Day 3 - Franz Josef Glacier
On a rare fine day on the South Island's West Coast, David brought my parents and I to the base of Franz Josef Glacier, Lake Matheson, Haast Pass, Wanaka, and finally Arrowtown
December 1, 2004

01-WaihoRiver On Wednesday, December 1, 2004, David took us to see Franz Josef Glacier in the morning ... this is the Waiho River, just outside our motel in Franz Josef 02-Waterfall Waterfall 03-FranzJosefGlacier Franz Josef Glacier 04-Waterfall Waterfall 05-Hillside Steep hillside 06-Glacier Franz Josef Glacier ... 150 years ago or so the glacier extended to where I was standing, and retreated up the valley a goodly distance ... since the 1970s, however, the glacier has been steadily advancing 07-FranzJosef Franz Josef Glacier ... the lighting of the beacons scene in 08-MomJaredDadDavid-Glacier Mom, me, Dad & David at the glacier 09-FranzJosef Franz Josef Glacier is, I believe, the closest glacier to the ocean in the world (a mere 6 or 7 miles), and it is also the fastest glacier in the world, racing down the mountain at a meter a day! It's not necessarily advancing a meter a day, however, as some of the glacier melts or breaks off at the terminus 10-Glacier The spectacular Franz Josef Glacier 11-CreekGlacier Glacier-fed creek 12-Waterfall There were many waterfalls along the hillside like this one 13-Waterfall Waterfall 14-ForkedWaterfall Forked waterfall 15-DadMom-FranzJosef Dad & Mom at Franz Josef 16-RockFranz Giant rock and Franz 17-Waterfall Waterfall 18-WavyRock Wavy rock 19-WavyRock Wavy rock 20-MossyRockside A mossy rockside 21-Waterfall Waterfall 22-GlacierTerminus Glacier terminus 23-GlacierClimbers To get an idea of just how immense the glacier is, look at how tiny the people are that are climbing one of the ridges on the glacier 24-Glacier Glacier 25-FranzJosefGlacier Franz Josef Glacier 26-FallingIce Beware of falling glacial ice chunks, one of the funnier signs I saw in NZ 27-WheresJared Where's Jared? I'm in the photo, and kudos if you spot me 28-Glacier Glacier 29-Ice Huge chunks of ice 30-LittlePeople People look so small ... what's crazy is that on my way back from the glacier, I recognized one of the people in that group, as a guy from Emory University in Atlanta, who was on our IFSA-Butler orientation in Buxton back in July (he was going to University of Western Australia or Murdoch University, I forget which, but both of them are in Perth), so that was cool and unexpected 31-WaihoRiverValley Waiho River valley 32-Glacier Glacier ... each one of these ice chunks is quite a bit taller than I am 33-IceChunksPeople Ice chunks and some people down the hill 34-GlacierRock Glacier rock 35-Creek Creek 36-Jared-WavyRock I thought it'd be cool to sit in the neat wavy rock 37-Mom-Waterfall Mom by the forked waterfall 38-Mom-Waterfall Mom by the waterfall 39-LakeMathesonPath A little further inland, on the path to Lake Matheson 40-Ferns Ferns 41-Trees Trees 42-UprootedTree Massive uprooted tree 43-Pool Pool 44-MossyTrees Mossy trees 45-LakeMatheson Lake Matheson 46-Path Path through the rainforest 47-LakeMatheson Lake Matheson ... behind those clouds is Mt Cook ... when it's not cloudy or breezy, this is a postcard-quality view, as NZ's tallest mountain is reflected in the lake 48-LakeMatheson Lake Matheson 49-Pond Pond 50-LastFuel-Fox We stopped for lunch in Fox, and figured we'd better get petrol when we saw this sign 51-Haast Haast 52-Road A road heading up towards the Haast Pass, the southernmost of the three passes across the Southern Alps 53-DouglasPoint Douglas Point 54-MistyMountains Misty Mountains ... I'm pretty sure that these were used for the Misty Mountains in the prologue in 55-MistyMountains Misty mountains 56-Rockslide Giant rockslide 57-Mountain Mountain 58-Road Road 59-Road Road 60-HaastRiver Haast River 61-Mountain Mountain 62-Makarora Makarora ... here the divide between the east and west sides of the South Island is stark, with rainforests on the west side of the divide, and all of a sudden a distinct lack of much vegetation on the east side 63-Makarora Makarora, a town near the Haast Pass 64-MountainRange Mountain range 65-LakeWanaka Lake Hawea 66-LakeHawea Lake Hawea 67-LakeHawea Lake Hawea 68-LakeHawea 69-LakeHawea Lake Hawea 70-Sheep Sheep on a very steep hillside by Lake Hawea ... I was amazed at how they could stand without tumbling down the hill 71-Jared-LakeHawea Me, by Lake Hawea 72-LakeHawea Lake Hawea 73-LakeWanaka Lake Wanaka, at the town of Wanaka ... this swimming raft has a slightly better view than the one we have in our lake back home :-) 74-LakeWanaka Lake Wanaka 75-PuzzlingWorld Puzzling World in Wanaka 76-GoldenHill Golden hill ... the golden colour comes from gorse, a noxious weed in New Zealand that was imported by Scottish settlers ... it's a nice shrub/hedge plant in Scotland, but in the New Zealand soil and climate it absolutely took over everything, and is choking out native flora 77-CrownRange Crown Range 78-CrownRange Crown Range 80-CrownPass Crown Pass 81-CrownPass Crown Pass 82-CrownPass Crown Pass 83-CrownPass Crown Pass 79-CrownPass Crown Pass, with Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu visible in the distance down in the valley 84-Remarkables The Remarkables 85-CrownPassSummit Crown Pass Summit 86-DavidDadMom-CrownPass David, Dad & Mom at Crown Pass 87-Jared-CrownPass Me, at Crown Pass 88-DeadTree A kinda cool-looking dead tree ... Mom wanted a picture of the tree, but not the parking lot, yet she wanted to get the mountains behind it, and she wanted the entire tree ... it was impossible to get the photo she wanted, so I compromised by cutting off the tree, getting part of the parking lot, and only getting some of the mountains in back ... I'm such an obedient son :-) 89-Hill Hill 90-Queenstown Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu 91-Arrowtown Arrowtown 92-Arrowtown Arrowtown 93-Arrowtown Arrowtown 94-Arrowtown Arrowtown

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