West Coast to Christchurch, New Zealand
I noticed a shirt in a shop window. The shirt had three panels of deer crossing-like symbols. The first said Kiwi (stop) the second said sheep (slow down) and the third said possum (speed up!). Driving, you can't help but notice the possum carnage. Every hundred feet or so there seems to be "road pancake" as they call it. Even the mildest mannered and non violent kiwi will swerve all over the road to hit the cuddly little furballs. The reason? Because they are one of the many invasive species on the island that are devouring the plant life at a voracious rate. The same is true with rabbits, stoats, weasels and those cuddly little beatrix potter favorites...hedgehogs. What I don't understand is why doesn't the government just do a massive culling (give money to hunters) to get rid of these little creatures once and for all, rather than slowly and painfully killing them by every imaginable means (including the highly toxic and banned in other counries 1040 poison!). It was humans who introduced them in the first place (to get rid of some other species they accidentally introduced) and it just seems like its an unfair infliction of suffering on these little critters.
That said, New Zealand is lightyears ahead of most countries in terms of its care for its natural resources. The prime minister, Helen Clark, when elected in 1999, put an immediate moratorium on logging of Beech and native forest woods on national land. This effectively saved the west coast of the South island from looking like the East Coast and much of the north island.....English looking farmland scatttered with soon to be logged American made Genetically Modified Pine trees. But her leadership is only a reflection of the national consciousness. Every Kiwi seems to be into the outdoors on some level, surfing, skiing, and TRAMPING. Tramping is so amazing in that its as ubibutous a sport as going to the football game in the states. There are hundreds of formal tramping trails open to the public. Some, you can walk on for days and stay overnight in a hut (some provide meals) and continue walking to the next overnight stay. It's pretty impossible to be outside the cities and get out of shape. Just by being here for a couple of weeks, I feel so fit...having walked up two mountains, a glacier, and probably hiked at least a couple of miles a day on average. And its so effortless, being on such glorious landscape.
I found a good way to keep cool in all this heat...hike a glacier! I took a hiking tour at Fox Glacier as that is the only way to get on the actual ice.
http://www.foxguides.co.nz/trips.asp
The tour (considered low key and for beginners) hiked up a mountain for about a mile, then descended down rocky and boulder laden path, then up the glacier (another mountain really). We had to wear "clamp ons" as that is the only way to keep you from sliding and tumbliing to your death. Interesting note, if Glaciers existed in the US, you'd have to take out a huge insurance policy, but because you are not allowed to sue people in New Zealand, its pretty much no hassle. So there you are, holding onto a rope along a mountain, on one side is solid rock the other side, a 500 foot drop....no harnasses...no helmets. The Glacier is about 7 stories tall at the bottom, and climbs up the mountain..getting increasingly white, free of the sediment at the top. We entered from the side, walked down crevaces, past ice ponds and streams, all from the melting glacier which sat in 80 degree heat. On the Glacier though, the temperature dropped to a cool 50 and was nice, like a welcomed ice cube on a hot forehead. The ice was melting so fast that they had workers out there all day, chiselling steps into the ice so we could actually walk around.
It seemed so futile. The Glacier, in one month has dropped 6 feet. At the moment it is growing(following a natural pattern of growing and receding)but since the big freeze of 1790, the Glacier has receded almost two kilometers. It's amazing to drive into rainforest and be greeted with a sign "the glacier was here in 1790" , then drive through more forest, until you reach a clearing with a rapid river gushing through a rocky moonskaped canyon, and a half a kilometer away, there she is...that giant block of ice. There's only one other place like it in the world....and that would be Patagonia. South Island New Zealand and Patagonia are home to the only tempereate glaciers on the planet. So outside Antarctica, this is the closest you'll get to such a site. We reached the top and looked up the canyon where the glacier gets more white and pristine (and where rich people pay lots of money to get helicoptered up to the top and hike around). Roars and cracks could be heard, ice breaking, boulders falling. It would be very easy to be hurt doing this kind of thing (good thing for the tour agency that we can't sue) one girl fell down a crevace the day before and had to be airlifted out. At the end of the day, it's safe to say I was extremely sore, but so happy I sat on a huge chunk of ice. It's another natural phenomenon that is rapidly disappearing and worth seeing if you can.
