South of 45

Greetings!

Peter's Pool, Franz Joseph

The Blue Pools

"My word, look at that mountain over yonder!"
"Oh yes, it is quite remarkable."
"My thoughts exactly, remarkable indeed. And the one next to it is remarkably remarkable as well!"
"Precisely. Highly remarkable!"

Enough of that. We spent the day in Queenstown today, which is a mid-sized town (big enough for groceries, small enough to walk everywhere) on a great big twisty lake in the Otago region of the South Island, whose population appears to be mostly composed of tourists. It sits near the foothills of a mountain range which, if it still had snow on it, would bear a remarkable (ha, ha) resemblance to the Steeples back home. Why all the use of the word remarkable, you ask? They named the range "the Remarkables." I'm not sure why I find this so entertaining, but I do. Also, there are not actually any pictures of them in this post. Maybe next time :p .

I realized on the drive here that it is very lucky for me that I have access to google, and wikipedia. :p A few hundred years ago, if I wanted to know if eels could jump, I'd have to a) get to a library and b) spend hours or weeks or months trying to find a book (if one existed) answering my question. Except I probably wouldn't even have that many questions... I'd probably be a young madam who'd never even heard of an eel. What prompts this thought? More than eels. (See next paragraph.)

The drive to Queenstown took us through Mount Aspiring National Park. We stopped at one of the many trails dotting the highway and took a path leading down to the Blue Pools (quite pretty). Along the way, there was a tree which had fallen across the path, and been cut away. Something was odd about the tree, though. It didn't have any growth rings! How am I supposed to count how old it is? Now, I know the growth rings happen because of seasonal changes, but I hadn't thought much before about trees in places where there is very little seasonal fluctuation. But even then, most places still have a wet and dry season, even right near the equator! I mean, the Earth is tilted - there's got to be some minute difference in climate over the course of a year pretty much everywhere on Earth. Or is there? Google to the rescue! It turns out that there are some trees which grow at pretty much the same rate throughout the year and don't exhibit any visible growth rings. Even these trees, though, actually do have "growth rings" - but they only show up by a chemical analysis.

I checked the first fence post I found. It had tree rings.

We crossed to the south side of the 45th parallel - still not quite as far south as home is north :p. The big news in New Zealand today - apparently there was a shark attack near Auckland today, though they're not sure if the person may already have been dead by the time the shark found him.

Does anyone know what these signs are for? I haven't tried looking it up yet, but they are all over the edges of the highway. Sometimes the reflector circles are in the middle, or on the side, or in a corner, or even on the post! Sometimes the sign is portrait-style, sometimes landscape. There is nothing on the back of the sign. Does it mean something? Secret trucker-code? Surveying? Signify something down the road? This doesn't seem likely since sometimes there is one on either side, facing opposite directions. Its been driving me nuts. There is a website for a road construction company on a sticker on one... maybe I'll email them and ask...

Tomorrow: Glenorchy! We're going horse back riding! (Its been a while since I've been on a horse...)

- Marysa

PS - I've posted some photos onto my Flickr.