Jan
4
Rained Out
Filed Under Australia/New Zealand 2009/10
Fox Glacier, New Zealand
January 3, 2010
2:01pm NZT
Greetings from a very, very, very wet N Zed (Down Under, the letter Z is pronounced Zed; and H is Haych). We have encountered cats and dogs downpour since shortly after we left Flock Hill Station this morning. Apparently up here it’s been raining non-stop since yesterday and is to continue through tomorrow as well. Craig said that copious amounts of rain is normal in this part of the country, just not this much in such a short amount of time.
Today we were scheduled to visit Fox Glacier itself; I had signed up for the heli-hike, a helicopter ride onto the glacier itself and then a two-hour hike around, very similar to what Mom, Dad and I did on Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau two summers ago. However, the rain and fog make it unsafe for helicopters to travel. In fact, there’s so much rain that the whole glacier including its access road has been closed down. Even more crazy is that this is the first time Craig has experienced a complete shut-down.
This morning, as we traveled west through the Southern Alps to the Tasman Sea, we have seen numerous waterfalls draining down the mountainsides, roads in low-lying country submerged, and rivers near brimming and rushing underneath our bridges. I am bummed to miss out on this glacier, but on the flip side I’m not spending NZ$380 for the heli-hike!
Along the way this morning, we stopped in the town of Wakitipu for an hour to browse a jade shop or walk around the small town. Joanne and I went to the grocery store to purchase sandwiches for lunch. Between Wakitipu and our hotel for tonight, we watched “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” on the bus, so I did get to see the location in the battle scenes that I hiked around yesterday.
At around noon, we stopped for a refueling and bathroom break where many of us had a unique and relieving experience. There are public toilets on the side of the road in the town we stopped at. Luckily there are also overhangs, too, so we could be sheltered from the rain. Anyway, to use these toilets, you push a button and the door slides open. Once inside, an automated man’s voice instructs you to push another button to close the door. After it’s closed, he tells you that your maximum time inside is 10 minutes. The toilet itself is pretty standard, but when you’re done taking care of business, a posted sign informs you that it will flush either once you start washing your hands or when you exit. Now, for the hand washing, it’s kind of like a coffee vending machine embedded into the side of the room. On the left side, you put your hand under the soap area and it dispenses. In the middle, water is activated. And on the right, there’s a place for blow-drying your hands. And lastly, push the door button to open it. If I’d taken my camera off the bus, I would have taken a picture!
So now that we’re the tiny “town” of Fox Glacier and not doing anything on the glacier today, we’ve got a good 4.5 hours to kill before dinner. Compared to yesterday, Joanne and I have a spacious hotel room and our own bathroom, unlike the shared facilities at Flock Hill. We’re also lucky in that we’ve been placed in a section of the hotel separate from all of the “younger” people. This tour isn’t so bad, but I do prefer the smaller, more intimate nature that my Outback Safari provided with just eight of us.
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