November 14, 2006
So…who needs a horse, lasso, cowboy boots and a hat? A girl in bike clothes, a bright yellow rainjacket, with a big camera can do just fine. Clearly these guys (& girls) didn’t see much in the way of people. I walked across the street and they all started to move in towards this big, red bull with big, red bulging eyes. I was happy there was a fence between me and him. This one cow wanted to come closer, but he wouldn’t let anyone get out in front of him. The others in the car thought this whole clustering action was quite amusing – eventually almost all the cows had come in from this huge field and formed one giant clump staring at me. It was suggested the cows were blinded by the flourescent raincoat and could go no further…
Eventually the others caught up and the bicycles went up for the day and the ride into Fox Glacier from Bruce Bay. I think all of us got in a snooze on the way, except for Karsten, who was driving that day.
After lunch, most of us rode off, some decided to take a break for the day. I fell behind the main pack, but kept pedaling and enjoying the lovely, if wet, scenery. Funny – it was very wet, but it was never raining hard enough all day to keep you from riding. We were riding towards Bruce Bay, but weren’t going to get that far as it was getting late in the day. Karsten had the van pulled over, and was chatting with Jenny, but I just ignored them and kept riding. Karsten yelled to me that he’d pick me up in another 10 or 15 minutes. The other three still riding were way ahead of me. The scene had changed to farm country now – mostly cattle, with some sheep sprinkled in here and there. Still crossing lots of streams of varying sizes. Karsten found a spot to pull over and drag me off the road. We drove a little ways and passed the other riders, but there was nowhere to pull over until this cattle farm. There were lots of dogs barking at us as we got out of the car – scary one, but they were all tied up so we felt comfortable roaming around. Across the street was this pastoral cattle scene…notice how dispersed they are.
Before we left Lake Paringa though, curiousity got the better of me. When I first arrived and Karsten was still prepping lunch, I took my photo tour. Coming out of the woods onto a campsite, I came across this strange green stalk growing out of the ground. It was about 7-8 feet tall and awfully close to the base of a tree, but it was so different I assumed it was some other plant. Helen and Jenny were the plant experts, so I dragged them over for a look. Dave came along too. He’s more observant than I am – must be all those years working on the electron microscope at the University – and actually looked around a little and up. The same type of stalk I saw growing from the ground was actually sprouting from the branch of the tree, which was really practically dead. It reminded me of the chapter on trees and their root systems from the Murchie book I was reading early this summer – kind of like Energizer bunnies, they keep on going, and going, and going – oh, I mean growing. Dave thought it was so interesting, he grabbed the other botanical enthusiast on the trip, Catherine, over for a look too.
Right next to that tree was something almost as interesting. A big kahikatea with a parasite tree braided around it. Jenny pointed that out to us, saying it was fairly common and sometimes the braid tree would actually strangle the tree it was trying to live off of. It’s tough out there in the plant world – everyone for himself. People may actually be much nicer…
Pulled into Lake Paringa for lunch. Karsten was making another one of his wonderful salads at the picnic table. Lots of sandflies were about, so it was time for more bug spray. Actually, we ate lunch in the van – where they had snuck in, but there was a limited supply. It was very misty around the hills. There were some campers and fishermen there – apparently the lake is good for salmon and brown trout. And if you’re into eels, don’t come without your commercial fishing license, according to the sign. Despite all the rain, the water level was relatively low. You could tell it got higher though – some spots I was standing on were decidely soggy to point that you knew it was often covered with water. Jenny confirmed that later on, showing just how far the water came out. And there was a sign saying no camping past a certain point because the water levels can rise so quickly. We needed to eat before the van floated away…
The water never stops flowing in this country. Along this 20Kish stretch of riding we passed came across two sizable lakes (not Tahoe scale though), tons of little waterfalls, and streams of all sorts of varying sizes, requiring little bridges. All of the bridges are numbered and there’s a little sign naming the creek…we passed creeks named after the NZ birds (Kiwi, Kea, etc.), Mi Mi Creek, and my favorite of all – after many, many creeks, Random Creek. Riding along, there was the road (to the wrong side of me) and moss covered ridges to the other – waterfalls just dripped over them. There seemed to be another one springing forth every few yards. Passed lots of dead possums, but there will be no road kill photos on this blog, Britta – sorry. Just like the water, the green didn’t seem to be without end either. More and more fern trees and the beautiful kahikateas.
Our next stop was Knights Point for morning tea. My British friends said, “It’s morning coffee, and afternoon tea,” but Karsten was in charge, so it was morning tea. Pretty chilly and damp again so I was happy for whatever hot drink was being poured. We always had some sort of fruit bread (not quite fruitcake, thank heavens) and these oatmeal/coconut/raisin cookies. There were literally busloads of tourists here and another bike trip stopped there too – but they thought it was lunchtime. There were kayaks on their van – it must have been one of those multisport things.
Knights Point reminded me of Slea Head, of the Dingle Peninsula, in Ireland – only I couldn’t get close enough to be sure. Apparently seals hang out on the beach down there and there were some rocks that looked like they were moving. Malcolm had binoculars and Imogen confirmed that they were indeed seals, but again – really too far away to get too excited about. We were hoping to catch some penguins and white herons that day, but the wildlife were mostly staying indoors because of the weather. We, on the other hand, wanted to ride – so despite the drizzle, it was time to head down the hill.
Karsten assured me this one wasn’t as steep as coming down the Haast Pass and that I wouldn’t find any runaway truck ramps, so I braved it. It wasn’t too bad – just a bit twisty and turny. Then it was a nice rolling ride past Lake Moeraki and on to Lake Paringa for lunch.
