It's December 1st, which means we have been in New Zealand for 2 full months. It has been a glorious two months and we are wondering where the time went. I guess what they say is true, time moves fast for busy people and we have been busy. I have done another map to show where we have travelled to date. The black outline was our October travels and the red line is November.
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| Black for October, Red for November |
In outlining and looking at the map it made us realize how much we have done and that we should be tired. Well, we are and it came to roost this morning. We woke up in Greymouth to a very overcast day with little or no ceiling. We had planned to go hiking but as the view would be severely hampered we decided to move on down the highway. In retrospect it was a good idea. We found out later that we would have not been allowed to stay in the camp as everything is full. Everything in town is full. There is a memorial service being held for the 29 miners who lost their lives in the Pike River Mine accident. People are coming from all over the Country. It is a very sad place to be. Our thoughts and prays go out to all the families affected by this disaster.
We left town and stopped a short way down the highway in Hokitika. Hokitika came to life as a gold mining town 1864 but today is mainly a tourist town. Greenstone or Jade is found near here and carving has become an important local industry. You can actually find pieces of greenstone on the beach, especially after some rough weather.
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| Looking for Greenstone |
We stopped in here mainly to go to the National Kiwi Center. We did get to see a Kiwi alive and well, but picture taking was not allowed. The only other thing of interest in the center was a large tank of Eels, some of them 150 years old. Ugly things. We walked around Hotikita and took a few pictures before continuing on to Franz Josef Glacier.
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| Hokitika |
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| Hokitika |
The drive to the glacier was a nice drive but we were missing a good part of the scenery. The cloud cover came down quite low on the face of the mountains cutting off our view. Occasionally we could see through some of the coverage and get a glimpse of the mountains behind.
It was during our drive to Franz Josef Glacier that we realized that maybe we had been pushing it a little too hard. We decided we needed a bit of a rest, so we are going to stay here for 2 or 3 days and just lay low. It will feel good.
Thursday (Day 63) was a rest day. We are in a very nice little campsite called Rain Forest Retreat Holiday Park which is located right in the village.
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| Heading out for our walk |
It's a good place to rest up. The only energetic thing we did today was to take an afternoon stroll through the village. That didn't take very long as the village is quite small. It is here strictly to support the visitors to the glacier. We returned to our campsite and just relaxed the rest of the afternoon.
It was early evening when we got our first look at the mountains surrounding the village. I think it is Mt. Cook but I will have to verify that in the morning. It is pretty amazing what a few hours will make. The first shot I took around 3:30 PM and the second shot I took at 6:30 PM.
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| Taken at 3:30PM |
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| Taken at 6:30PM |
Tomorrow, if it is sunny, we are going to walk up to the glacier. If it is another overcast day we may just do nothing. Decisions, Decisions.
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