16May06 Joan and Wayland

16May06 Tuesday

Today we traveled from Fox Glacier up to Greymouth via Hwy 6.  Late yesterday upon arrival at Fox Glacier a number of the team had decided to take a helicopter ride over the glaciers and around <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mt. Cook.  Joan and I were the last into campground as usually happens and things were all “a twitter”, as someone put it, about taking a helicopter ride.  There was some disappointment in Milford Sound about not being able to take the ride there because of low ceilings and weather.  It was a beautiful day yesterday and it was promising to be a nice day today so the helicopter ride was on. 

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Today dawned with a bright blue sky and no clouds.  We had scheduled the helicopter ride for 10:30AM so that those who wanted to, of which I was one, could go and take the Lake Matheson walk early and be back in time for the helicopter.  The walk around Lake Matheson was very nice, the area was covered with frost with just a little steam rising from the little creek you cross.  The birds were very vocal and the fantails were flittering around.  They are curious about people and tend to follow you as you hike.  One of the locals that volunteered at the Dunedin build said that if you hold out a stick they will sometimes come and land on it.  Lake Matheson is a relative small lake that if you arrive at it early in the morning before the breeze picks up you have a nice reflection of Mts. Cook and Tasman in it.  It’s a very popular place for photographers.

 

The news here this morning was covering the success of the New Zealand double amputee climber who had successfully climbed Mt. Everest last night.  It was a first for a double amputee.  He had lost both legs to frost bite from an accident while climbing Mt. Cook.  Apparently he was trapped for 14 days on the mountain.

 

We met at the helicopter office at 10:15AM and they took us by van a short ways out of town where their helicopter pad was located.  There were two red and white five passenger helicopters waiting so the 10 of us divided up and climbed aboard.  It was the first helicopter ride for both Joan and I and it was great.  The ability to climb vertically and hover is so different than riding in a fixed wing plane.  The two pilots coordinated their paths so that both helicopters arrived on Fox Glacier at the same time and so that all 10 of us could all get out and take pictures and play in the snow together.  On the way up we flew close to the vertical rock faces and had great views of the peaks and snow fields.  He also gave us a close up view of Mt. Cook at around 10,000 ft.  Cook’s peak is at around 12,500 ft.  It was a great ride and if we’re ever back around here again it’ll be on my list of things to do.

 

The drive from Fox Glacier up to Greymouth consumed the rest of the day for us.  We weren’t the last one’s in today as others had done a variety of things along the way.  Those switchback’s on the western side of the Alps kept the left hand busy going through the gears on the manual six speed.  Some slowed us down to 25km/hour or about 15mph.  What scenery though with the Alps on the right with us on them and the Tasman Sea on the left. 

 

Of special note to the 2005 Care-A-Vanners was that today I had a Whitebait sandwich. Last year we tried to find them but couldn’t.  Today Glen and Gwen had stopped to talk with a lady raking leaves in a little town along the coast and the conversation led to finding out that they were fisherman and that they netted fish for Whitebait sandwiches.  She just couldn’t understand that they had never heard of Whitebait sandwiches and that they had to go across the street to the café and have one.  As happens a lot when one of the team stops along the road others usually join as they see the stopped campervans with the number on the back window.  There were soon five campers or ten of us in the café.  The Whitebait fish are about the size of a very small minnow.  To make the sandwich they toss the fish into a frying pan with scrambled eggs cook it up and put it in a sandwich.  Of course the fish are whole and when cooked are white.  Didn’t see them uncooked so don’t know what they look like that way and probably don’t want to know.  It makes a good sandwich though.  I had them toast my bread and the lady said that was a first for that.

 

The campground here at Greymouth is right on the ocean at the end of the airport.  Last year the weather was really socked in with fog and in the morning there were a couple of planes that took off real early right over the campground.  This year it’s perfectly clear out there and if I could figure out where the Southern Cross is located I’m sure that it would be very bright.  Hopefully no planes this year taking off at five in the morning.