Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

The first time I saw a glacier, I was in Alaska.  I have seen many since then; I’ve even hiked them.  No matter how many times I see these giant rivers of ice, my reaction is always the same as it was when I was on a heli-hiking trip:

When I am surrounded by immense natural formations and the changes wrought over  millions of years,  I feel overwhelmed.  Awed.  Small.  Even reverential.  That never seems to change. 

Here in New Zealand, we take a short walk that quickly becomes steep as we make our way up to a viewing area so we can appreciate the Franz Josef Glacier.  

into the woods

German explorer  Julius von Haast named the glacier for Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria in 1865.  The Maori name is Ka Roimata o  Hinehukatere ('The Tears of Hinehukatere').  According to Maori legend, Hinehukatere loved the mountains of her homeland, and was a skilled climber.  Her lover, Wawe, wanted to please and impress her.  He tried to join her in scaling the mountains.  However, Wawe wasn't as athletic as his love, and in his climb, he fell to his death.  The devatastated Hinehukatere cried so many tears, they formed the glacier we see before us.

Franz Josef Glacier

Glaciers are not smooth ice.   Cracks and crevasses expose the debris that the glacier has picked up in its travels, as well as the hints of blue that is unique to glacial ice. 

The glaciers form when the snows of a winter do not melt away completely.  Year after year, the snow pack increases in height and density, compressing the layers below.  The pressure has several effects.  It leads the lowest level of ice to melt--that melting and the incline of the mountain allow the glacier to become a giant moving river of ice.

The ice develops cracks and crevices as it descends the uneven mountain terrain.  (Little crevices do big crevasses become.)  Gary uses his camera zoom to get a better view of the area in the lower right corner of the picture above.  Below you can see how deep some of the crevasses are.  You can also see some ‘glacial blue’ in the crevasses.

The blue is a result of the ice weight and compression.  Ice contains air bubbles, and as the snows pile on top of the ice over years,  the bubbles condense and are forced out of the lower layers.   The dissipation of the air bubbles leaves a layer of ice---very old ice--that absorbs other colors of the spectrum like red and yellow, leaving the ice to reflect more of the blue light.  

A little more zoom and you can make out a tiny column of hikers on their way up the glacier  (just to the right of the photo center).  They're not really tiny...

The hikers in the picture above (to right of center) give you an idea of the size of the glacier and the crevasses.

Since we visited New Zealand, the Franz Josef glacier has retreated over 500 meters  (about a third of a mile), so the photos above don’t quite represent the glacier today.  I think Hinehukatere might be as saddened by the glacier’s retreat as she was by the loss of her love on the mountains.

For additional information check:

http://www.franzjosefglacier.com/  and 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10818264

NZ South Island Tour: The TranzAlpine Train

Because New Zealand comprises volcanic islands, there are  mountains, rolling hills, and coastal areas.  Because it is about as far from the equator as Massachusetts*, the seasons and temperatures are comparable.  Put that all together and fairly near Christchurch, you can find snow-covered mountains, golf courses,  whale watching and maybe even skiing, all in one season.   

Kate’s photo from the Christchurch flight gives an idea of much of the South Island’s landscape.

So. Island Mountains from plane

We depart Christchurch first thing in the morning and our tour is completely full… every seat on the coach to the TranzAlpine Train, the first leg of our trip, is occupied.  Since Kate's husband, Gary, has joined us,  this means my ‘seat mate’ is a stranger,  a woman from Perth who has a wicked cold.  I may have failed to mention this ‘down side’ of going on a tour; if you have to share your seat, it may not be the person of your dreams who shares it.  I decide to sit against the window with my jacket over my face as if it were a surgical mask.  I may look rude, paranoid, and strange, but I don’t want to catch whatever it is she has. 

The TranzAlpine Train is often called  “New Zealand’s Great Rail Adventure”. It reminds me of the ‘see the whole city’ bus tour’, but on a much larger scale.  Our goal is to get a vast overview of mountains and plains, ending on the west coast, then heading to the Franz Josef Glacier, 

Early in the trip, this sign makes me laugh: 

I’ve seen all kinds of cyclist advisories. Is there really a biker who would try to ride on the railroad tracks?  

As the train travels from the city through Canterbury, we see the plains around us and mountains ahead.  The humor of the cyclist sign is replaced by appreciation of what man and nature can do.  

As the train takes a curve, you an see the cars ahead and, behind that tree, one of the mountains. 

Before the arrival of humans, the lower altitudes of the island were covered with trees.  First Maori and then European settlers burned the forests so they could farm the land.  Th train takes us through these 'man-made' plains with rivers descending from the mountains beyond.

Mountains from the TranzAlpine Train

At one point, Kate and I take an adventurous walk from our comfortable seats to the open viewing car.  It’s open,  and great for viewing.  It’s also great for a wind so strong we risk being blown off the train.

Windblown Kate

Our adventure into the winds is short-lived.  We enjoy the views from our seats until we get to Arthur’s Pass.

Changing weather ahead

Arthur’s Pass--a route from east to west-- is the highest pass in the Southern Alps, at an altitude of about one-half mile (737 meters).   The mountains are much higher.   Mt. Aoraki (aka Mt Cook), which we’ll visit later on the tour, is about two-and-a-half miles high, almost as high as the Rockies' highest peak.

