February 16, 2017
After a decent, but not great nights sleep at the Duke Hostel, we headed out for the next days adventures. We had no idea all that would be in store for us this day or how much fun we could pack into one day. The girls were spread as thin as possible on long days... late nights.... and pure endurance of will and spirit to see all that we could see. They were happy and amazed at every sight, so the lack of sleep, food, and muscle strength was purely ignored by all. We were living off of adrenaline and eye popping wonder. Kayla says that we are "nature snobs" now. We have seen too much, we will never be the same. Our eyes have changed.... FORever and FOR the better!
The road are small and NARROW in New Zealand. And on this trip they were met with Mountain and water on either side. Constant beauty at every turn and so much to see. The water in most streams is the most amazing blue ever seen. The water that comes off from the glaciers is a dusty blue, unlike I've ever seen before. It has "rock dust" in it that reflects of the sun to make the most amazing blue color. When you see a stream like this, you know it is ICE COLD!! The other streams are completely clear... you can see every detail of the bottom and rocks underneath. It is so beautiful.
On this side of the mountain range we were met with the most amazingly dense forest... like rainforest. And it met you right at the road. We laughed many times as we would see a sign that would say "shoulder closed", but to us as Americans there is ABSOLUTELY NO SHOULDER to the road. There is no way to pull off the side of the road. Trees and ferns and mosses grow right at the roadside. And if it isn't them, it's a towering rock mountain on one side and a steep edge to the ocean on the other. Such an experience driving these roads... and on the left side too.
In addition to the already NARROW roads, they have ONE LANE BRIDGES. That means you have to watch if anyone has entered the bridge on the opposite end and wait for them before you enter. It certainly doesn't help when there is a biker along side of you with a road this narrow. Bikers here are CRAZY!! As if the roads aren't crowded enough with just two cars, a biker in the mix gets really dangerous and scary.
This is a blurry picture, but I wanted to illustrate how windy this road was. There were MANY just like this along the West Coast. Windy, steep, and narrow. All a great combination when driving on the WRONG side of the road. Good thing Brady is a pro at it and has lots of experience from his mission days and other travel abroad. Thank goodness he has been to NZ so many times.
We thought this mountain range kind of looked like Tafiti from the movie Moana... if you use your Moana imagination (we are obsessed with that movie!)
This picture was scary to take. We saw this amazing view as we were crossing a one lane bridge and wanted to get a picture but there were several cars behind us so we couldn't just stop on the bridge. We pulled over as we got off the bridge to a side road and I got out and walked back. I have to say this is the scariest picture I've ever had to take. Standing on this narrow one lane bridge with so many cars driving past, it was a long ways down off the bridge. The water was beautiful and blue but I knew it was deathly cold.
After I snapped a few pictures, I was in a hurry to get off the bridge.
As I got back to the car, Brady was talking to someone at the window of the van. It was a man trying to interest him in a helicopter ride. We politely declined as we thought about his price. He was nice and understanding and left us. As we rolled up the window, we both looked at each other and thought about the conversion rate to USD and I said to him,"yeah, that's a lot of money, but we won't look back on our life in 20 years and say we are so glad we didn't spend that $500 to ride a helicopter. We won't even miss it, but we will have missed out on an amazing experience in New Zealand". Brady agreed and we decided we would go check out the place down the road.
Needless to say from the below pictures, we didn't waist time deciding to take advantage of a very beautiful day in a very beautiful way.
See the amazingly BLUE water in the stream below. Run off from the above glacier we are about to see up CLOSE!!
This REALLY blue lake (which he said was usually more blue but it had rained recently and dirt run off had dulled the blue). If you look in the upper right hand corner you can see a small part that is a deeper blue color that he said is typical of the entire lake.
Getting closer to the glacier
Ava was so funny. She had this "I'm not so sure about this" look on her face most of the time.
Glaciers are frozen rivers that are moving all the time. That is why there are cracks and deep crevasses in them, especially where they are thick.
It's hard to see in this picture, but where there were deep cracks, there was a blue tint to the glacier. Like Blue Crystal.
On our way back down we could see the beautiful blue meandering river.
All smiles from us at the end of our 20 min Helicopter ride. Truly an adventure worthy of big smiles. And worth every penny.... for the great memories and beauty that in indescribable.
Here are some video links to our ride
Ya you won't regret that helicopter ride. And the girls won't forget it
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