The Westland and Glacier Country

Last rest day was December 2 at Westport where we went underground wearing wetsuits and carrying a big inner tube and wandered into a series of caves and eventually coming out floating in the dark on the inner tubes looking at the roof of the cave filled with glow worms - we all enjoyed that - then we floated down the river through some moderate rapids back to where we started.



seven of us ready for the cave

no lighting there except our headlamps

Ursula, Brigitte, Walli, and Juergen ready for the river

Ursula and Brigitte

Ursula, Emily (the TDA excursion leader) Walli, and Francine

Back on the bikes on Saturday with unsettled weather in the morning with a promise of better in the afternoon. In the end, we only had two showers that lasted maybe five minutes each, so didn't get too wet...

morning mist and rainshower

...and by the time we got to the Pancake Rocks, it was dry and a very pleasant day. the pancake rocks are called that because they look like stacks of pancakes. Scientists know that they are sedimentary layers but don't completely understand the mechanics behind them forming the way they are here. The rocks are home to several species of birds.

Pancake Rocks, blow hole in the centre

White-fronted tern - note the chick to the right

Tern bring home breakfast

Spotted Shags

We're now going south-east down NZ's west coast which is the rain forest side of the south island. There's enough relatively flat land at some points along the coast for agriculture and livestock; at other parts it's on roads that wind around the sides of hills, climbing quite steeply for a bit, then descending to cross one of the many many rivers coming out of the mountains. We never reach particularly high altitudes, but the ups and downs ensure that we have to climb a lot most days.

 

slides from recent very heavy rainfalls

Rae had a flat less than ten km from camp in Greymouth on Saturday.

Then into camp for the daily briefing for the following day's ride. A pretty cool evening with lots of enthusiastic riders awaiting the next day which was forecast to be cloudy and showery in the morning possibly improving in the afternoon.

Emily, our leader, explaining tomorrow's route...

...to an enthusiastic bunch of riders.

Sunday morning... SURPRISE... blue sky and these views from the beach we're camped beside. Instead of inclement weather we had sunshine all day.

One of the campsite regulars seems to be this Weka... amusing... a few days ago we were elated to sight one of these along the road thinking we were lucky to see it, and now we find it wandering among us inspecting the bikes and belongings. After all of us riders left the camp that morning, the support crew saw this guy (or girl) grab another little bird that came too close and take it into the bushes where the squawking ended quite quickly... nature...

 

For us, the first 12 km was on a bike trail along the coast...

Later, we were back on the highway crossing this single-lane bridge which carries highway traffic and railway trains going in both directions - there is a 'clip-on' at the side that allows pedestrians and cyclists to cross without impeding (or getting run over) by trains and cars. This, we were told, is the last of the shared road-train bridges left in NZ, at least on major highways.

Next we see why the Weka is endangered. This one made it across the road before getting run over by Ursula but regrettably, we've seen a lot of evidence that the Weka hasn't figured out how fast cars are coming.

Monday was another lovely day, crossing several glacier-fed rivers on our way into Glacier Country, first Franz Josef and then Fox Glacier, the latter for a rest day.

This is Fox Glacier with a footpath to a viewing point for the glacier. Forty years ago, where we were standing to take the picture would have been beneath tons of glacier ice. It has all receded. Where before you could walk onto the glacier, it isn't considered safe and the only way onto the glacier surface is by helicopter.

This morning (Tuesday December 6) was, as per forecast, overcast, but still dry so we went down to Matheson lake where there's a nice café for a good breakfast as well as good views of the mountains, including Mount Cook, when it's visible, which unfortunately it wasn't.

Fox Glacier and Mount Tasman are in the mist on the right.
Mount Cook is further right but not visible

Nevertheless a pleasant walk and there were some nice birds around the lake (I'm open to correction on my bird identification talent or lack thereof).


New Zealand Pigeon - almost twice the size of our city pigeons

Silvereye

Chaffinch

Bellbird

Rain started this afternoon and the weather forecast says it will be heavy tomorrow when we're on the bikes to Haast, The rain forecast for tomorrow late morning puts us right in the middle of that yellow and red stuff midway down the west coast.

The following two days may be a bit better than that, but as we see it, anything better than rain from here to Queenstown will be a bonus.