Maori hunters came this way, and then Europeans followed, looking for a route west.  Surveyor Arthur Dobson was the first to make his way through here in 1864, and he thought it was too difficult for a route west.  Nevertheless, Dobson’s engineer father arranged to build a road westward through the mountains.  In 1865. a crew of one thousand men began cutting through Arthur's Pass, and finished by 1866   The railroad followed at the beginning of the 20th century and was completed by 1923.

Kate at Arthur’s Pass 

This mountainous land was too difficult for early settlers to reach, so it wasn't cleared like the lower plains. Instead we have forests and rivers, walking, hiking and skiing trails. 

We continue to Hokitika, a charming, artsy west coast town, for lunch, and then board our coach to continue southward to the Franz Josef Glacier. 

*  Christchurch 43° 32' 0" S / 172° 38' 0" E        Boston    42° 21' 29" N / 71° 3' 37" W

For more information on the TranzAlpine Train, visit http://www.kiwirailscenic.co.nz/tranzalpine/.  To learn more about Athur’s Pass, its history and varied activities,  check http://www.arthurspass.com/ , http://www.newzealand.com/us/arthurs-pass/, and http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/canterbury/places/arthurs-pass-national-park/

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Next: Franz Josef Glacier

Auckland: Museum, Sky Tower, and on to Christchurch

We stop at the Auckland museum, a visit I highly recommend if you go to NZ.  I also urge you to allow a lot of time.  Standing exhibits cover Maori culture and history, a war memorial, a natural history floor, and more. There are also special programs -- a beautiful, informative, and interesting visit.  Because we are short on time, I concentrate on Maori culture and history.  Below are a meeting house replica and details of the carving on its walls.

meeting house replica above,  carving detail below 

And one more photo of a replica of the canoe in which the Maori arrived in NZ in the 1300’s.

We re-board our tour bus and finish our Auckland visit at the Sky Tower.  I know you saw this photo in the last post, but that focused on the harbor.  Now look at the tall building with the spire that dominates the background....

The Sky Tower’s spire is almost 1,100 feet high (that’s about 300 feet taller than Boston’s John Hancock Tower).  For tourists,  the fun stops about  630 feet.  From there, we have beautiful panoramic views of the city.  I’ve often said that natural wonders always win me over more than cities, but the geologic wonders of Rotorua have some serious competition when I look at this metropolis from the tower.... and even here I see one of the ‘remains’ of an ancient volcano.   

One of the North Island’s many (extinct) volcanoes in the distance.

Have you ever tried bungee jumping?  If you have,  you’ve enjoyed a sport (?) invented by New Zealand’s A.J. Hackett.  And if you liked it, you might want to try it from the Sky Tower.  On the viewing level, there is a countdown clock for jumpers, and often the bungee ‘controllers’ (for lack of a better word) let the jumpers dangle for a few extra seconds in front of the viewing window.  This gives people like me a great photo op--and reminds me of why I have never tried bungee jumping.

Bungee Jumper at Auckland's Sky Tower

In addition to bungee jumping,  the tower offers visitors a view down through a glass-floored elevator.  I am ok with a glass-walled elevator. I find this view straight down much more disconcerting.  I can imagine how the bungee jumpers feel--almost.

glass-floored elevator at the Sky Tower

From the tower we head to the airport and our 3-hour flight to Christchurch in the South Island.  As you know from previous posts, both Kate, my friend Lyn, (and many others, I know) love to research and plan their trips.  Kate planned the North Island adventure.  We are on a tour for the South Island, where Kate’s husband, Gary, will join us.  Because we’re on a tour we are picked up at the Christchurch airport by a driver holding a (big) sign with my name on it.  After dinner, Kate does a little exploring and I settle in for the night.  ]Gary arrives some time after midnight, and part two--the organized tour of the South Island-- begins.

 For more information on the Auckland Museum, 

please visit:  https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/ 

  For more information on the Sky Tower options, please visit: http://skywalk.co.nz/  or    http://www.skyjump.co.nz/ 

   A few more words on the volcanic origins of these islands

Volcanoes created these islands and plate movement that created the volcanoes continues unabated. Usually this activity is far below the surface.  Rotorua and Yellowstone are a few of the places on Earth where we can see the effects of all that plate activity.  But all of this is easy to forget in the city, even looking at the remains of an old volcano from Auckland’s Sky Tower.  

Easy to forget until the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, which is where part two of our trip begins.  I hasten to point out I saw Christchurch before that quake--I was shocked by the images of the city after.  

2010 quake photo from the Nelson Mail  (http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4689695/Deaths-destruction-in-Christchurch-quakehttp://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4689695/Deaths-destruction-in-Christchurch-quake))

Plate motion is ceaseless. Bear in mind as you read this, you can barely feel a quake measuring under 2.0.   As I write this in July 2015, I find 2 months ago there was a 4.4 magnitude quake in Nelson, NZ, about about 28 miles deep; and a 5.5 on the Richter scale, just over 5 miles deep, in Christchurch about six months ago.  San Francisco quake tracking shows a 2.2 magnitude quake yesterday (!) about 4 miles deep,  a 1.5 temblor just over a mile deep two days ago....

You get the idea.  Endless plate movement means the Earth is always reconfiguring itself.   The quake that caused the damage you see above was 7.1*, about 6 miles below the surface, and there were hundreds of aftershocks.  Christchurch is continuing its recovery: rebuilding a city and its infrastructure is no mean feat.  

* Richter Scale:  each numeral is ten times more powerful than the one before it, so a 4.0 is ten times more powerful than a 3.0.

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Next: The South Island Tour Begins