Icy Eels

EELS!

I'll get to that later.

After wandering around Hokitika for a while this morning, we continued to head south... but not before feeding Tuck. Of course, we'd fed the car not long before we got to Hokitika, but we figured we might as well top up the tank. Turns out we could only fit about 3.5 litres in the tank. The lady at the till had a good chuckle that we bothered filling up at all. I mean, I feel like its pretty normal at home for people to stick 5 or 10 dollars in the tank, but gas is quite expensive down here and $5 really won't get you that far.

About five minutes later we realized we forgot to take advantage of the squeegees (I hadn't realized how awesomely that is spelled until now), so our windows remained rather dirty. Whoopsy. Another whoopsy - my headband disappeared (off my head) somewhere in Hokitika, much to my chagrin. Hair in face, pah. :|

The typically twisting road wound south, pulling a little more inland than previously. And we saw mountains. Real mountains! (No offence to the hillier mountains of the north). Mountains with an actual tree line, and snowy peaks!

We stopped for lunch at a mirror smooth lake,

Lake full of eels!

and ate sitting on the end of a dock. From which we could easily observe the local flora and fauna... lakeweed, a few little minnows, some clam-like creatures, and, half hidden in the weeds, trying to open up the clams - EELS. A LOT of eels! There aren't any eels at the lakes at home, are there? As we were sitting with our feet dangling over the edge of the dock, we started wondering if eels could jump, like normal fish. Maybe to jump up and bite our toes. And swim away with them. That would be unfortunate for my feet...

One of the waterfalls in the Franz Josef glacier
valley

Just googled it. Apparently its a problem for people who keep eels as pets (pets?) They have a tendency to leap out of their tank...

Sometimes on the road there's a bit of construction - but not always a person with the stop-go sign; instead, they've got automated street lights set up. Also, most of the bridges are only single lane, with one direction getting the right of way. One section of road was pretty long and windy - just a single lane, again with the street lights telling you if you get to go. And a not-so-comforting sign saying "if lights not working, proceed with caution" :p . But the main reason I mentioned construction was because Janna, when she sees the machinery down here, says "aw, its so cute!" For those unaware, Janna's been working up in Fort Mac, where the trucks are GIGANTIC.

layered limestone near the
Franz Josef glacier

There are dandelion-like plants down here. The flowers look the same but the stems are long - up to a few feet long. Peculiar. I think a botanist would be like a kid in a candy store down here. Moreover, there are a lot of really cool rocks. And generally awesome geological formations. Don't worry, I'm not about to switch to a geology program. :p

We saw the Franz-Josef glacier today - just from a distance.
Its been rapidly retreating over the past 150 years, though usually exhibits advance-retreat behaviour (but flowing a lot more quickly than your average glacier). Though it was an overcast day, most of it was visible through the clouds. The valley into which it flows is extremely lush, with multiple waterfalls cascading down the cliff faces. Fantastic "glacial" blues near the bottom, a big snow field on top, and lots of rocks piled on the middle :)

Some cautionary
signs posted along
the trail

There is a lot of unstable rock closer to the glacier - its been torn up by the rapid retreat. What looks like a pile of gravel is actually hiding a big (unstable) limestone arch! (Hard to tell the scale of this formation from the picture. You could fit an excavator inside the arch no problem.)

We stopped for a pint (rather, Janna did. I did have a sip, and it wasn't too bad. I had a delicious concoction of ginger beer, lime, and mint leaves, mmmmm). Some of the other people in the current hostel are watching Wedding Crashers - I had forgotten how funny the movie is. :p

Our watermelon has now been chopped up and a large quantity of it consumed by yours truly :)

Until next time,

Marysa