Dzibilchaltun is an archeological site half an hour north of Merida. We wanted to see it because it was on our way and because it has a cenote on its site. Those archeological sights are ancient Maya cities of different periods. They are spacious and I look at visiting those sights as a chance to hike with a goal to see all remaining or restored structures. So here are the first views we saw once we entered: 
And once we saw the cenote- we just changed to swim suites and went swimming. forgetting the pyramids around – cenotes were the main goal of this trip. There is nothing better than immersing in cenote waterￂﾠ -it is everywhere the same 26C, everywhere hey are very clean and blue. And they are sacred to Mayas, to us – too.ￂﾠ 
The Xlacah cenote (meaning Old Town) goes very deep under the rock where the couple is sitting, but cenotes are for swimming, not standing in them – so the deeper – the better. While I was sitting on the edge and enjoying the Spa -ￂﾠ fish nibbling on my legs, mosquitoes were doing their own job…That made me a little nervousￂﾠ -what if I got Zika…or Dengue Fever…But it seems-ￂﾠ I didn’t.ￂﾠ And from then on mosquitoes were biting me wherever I went. Maybe not so much right by the sea. But Andrei got only 2 bites. Not everyone is tasty enough.ￂﾠ 
After getting refreshed we walked and walked and investigated. This cenral structure in a square is built later, it was a Catholic church, built by Franciscans: 
Here I climbed a pyramid and the view from above: 
The birds that we saw while walking the the most interesting structure – were the most beautiful birds tat we encountered during the whole trip:
This pyramid at the end of a very wide and long Ancient Maya road is considered the most important in this site and is called Dzibilchantun – the House of Seven Dolls – the research team found those dolls in the depths of the pyramid and therefore the name. Nobody knows for sure what do those dolls mean, only speculations float around. And they are not very elaborate figures, too:
Then again we drove for half hour or so North, to Progreso, a small resort townￂﾠ on the Caribbean sea, with the longest Pier for the ships and cruise shipsￂﾠ to land, called Malecone.ￂﾠ There we were lucky to see a really impressive sunset :
There are beaches right in the town, but being it a port, the water was not s enticing for us, so we drove a little to the left and found endless stretches of empty beaches with white sand and greenish clear warm waters, peace and quiet: 
Fishermen are cleaning their catch and here is who enjoys i! The town itself was nothing special, typical provincial Mexican town, so I didn’t even bother to take a picture of it :-). What we noticed was that mostly Mexicans were vacationing there, with the exception of some Canadians who have their Bridge club. It is hard to tell why some areas on this warm sea coasts get built with fancy resorts, like in Quintana Roo, and why some-ￂﾠ not, like here. But that was the charm of this town. In two days when we left – we drove to the right of it parallel to the sea and saw a lot of individual fancy villas, lots of them for rent-ￂﾠ all of them just on the shore!
In Progreso we stayed in this hotel – Maria’s Nicte-Ha – which means Water Lilly in Maya. It was very good, with a kitchen and a little sitting room, with a pool inside the yard: 
All in allￂﾠ – it wasￂﾠ a very good stay in Progreso. But nothing can be perfect – there is a lot of mosquitoes there and the heat…There are a lot of swamps around where flamingos live and hatch, but we were not lucky to see them, or maybe we didn’t put extra effort to that reason. What I would suggest – go in larger groups to there, and rent one of those fancy villas on the endless white seashores! Though for shorter stays or for those who want to be in town and not to rent a car -ￂﾠ our hotel was really really good!
We lived in this street, but in another section of it. By Santa Ana Church, a very good place to stay and highly recommendable. Rented a very nice and sufficient King Bed apartment through Air B&B, with a well equipped kitchen, spacious and with a good AC. By the main street which leads to the center. Note how narrow their walkways are, and there are a lot of cars on those streets, so that is the feature which creates least pleasure: 
We lived in an apartment which we entered through this tiny garden:
It is built from the stones of an old Maya pyramid and adding an insult to injury -on its location. Or maybe that can be called “upcycling”ￂﾠ -depends on the viewpoint: 
Santa Lucia church – very similar to the Cathedral, and it is on the same stretch:
Each church has a little square around it or in front of it and that is always a welcome oasis in those walled streets. A little further to the side of the main drag there is a Folk Art museum, this is their wedding dress back in Spanish times:
Churches are usually connected with monasteries, and all that looks very medieval:ￂﾠ 
Here is a very special hairless dog, very Mexican, who was staying in an antique store. To me he looked like a kris-cross between a ig and a dog. Last time we saw them in Delores Olmeda Mansion by Mexico city, but they were closed from visitors. This time I could touch one!
