New Zealand: Greymouth to Haast

2 February 2014-

Whoa! Am I really THAT far behind in posting photos from our New Zealand trip??? (eep…it's April already!)

Okay…I'm going to attempt getting through the rest of the NZ trip posts this week. Why? Because I've got photos to show you from our latest trip. You'll just have to stay tuned to see where we went!

Back on (side) track:

Early morning jog. yada yada yada…. I think you know the drill by now. Wake up about an hour before everyone else does and get yourself out the door with the appropriate clothing (shoes!) on and go jogging for about thirty minutes. Who's with me????

Lily playing on the jungle gym at our campground:

Time to head south! We're making our way down the West Coast. We're hoping to see some mountains and glaciers today.

In the meantime, check out this (kinda terrifying in a not good way) bridge:

One-lane bridge with NO room for error with the campervan. Oh, I'm soooooooo glad I'm not driving The Beast!

Almost at the end of that one-lane bridge.

We're done. Whew. I can breathe again.

This certainly looks like a glacier-fed river, doesn't it? (reminds me of many of the rivers we've seen in Alaska):

I've been dreaming of seeing mountains….real mountains. You know – the kind they have back home. Oh yeah…what home am I referring to? Try ALASKA. Alaska has REAL mountains. Yes it does and I do miss Alaska. So…shall we go find some real mountains????

Let's stop here in Franz Josef (named after the Austrian Kaiser…what? why is a place in NEW ZEALAND named after somebody from Austria???? Ok. That makes no sense whatsoever.) There's a glacier we can apparently hike out to and…

whoa.

check this out! There's a wildlife center where we can see kiwis (birds…no, not the fruit. They call those kiwifruit.)

Westcoast Wildlife Center:

We got to observe three kiwis in a man-made habitat. Since kiwis are nocturnal their enclosure also mimics night-time. Sorry, no photos. They are cute little buggers! It's still amazes me the enormous eggs they lay. Beth and I might have had too much fun shopping in the souvenir shop. *ahem* (whoopsies)

Ready to go for a walk? I am ready to get out of our campervan and stretch my legs! We're making our way up the Franz Josef glacier parking lot. We'll (hopefully) park there and go for a walk. I wonder how close we can get to the glacier on foot. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

I think I spy a glacier…just barely though. It's not very glacier-y:

Darn the low clouds! I'm pretty sure what we're looking at here are Real Mountains (the kind with a capital M) but can't be sure with these dang clouds hanging so low.

waterfalls!

Check out the stripe-y rock wall:

Play time ….

Can you figure who was leading the pack of Minions up the rock wall?? (if you guessed Gregory – you'd be correct!!!):

Ava…barefeet??? In mountain cold water???? Really?????

Can you spot the glacier?

Hi Guys!!!:

Mark, Annika and Ava on a HUUUUUUGE boulder:

Mark of the Mystic Mountains:

Girlies with Franz Josef glacier waaaaay back there in the background.

Apparently, the only way to really see the glacier is to take a helicopter up to it. The helicopters keep coming on a regular basis (like every thirty minutes). You can barely see them with those clouds hanging so darn low. The helicopter tours were pretty darn expensive so opted out of them.

What is it about our kids??? That is some seriously cold, mountain fresh water. And they're getting in it???? Whaaat?????

Hmmm….what do you suppose those kids are thinking of doing?????

I'm getting goosebumps just looking at these chilling photos!

The kids…including Annika got SOAKED:

Yep, we've got some crazy kids! And you know what? We love 'em!!!

These clouds are kind of acting like party poopers. We're not any glimpses of the mountains. Darn. Drat. Fudge. Well, at least we got a nice walk. That's a good thing, right? Let's move on out…and keep heading south (past Fox Glacier). We're making tracks to Queenstown but there's NO WAY we can get there by tonight. Looks like a town called Haast might making a good stopping point for tonight.

Onward???

To Haast we go!!!

Check out these Doctor Seuss-like trees:

oooo!!!! Mountains!!!!

So…we first checked out one campground but honestly we didn't get a good feeling from it so we found another one (which is the one we'd intended to find in the first place…we just some how missed it – even though it was right.next.to.the.highway. Ooops! Every once in a while I fall down on my Navigator job. Whoopsies!

BUT…check out the hangar turned into a multi-purpose facility at the campground. Inside was the kitchen, dining area, and restrooms. Totally campy! 🙂