo opportunities we continued down route 6. The forests became more exotic and the huge pastures were familiar from the picture book images of New Zealand we've all seen.
It's interesting to remember that this is all man made and that those massive solitary trees in the fields were once a part of an all embracing diverse forest cover that stretched from the high mountains to the sea. The drive is, anyway, very pretty and soon we are heading up towards the mountains, crossing numerous one-way road bridges, driving through canyons and over passes with endless hairpin bends.
We took a detour to the end of Franz Josef glacier, one of the two most famous here. There were a lot of cars and buses in the car park but the people soon get well dispersed along the various paths to the viewing decks and walkways along the valley.
Even from a distance the glacier was impressive, somewhat 'dirty', but impressive. We continued on into the Fox Glacier village, a hub for outdoor activities of all kinds in the area. The weather was clearing and while we had lunch outside people we being briefed in front of the store next to the cafe on how to be good passengers on a helicopter trip. There were lots of advertising signs for helicopter and small plane trips in the region. It was very tempting. Tarja and Tessa got more interested and soon, while they ate, I had managed to book us a flight for later that afternoon; 40 minutes flying up Fox glacier, around Mount Cook and then down along Franz Josef glacier and back to the airfield. There was also a possibility to land on the glacier, weather permitting.
We were driven to the airfield on the outskirts of the village, home to the 20 or so helicopters working in the valleys there. This makes the airspace in the glaciers relatively busy. Pilots negotiate their routes by talking to each other constantly. Flying along the edge of the ridges, dodging heavy clouds and the surprising blasts of updraft from the hills, flying here is not for the faint hearted.
The flight was fantastic, the best I've ever experienced. We were all very happy even though the cloud prevented us from landing on the high slopes. That meant that we had more time to fly and also take in the slopes of Mount Tasman as well as Mount Cook. We also got to circle above one of New Zealand's highest waterfalls, depositing masses of frosty water down into the depths of the glacier. I can't help thinking that we should really get fit enough to make some of the long treks here, to see some of these wonders close up and stride those majestic ridges up towards the glacial peaks. The helicopter is just too easy, almost an ethereal experience. After landing I can't help wondering whether that all just happened. Too much for the senses in 40 minutes! Luckily I have about 500 images to remind ourselves it was real. Here are a few examples.
After the exhilarating flight we decided to stretch our legs with a visit the end of Fox Glacier, despite the fact we were well behind schedule and were uncertain of where we would stay that night. The stones along the valley were extraordinary and TK collected a few examples for her collection.
The sun was dropping slowly in the sky as we headed further south and, luckily, as the last threads of gold stretched across the pastureland before us we came to a charming but rather desolate farmyard holiday chalet site, just before Jacobs River. The accommodation was fine and we soon hit the sack in preparation for the long drive across the hills to Queenstown the next day.
This post is about day 3 of our recent trip to South Island. We left Hokitika and continued heading South down State Highway 6 towards the Southern Alps and made our first stop at the old gold mining town of Ross. The Ross gold fields were famous within the gold rush of the 1860s but the majority of gold mining activity ended already in the early 1870s. Ross provides good opportunities for visitors to explore the spirited days of the gold rush when, for example, there was so much gold being dug that successful miners were seen lighting cigars with bank notes in the saloons and the largest nugget found, the Roddy Nugget, was used as a doorstop in a hotel. I also heard that some geologists believe that the town (village?) is actually still sitting on a mass of gold deposits and that 'it would be a good idea' to bulldoze the whole place and mine it thoroughly. The residents of Ross are, no doubt, of a different opinion.
After briefly experiencing the modern-day landscape of Ross and its photo opportunities we continued down route 6. The forests became more exotic and the huge pastures were familiar from the picture book images of New Zealand we've all seen.
It's interesting to remember that this is all man made and that those massive solitary trees in the fields were once a part of an all embracing diverse forest cover that stretched from the high mountains to the sea. The drive is, anyway, very pretty and soon we are heading up towards the mountains, crossing numerous one-way road bridges, driving through canyons and over passes with endless hairpin bends.
We took a detour to the end of Franz Josef glacier, one of the two most famous here. There were a lot of cars and buses in the car park but the people soon get well dispersed along the various paths to the viewing decks and walkways along the valley.
Even from a distance the glacier was impressive, somewhat 'dirty', but impressive. We continued on into the Fox Glacier village, a hub for outdoor activities of all kinds in the area. The weather was clearing and while we had lunch outside people we being briefed in front of the store next to the cafe on how to be good passengers on a helicopter trip. There were lots of advertising signs for helicopter and small plane trips in the region. It was very tempting. Tarja and Tessa got more interested and soon, while they ate, I had managed to book us a flight for later that afternoon; 40 minutes flying up Fox glacier, around Mount Cook and then down along Franz Josef glacier and back to the airfield. There was also a possibility to land on the glacier, weather permitting.
We were driven to the airfield on the outskirts of the village, home to the 20 or so helicopters working in the valleys there. This makes the airspace in the glaciers relatively busy. Pilots negotiate their routes by talking to each other constantly. Flying along the edge of the ridges, dodging heavy clouds and the surprising blasts of updraft from the hills, flying here is not for the faint hearted.
The flight was fantastic, the best I've ever experienced. We were all very happy even though the cloud prevented us from landing on the high slopes. That meant that we had more time to fly and also take in the slopes of Mount Tasman as well as Mount Cook. We also got to circle above one of New Zealand's highest waterfalls, depositing masses of frosty water down into the depths of the glacier. I can't help thinking that we should really get fit enough to make some of the long treks here, to see some of these wonders close up and stride those majestic ridges up towards the glacial peaks. The helicopter is just too easy, almost an ethereal experience. After landing I can't help wondering whether that all just happened. Too much for the senses in 40 minutes! Luckily I have about 500 images to remind ourselves it was real. Here are a few examples.
After the exhilarating flight we decided to stretch our legs with a visit the end of Fox Glacier, despite the fact we were well behind schedule and were uncertain of where we would stay that night. The stones along the valley were extraordinary and TK collected a few examples for her collection.
The sun was dropping slowly in the sky as we headed further south and, luckily, as the last threads of gold stretched across the pastureland before us we came to a charming but rather desolate farmyard holiday chalet site, just before Jacobs River. The accommodation was fine and we soon hit the sack in preparation for the long drive across the hills to Queenstown the next day.
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