WE bought this mask to our friend Delores in that Antique store:
As well as the last time, we were luckyￂﾠ to “catch” a good Piano concert in the Theater of Jose Peon Contretas, in the very center of the city:
Merida has its own Champs d’Elyseeￂﾠ – it is called Avenida Paseo De Montejo and is the widest street in the city. It would have been be nice to stroll on it back and forth if not that terrible heat…This avenida has the fanciest mansions in Merida, some restored some depressed: 
After staying for a couple of days in the city, we rented a car and drove south to see Hacienda Yaxcopoil. at least to have an idea how did haciendas look like. All those mansions in Merida were built on the money that haciendas produced by growing a special sort of agave and manufacturing ropes from it. Who would have thought that ropes can generate such profits! So here is the gate to hacienda and then the mechanisms to work on agave leaves and make ropes, also the main quarters where the owners lived, prayed and thrived: 
Nothing different, I guess, than in the Southern states of US. The same slavery produced riches to the occupiers-ￂﾠ in this case – the Spaniards. Water was not a problem in Yucatan – you just dig a little and will get into cenote or an underground river, 7 meters deep…maybe more in some places. So usually Haciendas had a water pump and some reservoirs to keep it for dry months. This particular one has the whole cellar filled with water – I guess it was for cooling the main house. And the plants and trees of any kinds thrive in such a climate:
Shameful as it isￂﾠ – we tried to drive to some cenote south of the Hacienda on Ruta de Cenotes – but the road was so bad and so abandoned, that we kind of got scared and didn’t continue on it. When you think – you are very vulnerable in their bush. So we returned to the little town Uman and had a perfect dinner there at some canteen, popular among locals, which had two flat screen TVs showing different episodes of Mr. Bean. Strange as it is – Mexicans were not laughing at all and I found those particular episodes very funny. What a combination – maybe that made me laugh a full laughter I rarely find an opportunity! Mr. Bean in Mexico…
This is a new big museums devoted to Maya culture: 
Here we saw a lumber yard…Only in NZ can a place like this look so neat and tidy like this!ￂﾠ The tree trunks look like toys in tidy piles… 
Here is Picton, where ferries from North island come and unload, again, so neat and tidy:
I liked how they incorporate an old building into a new one with contemporary architecture: 
Then there was a stretch to drive and no particular places to stop or do things and on the other hand-ￂﾠ we had to rush. We saw the blue ocean on our left and nice hills and even mountains on our right:
We stopped 25 km before reaching Kaikoura because we read that this is a big seal colony living on the shores there and the seal moms go to give birth to a waterfall and a little pond near by, have their kindergarden there. Well, we were a little late. The waterfall was there. but the baby seals grew up and were already playing far away in the shore puddles or climbing their resting moms: 
And here is Kaikoura and the YMC Guesthouse where we stayed, the view form our window that faces the sea – can’t recommend it more. But…I am not sure what is left of it now after this new earthquake that hit Kaikoura badly this fall…
We drove to then end of the peninsular, there are sea lions presenting their flexible figures in nice poses, and also Crags – sea fowl, that at first look like penguins. but have longer necks:
And some pics from the center of Kaikoura – it has nice stores and restaurants and what I liked all through NZ – if hey have a wall or a dull bus stop – they always paint it with some cartoon characters or with their flora and fauna which they adore!
