woensdag 18 november 2009
Cape Foulwind (maybe somebody farted?)
Ankie went looking for more gold but she couldn't find more so we both left for Cape Foulwind. First we had our lunch in a restaurant with a deck, from which we could look over the bay of Cape Foulwind. Was really nice and the chowder was very good.
After we finished lunch we hiked to the cape and, guess what, we saw a seal. So I made this little video.
Old goldmineshaft
To get the gold, the people at that time had to dig holes in the ground to reach the goldore. So they made lots of shafts in the hills around the coast. This is a picture of an old shaft; look at the rusted rails on which the trolleys, full of ore (coming out of the mine) were pushed to some sort of crushingmachine.
When they were emptied, the men had to push the empty trolley back, into the mine again (if they don't do that they run out of empty trolleys, ain't it?)
There is light on the end of the shaft, because they dug the whole mountain behind it, away.
Sorry, this is not a very exciting picture, but not all of my photos can be spectacular.
GOLD !!!!!
The whole westcoast of the southern island is well known for its goldmines. Our guide tells us that at the time they found gold in New Zealand it was one large pandimonium (the guide says that Klondike was nothing compared to what happened here on the south island around 1870).So we vesited an ancient goldmine and guess what, Ankie found a nuggett of about EUR 500,-!
I left her there for looking for more gold and I went off to Cape Foulwind. The name has probably to do with ships that run aground on this rocky coast.
Punakaiki Pancake rocks
This morning, November 19th. we left Greymouth and it rained (a little). We set for Murchison, in the middle of the southern island.
After an hour or so we reached Punakaiki, which is famous for its "pancake rocks" (see picture) and its blowholes (the guide told us).
The pancake rocks are special.
The blowholes we didn't see.
But all in all it was a nice stop apart from the drizzsle now and than.
Hokitaki
A picture of the centre of the big city of Hokitaki on the west coast of the southern island of New Zealand.
In the background you can see the "Southern Alps".
Hokitaki is famous for its New Zealand Jade.
Practically half of the shops in this town sell jade jewellery of typical New Zealand style (Maori style).
Franz Josef Glacier
The F J glacier again, but from a totally different angle and without clieds and with lots of sun and still very cold and uninviting (that's something else, don't you think?)
Franz Josef Glacier
The Franz Josef Glacier from another angle and..................look, no clouds (clieds).
Franz Josef Glacier
The Frans Josef Glacier lies moreless next to teh Fox Glacier. They are both:
- cold
- made of ice (pressed snow)
- of the same colour.
The diffrence between teh both glaciers is that the Fox glacier has lots of clouds (clieds; see the pictures) and the Franz Josef glacier has no clouds at all.
Fox Glacier
The end of the glacier (in 1750 the end of the glacier was at least a kilometer farther to the west and the glacier is still getting shorter and shorter (global warming and all).
Fox Glacier
The "mouth" of the glacier, morealess in the middle of the picture.
Lots of glaciers have a "mouth", a sort of cave at the end of the glacier.
dinsdag 17 november 2009
Fox Glacier
Fox Glacier.
This is one of the two or three glaciers on the west coast of the southern island of New Zealand.
Rainforest
A large part of the southern and western coast of the southern island of New Zealand consists of rainforest.
Interesting are the ferns on trunks like here almost in the middle of the picture.
They are everywhere.
Something totally different from our garden in Capelle aand en IJssel.
Now in Greymouth
Today is Wednesday (or Tuesday) the 18th. November of the year of our lord of 2009 or so. I don’t know the exact day because I don’t keep track of the days.
I’ll start with yesterday.
We were at the Fox Glacier, mid western Southern Island.
Glaciers look more or less the same.
But still they are different and, since we don’t have a glacier at home, it’s always exciting to see one and look at it.
We saw a big glacier, some 20 years ago, in northern Pakistan near the Rakaposhi mountain, even walked on that glacier and it was awesome.
We saw glaciers in north west British Columbia (the southern part of Alaska near Stewart; three or four in a row) and we saw glaciers in the Rockies, like Edith Clavell (she was a sort of Canadian Florence Nightingale, shot by the Germans during the first world war somewhere in Flanders) and, well, this was beautiful again.
Today we were at Franz Josef (as I thought yesterday the late Emperor Franz Jozef of Austria), a little town called after the glacier next to this town.
Today the weather was fantastic. No clouds (they say here “clieds” or something like that – the New Zealanders speak a language which I only
can follow with difficulty I must admit, although I think I speak or at least understand English rather well ) and we had consequently lots of sun.
The glacier (Franz Josef) looked very good (as good as a glacier can look) and we had fun seeing the sites.
After visiting this glacier we went north to Hokitika where we lunched somewhere on the coast (with a sea view).
Those names here in New Zealand; they are so different that I can’t remember most of them (Korsakov plays a role maybe too).
We visited the gold town Ross and we saw real gold nuggets.
That’s something totally different from Chicken Nuggets and the latter taste much better.
