About 45 minutes away from Okarito is another Glacier called Fox Glacier. It’s about 20km past Franz Josef Glacier. Anyway, on one of our days off, we took a short trip over to check it out.
Unfortunately the trail to the glacier was blocked off so we had to use the zoom lens to get this picture. It was pretty fascinating though!
Awwwwwww….. gag….. This is how close we were able to get to the glacier.
This picture was taken right before you get to the carpark of the glacier. There was a few lakes where the water was absolutely crystal clear. The cool thing was – the lakes were an emerald green color – but not in a gross mossy way, but in a beautiful brilliant way. I’ve never seen anything like it.
These two pictures were taken on a hike to a great lookout of Fox Glacier.
6km from the town of Fox – is Lake Matheson… the most photographed lake in New Zealand. This is because at this spot where the pic is taken (on a windless and cloudless day) there is a perfect reflection of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. As you can see – we were there on a windy day when the clouds were out.
Just a cool tree at sunset.
We are still here in Okarito… The busy season has not picked up yet but it will the closer we get to the new year. Here are a couple of pictures taken from the Okarito warf in the evening.
by Colin Feldhaus
Just a couple portraits from around Okarito.
enjoy.
By: Colin Feldhaus
Andre’a and I took a little trip down to Franz Josef to check out the town and the glacier. Franz Josef is the closest town to Okarito where we can get supplies and petrol. We also visited the glacier while we were in town. There are a bunch of trails around the glacier and we followed a couple that were open. Here is the glacier.
This picture was taken by a little pond that was off one of the trails. The sun just popped out a little bit right as we were there making this picture really unique. Probably my favorite picture of the trip so far.
Hopefully we’ll get to take a hike or tour up the glacier one of these days…
Some of the lush forest around the glacier.
Then we came to this cool bridge….
it was fun….
This sign worried andre’a… so I made her jump out for this pic…
Whitebait fishing is a big deal in Okarito, New Zealand… or in all of west coast New Zealand for that matter. People come from all over to go fishing on the west coast for these clear little fishes. They go out into the ocean with these big nets, wade around a little while and hope to get some of these little guys. Some of them do it because they love to eat the whitebait, but others do it to sell. 1kilo of whitebait can go for around $100nz. Not bad for a little fish.
What you can’t tell in this picture is how STINKIN cold it is outstide and the wind is downright chilly! Colin and I were freezing just standing out there for 15 minutes!
This is Troy – one of Shawn’s friends who lives here in Okarito – yeah for young people! Troy LIVES for whitebaiting. He talks about it months before the season even starts. (whitebaiting season is only 6 weeks by the way)
Getting the little guys out of the net. You can see a pile of clear wormy type things in the center of the blue lid – those are the whitebait fish. (not the fish at the bottom of the lid!)
This is Shawn and Tannin. Like father like son… They live at the hostel with us.
Tannin’s closeup – isn’t he pretty cute!
It is all for this…. and you fry it whole with and egg or in a patty and eat it – no gutting allowed!
by Colin Feldhaus
Nelson lakes. Probably the smoothest water I have ever seen. Most of the time the water looked like glass. This photograph was taken after the sun had completely set and it was nearly dark out. The 30 second exposure makes it look like a painting. I think it is one of the best pictures I have ever taken.
Same dock during the day… we were glad to be there!!! By the way, this shot takes some talent. We took it of ourselves by using the timer on the camera… you do the math.
Andre’a made lots of friends….
Apparently, this lake is home to some of the oldest eels in New Zealand. We counted at least 15 under one of the docks.
Colin Feldhaus
This is the view atop a hill outside of Picton (where the ferry comes in).
Andre’a….. beautiful, but don’t tell her I said that…..
This was the bluest river I have ever seen. Just look. amazing.
Colin Feldhaus
On our way we traveled through Rotorua. It was a really great place, with a bunch of extreme sports, and hot pools and, bubbling mud pits, and just a bunch of cools stuff. We will spend more time there when we have a chance. This trip we visited a hot water pool/river and saw some of the bubbling mud pits…. wow that was smelly….
This pool that we are in was really hot!!! The water was probably in the upper 90’s F. It was so strange swimming in a hot natural pool. That was cool.
Colin Feldhaus
We saw Mt. Doom.
Just some local bushes…. that is all.
By Colin Feldhaus