It was a nice ride, if a bit damp and chlly to Ship Creek. First we crossed the longest single lane bridge (over the Haast River, I think) in New Zealand. Met up with a tour bus halfway across. He had stopped for us at one of the passing bays, but started driving forward before I could get into it! Was a bit nerve wracking, but I’m still here writing, so he obviously didn’t run me down. The ride from there the coastal plain – fern trees, flax, ferns, the occasional creek and lagoon, etc. Lots and lots of green. Every now and then we’d catch a brief glimpse of the ocean. We passed a fairly large lagoon on the left and approached Ship Creek. Everone hopped off their bikes for another little hike to the viewing platform. Jenny led the group out. As usual, I was in the rear taking pictures and Karsten was right ahead of me. He called everyone back at one point, where we met a fork in the trail. After leading everyone a ways down that path, he realized it was headed to the dune lake, and not the coastal viewpoint, so he, with great humor, admitted his error and turned everyone around. When we climbed the steps up through the ferns to the deck, we could finally get our first real look at the extensive beach and wild, grey, and violent Tasman sea pounding. You could still see the mountains there in the background, shrouded in clouds. The waves just pounded and pounded the coast – I suppose during a hurricane it’s worse than this, but this was about the roughest sea I’d ever seen.
Sorry these posts are out of order. I know I’m violating some cardinal rule of blogging, but the timestamps are from the photos and I actually took this one at the beginning of the walk. Oh well….
After taking a few group shots at the viewpoint, we walked back on the beach. It was all stones…looked like a Power Point background I’d seen somewhere before. There was lots of stuff that the sea had coughed up, including some huge driftwood trees. Gnarled wood was everywhere. There was some kelp pieces on the stones, an occasional leaf and clamshell too. When the beach started climbing again though, it was lined with all the green stuff. Where it did actually get sandy (and it was very coarse sand), there were Tane’s Eyebrows, or a golden red sand sedge called pingao. It’s pretty short, but serves as susbstitute for the sea oats the princess’ great grandfather planted on the Outer holding the sand in place and making space for other plants. The Maori weaved it into hats, mats, etc., but now it’s endangered and protected. It’s quite beautiful…it’s the reddish clumps of grass in the pictures. The legend is that Tane, god of the forest, had a dispute with Tangaroa, god of the sea. Tane, plucked out his eyebrows and threw them into the sea as an offering to Tangaroa. But Tangaroa, like a Cubs fan in the bleachers whose caught a St. Louis home run, threw them back and they landed on the beach – where they took root and have served as a border between beach and forest ever since.
Our next stop was the DOC center in Haast. I had no idea what Karsten was talking about when he said that. I still have all that newspaper software stuff imprinted on my brain…I kept thinking libraries, since Doc Center is the Hermes archive software, apparently renamed recently to Media Asset Manager. Guess I still need this extended vacation!
No – the DOC center is the Department of Conservation’s Haast Visitor’s Center. And in Haast, it was quite architecturally impressive. It’s actually built into the wetland with decks on the front and back that put you right on the water. Inside was very well done too. While there was lots of history and information about the natural habitat, the best part was a photo exhibit by kids from the local school. The pictures were really, really good – showing what being in the NZ wilderness meant to them. You could look at old photos of a family’s homestead, read about their history helping build the region (to the extent that it is!), and at the end of the story you were told to look up and out the window at the current homestead – which I thought was kind of cool. There was also lots of info on whitebait fishing, which has become quite controversial lately. Whitebait are these little, wormy-like fish that are a delicacy here and just about at the end of the season. Karsten has a great story about eating too much of them once, so he’ll probably never eat them again – or at least not for a long time, but Malcolm told me they weren’t crunchy little fish (some of you know I have a problem eating whole mini fish if they are crunchy at all), so I decided I would eventually try them on the trip.
We watched a movie on the West Coast wilderness in the theater and by the time it was done, the rain had let up. Karsten told me it was my insisting that “optimism is a strategy” thing – Gail, you know what I’m talking about. So – I changed into bike clothes and we were off, riding to Ship Creek where we would be walking along the beach. Couldn’t forget the bug spray…thanks again, Catherine.
Karsten … more feedback in my notes at this point. Catherine mentioned the trailer was leaking at this point. You must have done a great job with that blue tarp, because my bags were never wet coming out of it, despite how much the trailer got rained on this week. She also mentioned that there was no chocolate and toffees this week, but if I recall, she made up for it later in the week when you dumped that Cadbury bar in with the healthy granola bars, oranges and bananas. I, personally, had plenty of food on the trip without the chocolate!
where it is wet and windy. And I have to use a coin operated terminal to access the internet. So … I can’t really do yesterday justice right now. Need to be able to upload the photos with the posts. But it will give all of you something to look forward to. Hopefully tonight I’ll be able to use my PC or some other method of getting the photos up here.
With the rain, we won’t be doing much, if any, biking today. There’s a horrible front on the west coast and I’m told that it takes awhile sometimes for these things to blow over the mountains. We’ll make the best of it though. My group is a lot of fun and has a great sense of humor, so we’re not going to let the weather get us down.
One more thing…I need to thank Joe. Most of you who will be reading this know him. He set up this blog almost instantaneously for me right before my departure (a feat only matched by Britta’s hand hemming of my daughter’s school skirts for China) and has also been providing tech support. Turns out to be interesting posting from across the dateline from your server’s home. But it’s all working now. Thanks again, Joe!!!!
More later!