Another New Zealand phenomenon when in the great outdoors is dealing with the Kea. The kea is the world's only alpine parrot and also one of the smartest birds in the world. Kea's have been known to tear through tents, backpacks and cars to get to food. They have even been known to kill a sheep or two (a big no no in these parts). They are also extremely rare and I got to see two in Fox Glacier. Loud little guys they are.
The biggest threat at the moment to New Zealand is rampant development. Yep, that age old story. Americans and Europeans (but mostly Americans) are moving here or investing here in droves, driving up land prices, pushing out locals and creating a lot of resentment. Most people are super friendly, but there are occasions when a warm reception turns to a frosty chill when they hear I am from the US. I'm so tired of having the "I'm sick of American culture too" conversation...so I just ignore it. But it does make you think twice about this entire system we're wrapped up in...how wide spread it is and how it effects everyone on the planet. In Dunedin, I had the unfortunate experience of being in the city when an American Princess Cruiseliner docked on shore (it was the same huge ship that I saw in Akoroa just days before). Hundreds of Florida-like, Republican-looking Americans descended onto the town. You could tell the locals had their shoulders skrunched up to their ears to compensate for the irritation. Stomping around...taking pictures..."YEAH!!!I'm from the STATES!" being shouted to a soft spoken kiwi behind the counter. I heard one American woman argue with a man over the proper term for gummy bears. "In New Zealand, we call them Lollies", the young kiwi guy said. The American woman snapped "THEY'RE GUMMY BEARS IN THE STATES!". I snapped back..."Well you're not in the States...are you?" The kiwi guy just grinned...politely...good naturedly. They're so polite here...almost painfully so...and I think to their detriment. Really, they should put a blanket moritorium on foreign investment to stop the selling off of their country to greedy bastards, but they're just too damn polite.
I had the chance to watch some New Zealand TV. There was even a Maori language children's show (completely spoken in Maori). Aporo means apple in case you wanted to know. The media here is fantastic, superb new programming and papers. They have more than their fair share of crap American programming (like CSI and stupid sitcoms) but overall the media reflects the informed populace. I had the unfortunate experience of seeing Bush's state of the union speech in a Pub. Everyone was refraining from throwing beer at the TV (politeness again).
On the news one night, there was footage of a Maori protest, and the Maori leader shooting the New Zealand flag with a gun. The protest was over land, which the Maori believe was stolen from them (and is now being sold off to foreign investment). The dynamics between Americans/ foreigners and the Pakeha is kind of irrelevant to the Maori who beleive that the land was never the Pakeha's (white man's) to sell in the first place. During the protest, the protestors did that intense warrior dance (I think it's called the whaka), portruding tongue, beating chests. It was impressive, and it made me want them to win.....to really win the fight for their land and truly control their destiny and this country. It was inspiring to see such passion for the struggle..which is for their way of life. With all the strife and protests though, it's still impressive to see Maoritanga( the maori way of life) so visible in this society. You'd never see anything like it in North America nor Australia...not anywhere. But I want them to go all the way...and win the big kahuna you might say... How amazing that would be!
I have lots more funny stories of staying in hostels, mostly involving smelly snoring, drunk guys who kept the entire room up all night...but I figured I did enough bitching in the last entry regarding the other travellers so I'll spare you. I'm in a girls hostel now in Christchurch. Hopefully I'll get some sleep in a room that doesn't smell like giant bag of dirty socks. Ugghhh.
That said, New Zealand is lightyears ahead of most countries in terms of its care for its natural resources. The prime minister, Helen Clark, when elected in 1999, put an immediate moratorium on logging of Beech and native forest woods on national land. This effectively saved the west coast of the South island from looking like the East Coast and much of the north island.....English looking farmland scatttered with soon to be logged American made Genetically Modified Pine trees. But her leadership is only a reflection of the national consciousness. Every Kiwi seems to be into the outdoors on some level, surfing, skiing, and TRAMPING. Tramping is so amazing in that its as ubibutous a sport as going to the football game in the states. There are hundreds of formal tramping trails open to the public. Some, you can walk on for days and stay overnight in a hut (some provide meals) and continue walking to the next overnight stay. It's pretty impossible to be outside the cities and get out of shape. Just by being here for a couple of weeks, I feel so fit...having walked up two mountains, a glacier, and probably hiked at least a couple of miles a day on average. And its so effortless, being on such glorious landscape.