In Ross they are still digging for gold nowadays.
After Ross we arrived in the city of Greymouth (on the mouth of the river Grey). The camping is OK and we will stay here for the night.
Tomorrow we will head north.
This evening/night we had dinner together with a Belgian couple whom we met already 4 or 5 times during our trip trough the southern part of New Zealand. Almost every 2nd day we meet them at some camping and it is nice to have conversations about:
- the federalization of Belgium
- “De Syphon” in Damme
- the weather in New Zealand
- Buys Ballot’s law (the wind should come from the east but comes from
the west)
- beer
- world politics (Bush and Obama)
- our kids and grandchildren
- food
- etc.
Driving around here in New Zealand means seeing lots and lots of sheep.
For people who love sheep, this must really be heaven (I am sure).
Greetings from Greymouth (New Zealand).
And till the next time.
I’ll start with yesterday.
We were at the Fox Glacier, mid western Southern Island.
Glaciers look more or less the same.
But still they are different and, since we don’t have a glacier at home, it’s always exciting to see one and look at it.
We saw a big glacier, some 20 years ago, in northern Pakistan near the Rakaposhi mountain, even walked on that glacier and it was awesome.
We saw glaciers in north west British Columbia (the southern part of Alaska near Stewart; three or four in a row) and we saw glaciers in the Rockies, like Edith Clavell (she was a sort of Canadian Florence Nightingale, shot by the Germans during the first world war somewhere in Flanders) and, well, this was beautiful again.
Today we were at Franz Josef (as I thought yesterday the late Emperor Franz Jozef of Austria), a little town called after the glacier next to this town.
Today the weather was fantastic. No clouds (they say here “clieds” or something like that – the New Zealanders speak a language which I only
can follow with difficulty I must admit, although I think I speak or at least understand English rather well ) and we had consequently lots of sun.
The glacier (Franz Josef) looked very good (as good as a glacier can look) and we had fun seeing the sites.
After visiting this glacier we went north to Hokitika where we lunched somewhere on the coast (with a sea view).
Those names here in New Zealand; they are so different that I can’t remember most of them (Korsakov plays a role maybe too).
We visited the gold town Ross and we saw real gold nuggets.
That’s something totally different from Chicken Nuggets and the latter taste much better.
In Ross they are still digging for gold nowadays.
After Ross we arrived in the city of Greymouth (on the mouth of the river Grey). The camping is OK and we will stay here for the night.
Tomorrow we will head north.
This evening/night we had dinner together with a Belgian couple whom we met already 4 or 5 times during our trip trough the southern part of New Zealand. Almost every 2nd day we meet them at some camping and it is nice to have conversations about:
- the federalization of Belgium
- “De Syphon” in Damme
- the weather in New Zealand
- Buys Ballot’s law (the wind should come from the east but comes from
the west)
- beer
- world politics (Bush and Obama)
- our kids and grandchildren
- food
- etc.
Driving around here in New Zealand means seeing lots and lots of sheep.
For people who love sheep, this must really be heaven (I am sure).
Greetings from Greymouth (New Zealand).
And till the next time.
Haast Beach
Ankie near driftwood (very large tree trunk) on Haast Beach.
We were the only ones on this beach at the time.
maandag 16 november 2009
From Manapouri to Haast and to Franz Jozef
Today is Tuesday.
I found an internet-cafe on the camping where we are staying right now.
It's difficult because:
- there is almost no space (everybody wants to do something on the internet it seems)
- there is no Wifi (so NO pictures today, alas)
The day before yesterday we were at Wanaka. At the lake.
Beautiful camping with a nice vista on the mountains we were going to.
The waether was still cold and very windy so there was not much to do than....take a hike, which we did.
Just next to our camping was avineyard and we went there.
They apperantly grow lots of diffrent wines like:
- caberne sauvignon,
- pinot noir,
- riesling ,
- gewurztraminer,
- and others.
We walked between the wines to the lake.
We saw some rabbits and the lake of course.
The next day, yesterday, we went to Haast (Haast beach).
We had a nice camping (with lots of fishermen having a party) and we took a walk on the beach.
It was still very windy but we had some sun and the walk was nice.
Didn't see any penguins or seals or something like that.
Made some beautiful pictures (we hope) but you'll have to wait till the next time or the time there-after.
Just when we came back to our van it started to rain again, so we kept ourselves dry.
Today, Tuesday, we drove form Haast to Fox-glacier. It was a "long and winding road" ** again but the views were nice.
** See/listen to : " The long and winding road" of the Beatles
Somewhere we made a stop and wanted to look at seals again but when we came to the place where they should be we were fucked (sorry) again (it appeared to take a walk of at least 3.5 hours over a pebbly beach) and we thought that was a little to much, considering that it was already later in the afternoon.
We walked however on this beach for a little and set for Fox Glacier after that.
Fox Glacier is one of the biggest glaciers on the west coast of South Island.
