Wednesday, May 12, 2010

To Fox… part two

One or two more stopping places en route to Fox. First Whataroa with its wonderful Maori art gallery -some historic pieces and lots of carvings for sale (too big and too heavy) and then Okarito where The Piano was filmed (I think) and Keri Hulme, author of The Bone People, lives. So peaceful by the estuary … 

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By now the journey to Fox was taking me rather longer then planned so I resolved not to stop anymore. I drove through Franz Joseph’s touristy main street, wound up and down the hairpins of another mountain to my next B&B which sits at the feet of Mount’s Cook and Tasman.

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Karen greeted me with the weather forecast –not good apparently and set about trying to arrange to get you up there while the sun is shining today, there being the mountains and glaciers. Sadly, the last flights had left so she’s booked me in tomorrow morning before the predicted rain and I am not to worry! Meanwhile I was dispatched to the other side of her garden pond to take photos of the mountains in reflection (including Mrs Cow and 2 day old calf) and then down the road to see the top of the Fox Glacier in the last of the sun. Well, if the clouds hide everything in the next two days I will have seen plenty.  Not only Mount Cook and Mount Tasman lit by the sunset but also the glacier top at the end of day. I went into photo overload and then just ogled the wonderful sight.

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Supper in Fox was unexciting but, as instructed by Karen, I did go looking for glow-worms along the Minnehaha bush track. I found the entrance about one km south of Fox and armed with a flashlight ventured into the unknown and the dark. I carried on until I’d turned several corners to hide any road light and at one point did question my sanity. The path was just about clear but the surrounding bush was dark and damp -sadly no glow-worms were out and about. I’m told they often hide if it feels like rain …

Tomorrow its breakfast at eight because they will be ringing early to get me up there …

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