Low tide, a lonely boat on the sands or mud 🙂 Lower-Havelock:
In some half hour it was hard to recognize the same view from the hill – the tide was coming so fast:
A quail:
Marlborough Sounds is the top of the South island, all hills and mountains sticking from blue waters. Maori have a legend, as if their king Maui dragged the North island from waters as a fish , while sailing on his boat. And the front of the boat was very elaborately carved – this turned into Marlborough sounds. The coastline there is over 1700 km, there are so many waterways, therefore -water-taxis. etc. And the the few roads that there are- ￂﾠthey are very curly. So we drove on the main part of Charlotte drive. then turned to Kendall drive and should have not driven more than 7 km. There we found a place like a beach where we could reach the water, some yoga ladies were having their retreat:
In several minutes the island on which the ladies were lying and doing yoga was becoming smaller and smaller and eventually disappeared :-):
Like a Maori king – I don’t know the man 🙂 :
Instead of turning back, we drove further some 20 km, looking for some beauty – but all the drive was dense trees and no views…no access ￂﾠto the beaches. When we found one side road to Misletoe beach – we drove there, nothing special, just the middle of nowhere. but the funny thing – here we see this British couple, all laughing and talking in a very pronounced Queens English – they thought that we cane to pick them up. A water-taxi dropped them there, and here they are with their luggage:
But then, of course. some person from their remote lodge came to pick them.ￂﾠ
The place we slept that night was a very interesting one. The lady of the Smith’s Farm Holiday Park was the first one to tell us so many advice and information, she also gave us 2 hot just baked muffins and a cottage with too many beds. All around they are having a living farm and there were pet sheep, a goat and a pig to be fed with the pills she gave us. The pig is getting too much, obviously:
They even have a waterfall on their land, but I walked through the meadows and reached a very gloomy forest, walked for a while and then decided that I have seen too many waterfalls on this trip :-). Well, and it was getting dark. Andrei, thii time. refused to walk so far, because driving on that windy road for 50 km was somehow too much for him. For me- ￂﾠtoo. How can people want to live there and drive that road often ￂﾠ-well, we are all ￂﾠdifferent :-).
Now NZ has this flag. we read that there is a debate going on to to change the flag and have the fern leaf in it instead of British flag. As every healthy society they have differences of opinion 🙂
Picton seemed to be a very nice town, either. How nicely they incorporate the old Victorian building in a contemporary building:
Kind of farewell to NZ:
Earlier I wrote about deforestation. While we drove I talked with people and learned that on the East coast at some point the government decided to protect the exotic forests and forbid to cut trees there. But – there is a big But – they gave money to the communities to change their business and relearn from forestry to something else, like tourism. I like such government! 🙂 whereas on the North part of South Island we saw a lot of hills just cut and lumber prepared to be boarded on ships ￂﾠ-but we also saw lots of hillsides with pines planted in rows, bigger and smaller in different areas – they are growing timber in a planned manner, also good:
They are known for cooking a big brownie pie and serve it with chocolate sauce and ice-cream every evening at 8 pm to all guests! But we mostly liked it because of the good energy and good design – the kitchen is on the first floor, so nobody bangs onto our heads like in the place in Motueka. I can recommend this place for those who like places with shared kitchens! To tell the truth – we even almost didn’t use the kitchen, only for coffee and tea. This city has nice places to eat and it happened so that we ate Thai food and especially tasty fish, squid, scallops and chips on a corner close to a Buddhist center and the river- on Nile street. Close by ￂﾠis their Queen’s garden as well as so may other parks…:
This tree was very strange – ￂﾠsome branches were leave-less ￂﾠ- and they had blooms, the others were with lots of leaves, but no blooms:
In the corner of this garden there is a Chinese garden, a very nice one, we still remembered from last visit and enjoyed it again:
Part of it’s ‘floors” are made form river rocks stacked vertical in a pattern:
We walked around the center, visited the Anglican church standing proudly on the hill, surrounded with plants and flowers:
Their school:
And some beautiful houses:
I did some yoga there, but didn’t swim. The wind was blowing :-), and felt some cold I got from travels, but wading was warm enough. There are nice hotels by the beach and a monument for te great explorer Abel Tasman:
And then we drove again to the center to eat, walk in the parks and galleries. The gallery in an old tobacco factory had a ceramics exhibit of which I liked this author for her cute Fridas (seems liket hey were Fridas Kahlo) figurines, and the others that I forgot how she named them:
The floors in that gallery looked like created by Modrian :-):
Then there was our biggest find – the Suter Gallery of Art, which should be a big gallery, but is being restored, so it is moved to a temporary location and was housing only one exhibit by a New Zealand – Australian artist Euan MacLeod. And this was a lot! To see such very high art was a privilege! ￂﾠSorry artist, I will show some of your works in my not very good pictures for people to get an idea how good they are and what a message you are transcending. It is hard for me to express the feelings I got for I am not a linguist or art specialist. But the works are very deep, very philosophical, very sad and at the same time calm, some seemed tragic to me, telling humanity where it is falling- ￂﾠto a hole…Very self analyzing, searching for identity, and of course what “rang the bell” most of all to me is that he is am emigrant and I am , too. There were works on that topic also…So here are some of them:
He didn’t travel much, just to Antarctica and some more, but he travels deep… By the book that I saw there- ￂﾠhe created so many paintings, participated in so many exhibits and still is not done yet :-). it somehow seems that through him God or some Information field or a Field of Eternal love or whatever we call that entity ￂﾠ-that He is sending us His messages…
Here the artist is keeping his feet in a volcano caldera.
