Glaciers and Rainforests

January 21

Charlotte:

We went to the “Blue Pools” today. We parked the camper and walked for about 20 minutes to get there. When we were there, we saw guys jumping off a big bridge into the water. It looked so scary! The water was so clear that you could see the bottom even in the deep parts. There was also a family rafting and swimming there.

Then we were driving along, and we saw a beautiful view. We stopped got some pictures from a one-lane bridge. We would have gotten more, but being on the bridge was dangerous and was not for people to walk on. (That is what I found out and showed Dad the sign.) The place was called Devil’s Pass.

Sam:

We then drove to a place called Haast on the west coast, where we decided we “haast” to get groceries, but they were all super expensive, so we only got a few things. For example, a taco kit cost $12.99 and a 1.5L bottle of Coke cost $5. We had heard Haast was a world heritage site, so we were excited to go there, but there was nothing to do there and it wasn’t even a pretty town. We were disappointed and confused about why it was chosen by UNESCO. Oh well, we just kept going.

There was a sign for a beach, so we stopped to take some pictures. We coated ourselves with bug spray because this area is known for sandflies. Just as we came out of the dunes, we spotted a whole pod of porpoises. They were swimming very close to shore, and we got to watch them for awhile. Sandflies soon drove us back to the camper.

We were driving along the coast a few minutes later, when we saw a little ice cream truck on the side of the road with some pretty good prices, so we got some ice cream. The sandflies swarmed us while we ordered. They are awful here! Their bites are itchier than mosquito bites even though they are tiny little bugs. The bug spray helps, but we all still have lots of bites.

We stayed overnight in a place called Fox Glacier in a really nice site. We had dinner and Mom made a popular Kiwi dessert, a pavlova with fresh fruit and cream on top. It was delicious. We fell asleep listening to the Kea birds (an Alpine parrot).

January 22

Charlotte:

We woke up and got ready and went to a place called Franz Josef Glacier to take a hike. The first place we tried was closed (through glow worm caves), so we chose another trail. It was through a rainforest!

At the first lookout, we stopped to talk with a ranger called Ranger Hazel. We talked for a while about the glacier and the animals in the rainforest.

Then we continued our walk. It was super cool – there was a big glacier, and we had to walk through a big valley that 100 years ago had the glacier in it.

We got there had some family selfies. We learned that only 8 years ago the glacier was close enough to hike on. Now it has melted so much that you can only reachable it by helicopter. We hiked back to the camper.

Sam:

We went to a grocery store in Fox Glacier and visited a few gift shops. Then we got in our van to go to Greymouth. When we got there we watched some surfers and saw some dolphins in the ocean. After we found a good camping area and parked in our spot, we walked to a place called Monteith’s Brewery for supper.