The forecast was for strong westerlies and 25 millimetres of rain PER HOUR. It wasn’t enough to stop us from exploring Franz Josef glacier. It was wet, wet, wet but we were still awed by walking on ice, slipping through crevices and magic of hiking in such a different element. Both Franz Josef and Fox glaciers defy current climate change patterns: they have grown in the past year. Franz Josef moves at a rate of 5 metres per day in the middle section, 30 centimetres at the base. These New Ziwi glaciers are two of the world’s most unique glaciers in that ice intermingles with forest at the base. The only other glacier to exist in such a landscape is in Argentina.
If Drew and I were professional photographers, our photos would have turned out like this.
We came to stay a night, and now it’s been two weeks. We are yet again WWoofing, this time at an off-the-grid slice of heaven on the West Coast called Beaconstone. The owners Grae and Nancy are incredible people with incredible life stories. No, it isn’t organic farming (that is still on our hit list) but it is the path to a sustainable lifestyle.
And our lives just may change dramatically. Drew had his first surfing lesson yesterday, from a former New Ziwi longboard champion at beautiful and quiet Tauranga Bay. Photos to follow. He says to me during the car ride home: This is the first day of the rest of our lives. Isn’t 30 too old to be a surfer chick? (Robin Stewart, an old Guelph friend currently surfing on the North Island would definitely say ‘no’.)