here – he is on Mt. Cook, lower- in the rain…
I even photoed the analysis of his art, if you can read them -maybe with a magnifying glass:
I will repeat this poem printed here in my own words: Wherever you go – you will never get far enough from where you were. And the burdens you carry…
This painting is called “Memories. Blue”
So after such a visit, we just walked around and got to the Anzak Park where all the nelson heroes who died in different wars are commemorated:
All the flower beds by the paths are crosses – I haven’t seen such arrangement in parks anywhere, but cemeteries, and this is a cemetery in a way:
To crown the day we drove to Founders Heritage Park and walked around -it is a replica of how Nelson looked when white settlers came and built a city here. It looks like a toy 🙂 and the girl who was bar tending their famous handcrafted beerￂﾠ (a very good one!) said to me that she feels like she is working in a fairy tale:
The last look at nelson from a hill from where we could climb more and reach the center of New Zealand, but we didn’t, got lazy…
There is one more interesting story that happened to me here. While we drove on our street I noticed Amber House. So I took a chance and went to them just to say hello, to say that we also are Amber Inn B&B. I enter the house and the lady there comes forward and sais – oh hello, remember. we have stayed at your place, with our kids! Isn’t the world small? I had no clue, I forgot about them completely…To my shame…I didn’t even remember them mentioning about the name. So now I asked- ￂﾠwhy Amber. They are not Lithuanians, he is Irish. she is Philipino named Mila – because their last name is Amber! Here is their house:
And this is how our Tasman Bay lodge looked inside:
A view from our window:
But we drove to over a high mountain range on a very windy road to the Golden Bay. I would say -we curled up, walked on some view points:
Those colorful, red fields – are not flower fields, they are apple orchards and are covered with nets from birds. Their agriculture is expensive, but neat and tidy as their lives, I guess. Here are some rocks we saw all over while going up from Motueka side:
Then we were going down to Takaka and this is how the next valley looked like:
Very similar to Raigardo Valley in Lithuania in Ciurlionis paintings! so we drive and drove paralel to the sea of which we didn’t see much form the road, but reached the magical place -Waikoropupu springs, which we have seen last time and were very impressed It is considered the purest water in the world! I read in their geographic magazine, that instead of letting people drink form them – a corporation (boy, they are evil…) is bottling them into plastics and selling abroad. I don’t know how true it is, for I just read an article, but I saw signs telling us not to even touch the water… And the water there is amazing – its abundance, its sound, its coming form the bottoms of the earth, its purity and transparency:
They have an unusualￂﾠpolishedￂﾠgreenstone by the entrance:
After not drinking the purest water, we drove further and found the best beach one can imagine (of course, after Lithuanian beaches in Neringa). Those white little things – are shells, an abundance of them. The beach and the swimming area is like in the corner, sheltered from winds, and the water gets so deep at once- ￂﾠit is funny to get out- ￂﾠyou feel like climbing a ladder. This was the first time we swam in NZ seas in almost 4 weeks…I think it was the only time :-):
This walk to the beach was almost immersed in water when we came:
My ‘catch” 🙂 – who could ever dream to find such shells!:
And here how the walk looks like in an hour or so – the tide is going away so fast, fun to watch!