We drove to the car-park and walked, as far as we could, to the "mouth" of the glacier.
As you may know, lots of glaciers have a sort of cave at the end of the glacier.
We saw that for instance in Canada (Edith Clavell).
All in all it was a very nice hike and the vistas were awesome.
We had to cross some little streams (jumping from stone to stone) and I made pictures of Ankie, but she didn't fall in the water.
When we arrived back by our campervan it started raining again so we kept dry feet this time as well.
We are now in Franz Jozef (I still have to find out where the name comes from; probably an Austrian Prince who visited the glacier some 100 years ago or some other guy with the name).
Franz Jozef is only 25 Km's from Fox Glacier.
Tomorrow morning we will visit this Glacier (Franz Jozef) as well and we'll see what happens:
- will Ankie stay dry?
- will the weather be nice?
- will there be lots of tourists like Japanese (Japanese women who stick up their umbrellas when
the sun shines so they don't get coloured; I told one of them that it wasn't raining at the time
and she was looking at me with very big eyes) who walk right before you when you are taking
a picture?
- will there be sheep around as practicly allways (In New Zealand there are some 4.5/5 million
sheep; for people who love sheep, this must be heaven, really!!)?
- do we have to pay or not?
I gat a pain in my neck because the PC stands much higher than my little chair I sit on, so I am
ending this part of my blog soon.
Everything is OK out here.
We are both very much alive and enjoy our holiday to the max.
Tomorrow we are heading for Hokipika and Greymouth.
I wonder what we will see tomorrow but I'm sure there will be lots and lots of sheep around (and cows for that matter).
For people who like cows, New Zealand is heaven too (lots of cows around).
Till the next time.
I found an internet-cafe on the camping where we are staying right now.
It's difficult because:
- there is almost no space (everybody wants to do something on the internet it seems)
- there is no Wifi (so NO pictures today, alas)
The day before yesterday we were at Wanaka. At the lake.
Beautiful camping with a nice vista on the mountains we were going to.
The waether was still cold and very windy so there was not much to do than....take a hike, which we did.
Just next to our camping was avineyard and we went there.
They apperantly grow lots of diffrent wines like:
- caberne sauvignon,
- pinot noir,
- riesling ,
- gewurztraminer,
- and others.
We walked between the wines to the lake.
We saw some rabbits and the lake of course.
The next day, yesterday, we went to Haast (Haast beach).
We had a nice camping (with lots of fishermen having a party) and we took a walk on the beach.
It was still very windy but we had some sun and the walk was nice.
Didn't see any penguins or seals or something like that.
Made some beautiful pictures (we hope) but you'll have to wait till the next time or the time there-after.
Just when we came back to our van it started to rain again, so we kept ourselves dry.
Today, Tuesday, we drove form Haast to Fox-glacier. It was a "long and winding road" ** again but the views were nice.
** See/listen to : " The long and winding road" of the Beatles
Somewhere we made a stop and wanted to look at seals again but when we came to the place where they should be we were fucked (sorry) again (it appeared to take a walk of at least 3.5 hours over a pebbly beach) and we thought that was a little to much, considering that it was already later in the afternoon.
We walked however on this beach for a little and set for Fox Glacier after that.
Fox Glacier is one of the biggest glaciers on the west coast of South Island.
We drove to the car-park and walked, as far as we could, to the "mouth" of the glacier.
As you may know, lots of glaciers have a sort of cave at the end of the glacier.
We saw that for instance in Canada (Edith Clavell).
All in all it was a very nice hike and the vistas were awesome.
We had to cross some little streams (jumping from stone to stone) and I made pictures of Ankie, but she didn't fall in the water.
When we arrived back by our campervan it started raining again so we kept dry feet this time as well.
We are now in Franz Jozef (I still have to find out where the name comes from; probably an Austrian Prince who visited the glacier some 100 years ago or some other guy with the name).
Franz Jozef is only 25 Km's from Fox Glacier.
Tomorrow morning we will visit this Glacier (Franz Jozef) as well and we'll see what happens:
- will Ankie stay dry?
- will the weather be nice?
- will there be lots of tourists like Japanese (Japanese women who stick up their umbrellas when
the sun shines so they don't get coloured; I told one of them that it wasn't raining at the time
and she was looking at me with very big eyes) who walk right before you when you are taking
a picture?
- will there be sheep around as practicly allways (In New Zealand there are some 4.5/5 million
sheep; for people who love sheep, this must be heaven, really!!)?
- do we have to pay or not?
I gat a pain in my neck because the PC stands much higher than my little chair I sit on, so I am
ending this part of my blog soon.
Everything is OK out here.
We are both very much alive and enjoy our holiday to the max.
Tomorrow we are heading for Hokipika and Greymouth.
I wonder what we will see tomorrow but I'm sure there will be lots and lots of sheep around (and cows for that matter).
For people who like cows, New Zealand is heaven too (lots of cows around).
Till the next time.
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