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[morgueatlarge] Safe Home
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morgue
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Jan 19, 2007 12:00 PST
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I am back from the journey, back in a land where electric power runs
freely from wall sockets and light bulbs allow late, late nights.
Aaron is still down there, roaming the southern isle. I wish him
well.
Some moments from the trip:
Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier, two ice rivers slowly forcing
their way down the gullies they have carved over many centuries. Both
were more impressive for me this time than they were in 1990. There
was just something marvellous about them. Aaron and I discussed it a
few nights later and he expressed in words I couldn't match the
presence that they had about them, something unmatched by anything
else in their environment. Their settings were wonderful.
Spotting a weka scuttering through the car park at the Punakaiki
'pancake rocks'. Another flightless NZ bird, this one the size of a
small cat and quite quick and brave enough to snatch your lunch from
your backpack when you're not looking. I kept looking.
Friday night in Haast, one of New Zealand's best-known little towns,
last stop on the west coast before heading inland into the long Haast
pass across to Queenstown. It has grown a great deal since 1990 - now
the population is about 500, and there is an actual "supermarket".
Discovering the bar there shut at 9.30, and the pub shut at 10.30,
meant it was easy to stay out long past closing time. I chatted with
the woman running the place where we set up our tent, and she said
she'd "married into the region". I love that phrase.
Abundant natural wonders. The Blue Pools on the Haast Pass; the Chasm
on the Milford Road; Jack's Blowhole in the Catlins; scrambling
through the Clifden Caves; astonishing godlike views of seals and seal
pups in playing in the water at Nugget Point in the Catlins; every
single view into the mountains of Fiordland.
Watching a helicopter airlift the body of a dead kayaker upriver from
our camp at Piano Flat, near Waikaia.
Swimming in an empty extremity of Lake Wakatipu, with clear and
stunning views over the icy glacier water.
Much good company and a fine Kentucky bourbon. One hell of a trip, overall.
-~mrg
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