And that was almost it. This beach is between Parapara and Milnthorpe on Kendal rd. On the way back we drank some locally crafted beer in their cultural icon Mussel Inn pub close to Onekaka and back to Motueka. The road winds and goes up and down for 25 km one way. so 50 km on such a road in one day is a lot.The nextday we drove again to Kaikerikeri and from there – to see again the Split apple Rock:
This time there were many ships around it and many kayaks, a popular place. Then we drove a little further – to the beginning of Abel Tasman park – and walked the walk we have done 7 years ago:
What patters the water paints while going in and out with tides:
We walked till we reached our beloved rock, for joy for joy it is still there:
And after that we got tired and drove to Nelson some 156 km away in the same Tasman bay, ￂﾠwhere we plan to stay 2 nights.
But I saw one of the neighbor’s tiny horses already without her shirt:
We almost didn’t stop all the way which is 290 km to Motueka…Why – because our host told me that the most infested area in New Zealand with those sand flies or black flies is around Murchison. And i already got bitten by them on the West coast and around Greymouth – though we took precautions, were wearing only long pants, and spraying our legs with Lemon -Eucalyptus repels… Why am I so freaked out about sand flies- ￂﾠbecause my organism reacts in an inconvenient way to them. The bumps that come out in a day don’t let me sleep or enjoy life- ￂﾠthey itch so much! So therefore you see me in the pics almost all covered. This is the only viewpoint we stopped on the way:
And the sheep, poor things, were being chased by the dogs to another pasture:
But if I hear that New Zealand is a land of sheep – i would argue ￂﾠ- I think we saw an equal number of cow everywhere and maybe therefore their dairy products are very tasty!
Kiwis have a good sense of humor, though we don’t have much chance to talk to them, but you can notice their jokes here and there. This is where we bought apples, by the box where you throw money:
The North coastￂﾠof South Islandￂﾠis much sunnier than the West coast, so there are flowers all over:
The same day after we settled down in a hostel, we drove to Kaikerikeri to the beach and also to see the places we have seen 7 years ago. the houses by beaches are so modern, so “glassy” 🙂
So at lats after travelling NZ for 3 weeks we managed to get into the sea! and swim a little. For me it was not warm, Andrei got used to the water better.
While we were swimming – the water started going away. just in our eyes -literally…very impressive! So we walked around the rocks that opened up after the water was gone, the island turned into peninsular:
What a vehicle to get your boat into water!:
This is another beach and another island:
And here I wanted to catch and show a flag that Kiwis want to be their flag instead of the one they are having now – with the UK flag in the corner:
We were lucky to get this sunset while eating on the balcony at our hostel:
The neighbor’s are keeping 14 miniature horses, but I could see only 5 of them. keeping just as pets, because they are so dam cute! And only 2 of them were very friendly with me :-). they are covered with jackets because it was raining- ￂﾠbut very warm rain. very warm weather, I would think it would be good for them to get some shower, but the owner knows better:
So we had some rest. Until maybe 4 pm here the rain was on and off but constant. Nevertheless we got out and drove towards the Arthur’s Pass. the road was even and good, not so windy as on the coast and lots of Pukeko hens were enjoying the wetness:
And those cows – what an interesting coloration they have- ￂﾠthey usually all the same in one field:
Here we reached the tunnel on Arthur’s Pass and saw no need to drive more, the views were not worth doing that because we had to come back. We were doing a loop drive, came back again through Greymouth.ￂﾠ
The lower part of Arthur’s Pass road is beautiful, with clouds spread out in the sky in interesting ways. but the best part of it was a gallery we found in Otira, which is not even a town – it is a place with some 4-5 houses, one of them is an old hotel and the other is Modern Gallery ￂﾠ-and it was a huge impression! I didn’t expect. John ￂﾠBurns is so talented and so evolving. Almost every other of his paintings are of different style. but no pictures allowed, so you can only find his web site and see for yourselves. If I was a collector ￂﾠor a gallery owner-I would have definitely bought several of them. He is like Mark Shagal…We didn’t meet him. only his lovely wife, who is with him since they were 14 years old!
