The Road to Franz Joseph

Wow, after our most recent side trips, it is so amazing to drive on a straight highway!  The road between Graymouth and Hokitika provides great views of the West coast.  As Mary says, this is the Wet Coast - it was sleeting when we left this morning, but then that melted away to sunshine.

We stopped to look at the beach which was covered in driftwood. Children in heavy coats were running around on the sand.  We also stopped briefly in Hokitika to see the Possum Store where they make and sell very expensive fur items from what is sometimes called, New Zealand mink.  Aparently NZ has a possum problem where they have no predators and they eat endangered bird's eggs.  The government encourages "management" of the possum population. This store sold blankets, pillow covers, hats and vests made of possum. The blanket was priced $2500.00, but it was pretty to see.  



We are getting used to the one lane bridges, but this one was unique in that it had to passing pull off bays half way across.  The vegetation along the way was very lush and the hillsides were covered with ferns.

I didn't get a picture of this; I wasn't quick enough.  But just so you know, if you see a group of 50 cows standing in a circle like they are waiting for a square dance to start, its because the farmer has put hay on the ground in a circle and they are having lunch! 

The West Coast of the South Island has less than 1% of the population of New Zealand, and they have their own culture.  We heard the radio announcer talking about "coasters" and suddenly realized that he meant the local people! Historically, the people have been here for gold mining, timber, deering (deer ranching), coal mining and pournamu (jade).  

The straight road ran out quickly and we were back on a twisty road with mountain views.  The forest is a temperate climate with lush green ferns growing along the road.  The glaciers here come farther down into a rain forest than anywhere else in the world. 

We got to Franz Joseph Village in time for lunch sitting outside in the sunshine and crisp
then took the 1 mile trek through the forest trail to see the glacier.  It has receded significantly in the past, but is currently growing in depth at the top due to the snow.

When the rain started, we decided to do a real kiwi quest!  Franz Joseph Village has the West Coast Wild Life Center which is a partnership between a private organization and the NZ Department of Conservation for

the endangered Kiwi. They have a program to retrieve eggs from their nest and bring them in to incubate them to improve their chances to living to adulthood.  The New Zealand kiwi, is in the same bird family, Ratite, as the ostridge. They have several unusual traits for birds like bone marrow (flying birds have hollow bones), and body temperature the same as humans (cooler than most birds), and are ground dwellers.   There were millions of kiwi in New Zealand when the first Europeans entered the scene, but the introduction of predator mammals have driven them nearly to extinction.  We saw two year old kiwi in their nocturnal house that would soon be released into the wild.  We also saw some just hatched chicks that were still in the incubator. An kiwi egg is huge and weights over a pound, which is 20% of the mother birds body weight.  The father bird sits on the nest until the eggs hatch.  The kiwi couple is monogamous. 

 Later we took a one mile trek up the forest path to see the Franz Joseph glacier, named after the emperor of the Austria, by the Austrian explorer who discovered it.

We have a room at the Bella Vista hotel tonight where the heater was hard to figure out and only worked while your key was in the slot.  No coming back to a warm room.


 But we had a wonderful dinner at Alice Mays, and nearby restaurant with an interesting history.  It is named after a woman, Alice Parkinson, who killed her lover and was sentenced to prison in Christchurch.  After 6 years she was freed by a petition signed by 60,000 people who believed she had gotten a raw deal.  Alice later married and raised 6 children.  The restaurant was started by one of her grandchildren who named it in her honor. Notice the roof beam in the ceiling, about 10" by 18" - almost a whole tree.  By the way, this is the first meal I have found with green vegetables for the entire trip.