On Easter Sunday we had the awesome opportunity to go on a heli rafting trip. This is pretty much white water rafting but you are helicoptered in and dropped off to float back. We had beautiful weather in the midst of a rainy week so what could be better?!?! The ride in was breathtaking then after all our instructions, hoped in our boat and drifted away. We floated down the Whataroa River – which is the bluest river i have ever seen and fed by glaciers so the coldest river i have ever been in! We shared a raft with 4 Californians – 2 of which are rafting guides back home – and a hilarious kiwi guide. Andre’a busted her lip the last 20 minutes of the trip, but luckly no teeth fell out – just a couple loose ones… just kidding. We haven’t received the pictures from the rafting company yet – which will have better ones of us, but for now these will do. (We were in the red boat in case you’re wondering.) Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Colin and I (Andre’a) headed down to 5 mile lagoon to go kayaking again. The day we went was just beautiful. We really wanted to spend a little more time at this beautiful lagoon before we left. However, this time we went, five mile lagoon happened to be open (meaning it was flowing out to the ocean) and we needed to cross it to get to the kayaks. The current was very strong and we almost gave up hope of going kayaking. Lucky for us, Colin doesn’t give up very easy and found that he could wade across closer to the surf where the water spread. I was sitting in my saddened state of mind hunched over on a rock when all the sudden i see Colin running on the opposite side of the lagoon… and not even wet! It was a hilarious moment and thank goodness it wasn’t a wasted 5 hour return walk to get there.
These are some Pukeko birds. We have some that we see at the hostel.
There were some amazing views of the Franz Josef glacier.
Some history of 5 mile…
Five mile lagoon used to be a rather large gold mining town. (And by large, i mean bigger than Okarito or Franz Josef.) Anyway, after awhile, the gold dried up and then the town died. Now when you look at the area, you won’t really see any traces of a town that used to be. weird. BUT… when we were kayaking, we found these posts. What you can’t see in the pictures is that it is holding a broken pipe of some kind. I imagine maybe a water pipe to the houses… but who knows. The pipe was broken in the middle where we took these pictures of the glacier.
On the hike back to 3 mile lagoon there is a sand dune that Colin has been dying to climb up for months. Since this was our last trip out here, we thought we’d get it done.
These last two are of 3 mile lagoon.
A little Glacial Photography Art.
The Heli-hike was AMAZING!!!
These first 2 shots were from the Helicopter.
Andre’a sliding through the ice cave…. when I did it, I landed head first in the puddle at the end…. it was a nice cold bath.
She looks like a professional.
nice crampons….
This was like the slide at the end of the movie The Goonies, but better….
I love how you can see the snow flying around from the helicopter wind.
The cool thing about this picture is the big black cliff behind us. If you look to the bottom left of the cliff, there is a bunch of snow debris. We actually got to watch all that fall down. I know it happens fairly often on the glacier, but for us, it was amazing to experience it as well as hear it… fascinating!
By Andre’a and Colin Feldhaus
some other cool photography pictures we took along the way.
Cool water droplets… aye….
By Colin and Andre’a Feldhaus
Here are just some more pictures from our Hike..
Looks like a movie set and not like she is really squeezed between to gigantic pieces of ice….
Sweet ice cave….
Shawn’s (our boss/tour guide for the day) cousin Mikayla and her friend Tonya.
a sweet as stream
By Colin and Andre’a Feldhaus
A few weeks back, our boss took some of us up on a full day glacier hike. Words can’t really describe the splendor of it all, but maybe pictures will get closer.
The sky was really this blue color in the morning of the hike. It looked surreal.
The initial ascent.
Our fearless guide…
our very confused, fearless guide…
colin having a great time!
By Colin and Andre’a Feldhaus
How can we describe this event… Well, the Wild Foods Festival is a cross between live concerts, an airshow, Halloween, a fair (with booths) and weird food. We were told, since we were here on the west coast while this event was going to happen, we had to go. A town of 3,000 turns into a town of around 15,000 for the day. It used to be around 30,000 however, that took away from the family friendliness. It got too crowded and that many people drunk isn’t a great combination for children. People were dressed in costumes of every sort. I was warned that peopled dressed up – but i just assumed there would be a theme, like maybe weird food costumes or something. Nope, any costume you could find would suffice… literally. And if that wasn’t random enough, someone offered to buy Colin’s sweater off his back – not because they were cold, but because they thought it was cool. Little do they know we bought it for less than $10 on clearance at Target – but we didn’t sell it and they had never heard of Target.
So, we did get a bit brave and try some of the weird food… huhu grubs, grasshopper, worms, an ostrich pie, and shark. (Me, Andre’a, did get my moment of fame… the event photographer just happened to be around when i was eating my huhu grub and he needed a “pretty girl” to take a picture of. How could i resist. So there, Colin… Mr. I-got-interviewed-by-CNBC-for-standing-in-front-of-the-applestore-all night!) We did eat some yummy normal foods as well… waffles, German sausages, beef sandwich, strawberries and ice cream, and homemade ginger beer (like root beer).
As far as the music goes… it was interesting. There was some really talented musicians and some that weren’t, but the funnies part was the headlining band. There was an Irish folk band called the “Black Velvet Band” to headline. Seriously, nowhere else but on the west coast of New Zealand, would an Irish folk band headline anywhere. Everyone flocked to the stage to river-dance and jump up and down when these guys came on stage. And one of the songs they sang was the “Cotton eye Joe” – but nobody knows the dance that goes along with it. Simply hilarious to say the least!
the airshow part
the huhu grubs
mmmmm, grasshopper
salting the shark
we can’t remember the name of this band and not our style of music, but they were really talented!
And last but not least… here they are… the Irish folk band…the Black Velevet Band (and the age difference of their members is also shocking… you have a young guy singing and looking to the right is an older guy with a huge gray beard… hmmmmmm).
by: Andre’a and Colin Feldhaus
Here are a couple more photographs we took along the Copland track.
This first picture was taken in the evening. The colors came out so cool.
very dramatic
The rivers down here are really this blue.
Andre’a says “some bridges just shouldn’t exist… especially when they are held up by tape.”
I think this picture makes Andre’as backpack look bigger than it really is… but she was a trooper and carried a lot.
by Colin and Andre’a Feldhaus
The Copland track is one of New Zealands greatest tramps. It is about a 7 hr hike up the Copland Valley to the first hut called the “welcome hut”. What is so cool about the welcome hut is about 75 meters down the trail from the hut are some amazing natural fed hot pools. There were 3 pools there all with varying temperatures, depending on how far away they were from the hot-spring. The hot pools were a fantastic way to relax after your long days walk to get to the hut. You can find more about the Copland track here. This was Andre’as first overnight tramp carrying everything in… and I think that she did an amazing job. Just being outside with a pack on my back reminded me alot of going to philmont… good times…. good times. Except we stayed in the hut and not in tents. Well that is about enough talk here are some pictures.
Andre’a trying not to be scared to cross this really long swing bridge….
And her photography skills are not to shabby either.
Here are a couple of the lush forest/river area that we crossed.
Here are the Hot pools.
The water coming from the hot spring stained the ground red.
By Colin and Andre’a Feldhaus