And here is the old also exotic hotel with a extensive collection of “stuff”:
Those vans are very popular here for rent – and each has a different picture. Read on this ones back: I always wanted to be someone, I should have been more specific…
Here is what I saw in men’s bathroom:
To tell the truth ￂﾠ- i never go to men’s bathrooms. But because it had this sign by this door, I couldn’t help but look in:
So then we drove down from the mountains towards the sea, with a big river on our side, with lots of slim but tall waterfalls lining the mountain slopes, sticking from dense forest.
Till we stopped to see the Londondery Rock – a big boulder, brought to here from the ice age as they suppose- ￂﾠfloating on a big piece of ice. they assume it is 3000-4000 tons big and as with our biggest rock in Lithuania Puntukas – this one also is wrapped in legends. here is a walk to it, and I could get only a part of it into the picture:
A bridge towards Greymouth:
There is a drive into the sea in Greymouth, on a road like a pier:
Here are some pics for Greymouth, which was very empty on this Saturday eve and is in reality very depressed. As in every city n NZ – they have murals on some walls:
This a quite a big Greenstone – jade on a street corner. Wow! they find them on the beaches, but I guess ￂﾠ- they are all found already :-).
We walked to a lake nearby to see the reflections of the Glacier:
Then we saw a board with pictures of the Glacier 2010…now the canyon is empty of ice till far away – just in ￂﾠ5 years… Actually I have this picture form 7 years ago when we visited the Glacier in my previous blog:
is it the weather change or is the East Coast warmer than the West Coast – hard ￂﾠto know, but it is really warm, even when it rains, like during some monsoon weather in Asia 🙂
Peculiar plants grow on the walls of the path:
And lots and lots of tall waterfalls, all over:
Here is how close we get to the glacier- ￂﾠ750 m, and it seems close and impressive, whereas to Fox glacier – you get 450 m close and it still seems far away ant small.
All this valley was covered in thick ice once upon a time :-):
This is the place, I assume based on what a Kiwi lady told me- ￂﾠis the place where two faults meet and this part of FJ town, maybe even this pot with plants is condemned, sad…
After having some lunch in FJ town, we drove North and turned to some small hikes described in tourist flyers. here what tiny berries and flowers grew by the forest path:
And a new sort of ferns that i saw this trip and only here:
And the coast which was very warm and no wind! But two negative features on West coasts that prevent from willing to immerse into waves – the sand flies and the waves – there is no any barrier from them and you can easily get drawn into the sea…The sand flies is evil ￂﾠ – they are tiny and when they bite- you can’t sleep at night, for almost 2 weeks – so itchy…So we dress up to our noses on the beaches and still get bitten…
Then we drove non stop, too much drive – almost 300 km from Fox to Greymouth, which is a lot on narrow windy road. ￂﾠthere were many bridges, very wide river beds with narrow ribbons of water in them mingling and tangling, and at last we reached Hokitika- ￂﾠthe town we stayed 7 years ago. it is cute and as earlier- ￂﾠhas a lot of Greenstone – jade galleries and driftwood sculptures on the beach:
It sais Ship of fools, but is oriented the wrong way – not towards the sea :-):
This hand was the most well done, in high tide it may look like a Giant is drowning and asking for help:
Some Hokitika freshly painted houses and neatly stacked wood:
Their library:
Then we bought 2 liter box of Mango-Passion fruit ice cream which here is marvelous! Sorry Italians, but new Zealand Ice cream is tastier to us and when 2 l cost $5 NZ – quite a country for enjoying ice cream! This night was to be to the side of Greymouth by grey river in an old miners town Taylorville, in Brunnerton Lodge/ which is counting 130 years of existence and you can feel it :-). But we have peace and quiet here and a comfy room en suite!
When I see such trees i always remember the beginning of Pushkin’s fairy tale: U lukomorja dub zelionyj… 🙂
And under such a tree in Lithuania in August (which is an analog of February here) one would always expect to find a mushroom. We searched…All the way and back. In this humidity and warmth and such a forest moss -there should be some. I picked a small bad and was worried that it will be too small :-). Because I always find things to worry about, I guess. the catch was almost zero – well, three low quality ones…then i asked a local lady – she said as far as she knows – mushrooms grow there in November, which is like May in Lithuania, interesting.
Here is the place in the rover called Blue pools:
When we came a young couple was in swim suites prepared to jump from the bridge- but I took a movie, not a pic of their jump. They jumped into those blue waters! Wow! And it was cold for them. But they got out safe and sound.
From there there is still a long windy road through Haas pass and down to Haas where we had lunch. The most popular fast meal here is Fish and Chips- ￂﾠbecause this country is like England’s continuance. They deep fry white cod in batter and this is what they call Fish, and they cook French fries – those are Chips. We somehow are not excited by that Fish, but we love their Chips! Once i tried a scallop deep fried in batter – it was goo, too. So here we are having Chips, the rain is pouring and I am asking the lady at the counter about their weather…She said they are getting 5 meters – which is 3 average persons put one on top of another -in one year…No wonder it is the rainiest place on earth, no wonder so few people live here. I haven’t checked the data, but young Zealanders told me that of over 4 million ￂﾠpeople living on both islands, only 1 million lives on the South island and most of them on the East coast. That is one of the rare places on earth where we like East more than West :-). After Haas you reach the sea pretty soon and here is how the coast looks like- ￂﾠnot so pretty :-):
It wouldn’t be so bad to walk on the coast and pick the very white, semi transparent and round stones, but the sand flies, those are nasty there.ￂﾠ
This heap of stones was a spiritual one- ￂﾠthere were thoughts and stories written on the stones! Some are worried about legalization of marijuana, some about their husband who died without seeing NZ, some are very happy seeing NZ, some just make drawing or so. I also wanted to make my contribution and write: “Dear young people, lets save this beautiful nature, lets be more conscious in how much energy and water we use for our own comfort! The land belongs to you and your kids…” but to my sadness – what I notice in the common kitchens- ￂﾠyoung people don’t care. They just don’t care…
And because of that this is what we see once we get the Fox Glacier, it is almost gone, only some remnants left:
Not so long ago all this valley was the Glacier – all ice. Those mountains ￂﾠwere sculpted by ice. Even when we were here 7 years ago – there was more ice seen, and now it is like this:
The path to the Glacier is well maintained and they don’t charge for entering ￂﾠany National park here in NZ. ￂﾠHow do they manage? it is 1.5 km to get to a viewing place which is 450 m from the Glacier – pretty close!
This orange growth (lichens -symbiosis between algae and fungus) on rocks is pretty attractive:
We see three steps of ice here:
Well. Fox Glacier is considered one of the tallest or longest glaciers, its length being 2800m, a lot! But from there we see only the lowest part.
The glacier water is at first grey, then the sediments land to the bottom and it becomes super greenish-blue. Here is the lowest part of glacier:
As you can see from the sign behind me there is a danger of rocks falling…
I loved those vertical walls and the stones colored by moss and lichens:
How colorful this slope is…:
So Fox Glacier is 270 km from Wanaka. There are only 350 permanent population. But I think there are more German and Chinese tourists , counted separately, than there are locals. Good, there are jobs for locals! they are happy!
Here is how the main street of Fox Glacier looks like and how our room at Ivory Tower Backpackers lodge looks like:
The Lodge is really amazing! it is built and decorated with so much love and attention to details, with so much care for us, the guests. The kitchen is well equipped, the motivational pictures on the walls of common areas are very good and the other pictures are all meaningful and nice, ￂﾠnot just some pictures to fill up a wall. There is a hot tub and an infrared sauna – fantastic! So good for joints and spine problems! Best of all -they have a very good music all the time in the kitchen – dinning area. Then youￂﾠcan hear the rain behind the window, and it lasted the whole night and then the whole day till 4 pm, when we and others went to see lake Matheson (called by a local farmer’s name, not the representative of Utah :-). it is a 4.4 km walk around the lake with superb views, especially good in good weather because the lake reflects two tallest peak in NZ – Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. But we were not blessed by those views…what can you do. The clouds were ￂﾠcrawling on the ground and not letting us see at least a part of a mountain:
This is what we could have seen if the weather was good (I took a picture of a picture :-)):
Those last pics are similar, but I couldn’t choose between them, so I placed both :-). Then at night the rain started again, but nevertheless we went to see glow worms which are all over the jungle walks. They glow, but very slightly. And to walk in the rain forest in the dark when it is raining…quite spooky :-).