I found a good way to keep cool in all this heat...hike a glacier! I took a hiking tour at Fox Glacier as that is the only way to get on the actual ice.
http://www.foxguides.co.nz/trips.asp
The tour (considered low key and for beginners) hiked up a mountain for about a mile, then descended down rocky and boulder laden path, then up the glacier (another mountain really). We had to wear "clamp ons" as that is the only way to keep you from sliding and tumbliing to your death. Interesting note, if Glaciers existed in the US, you'd have to take out a huge insurance policy, but because you are not allowed to sue people in New Zealand, its pretty much no hassle. So there you are, holding onto a rope along a mountain, on one side is solid rock the other side, a 500 foot drop....no harnasses...no helmets. The Glacier is about 7 stories tall at the bottom, and climbs up the mountain..getting increasingly white, free of the sediment at the top. We entered from the side, walked down crevaces, past ice ponds and streams, all from the melting glacier which sat in 80 degree heat. On the Glacier though, the temperature dropped to a cool 50 and was nice, like a welcomed ice cube on a hot forehead. The ice was melting so fast that they had workers out there all day, chiselling steps into the ice so we could actually walk around.
It seemed so futile. The Glacier, in one month has dropped 6 feet. At the moment it is growing(following a natural pattern of growing and receding)but since the big freeze of 1790, the Glacier has receded almost two kilometers. It's amazing to drive into rainforest and be greeted with a sign "the glacier was here in 1790" , then drive through more forest, until you reach a clearing with a rapid river gushing through a rocky moonskaped canyon, and a half a kilometer away, there she is...that giant block of ice. There's only one other place like it in the world....and that would be Patagonia. South Island New Zealand and Patagonia are home to the only tempereate glaciers on the planet. So outside Antarctica, this is the closest you'll get to such a site. We reached the top and looked up the canyon where the glacier gets more white and pristine (and where rich people pay lots of money to get helicoptered up to the top and hike around). Roars and cracks could be heard, ice breaking, boulders falling. It would be very easy to be hurt doing this kind of thing (good thing for the tour agency that we can't sue) one girl fell down a crevace the day before and had to be airlifted out. At the end of the day, it's safe to say I was extremely sore, but so happy I sat on a huge chunk of ice. It's another natural phenomenon that is rapidly disappearing and worth seeing if you can.
Another New Zealand phenomenon when in the great outdoors is dealing with the Kea. The kea is the world's only alpine parrot and also one of the smartest birds in the world. Kea's have been known to tear through tents, backpacks and cars to get to food. They have even been known to kill a sheep or two (a big no no in these parts). They are also extremely rare and I got to see two in Fox Glacier. Loud little guys they are.
The biggest threat at the moment to New Zealand is rampant development. Yep, that age old story. Americans and Europeans (but mostly Americans) are moving here or investing here in droves, driving up land prices, pushing out locals and creating a lot of resentment. Most people are super friendly, but there are occasions when a warm reception turns to a frosty chill when they hear I am from the US. I'm so tired of having the "I'm sick of American culture too" conversation...so I just ignore it. But it does make you think twice about this entire system we're wrapped up in...how wide spread it is and how it effects everyone on the planet. In Dunedin, I had the unfortunate experience of being in the city when an American Princess Cruiseliner docked on shore (it was the same huge ship that I saw in Akoroa just days before). Hundreds of Florida-like, Republican-looking Americans descended onto the town. You could tell the locals had their shoulders skrunched up to their ears to compensate for the irritation. Stomping around...taking pictures..."YEAH!!!I'm from the STATES!" being shouted to a soft spoken kiwi behind the counter. I heard one American woman argue with a man over the proper term for gummy bears. "In New Zealand, we call them Lollies", the young kiwi guy said. The American woman snapped "THEY'RE GUMMY BEARS IN THE STATES!". I snapped back..."Well you're not in the States...are you?" The kiwi guy just grinned...politely...good naturedly. They're so polite here...almost painfully so...and I think to their detriment. Really, they should put a blanket moritorium on foreign investment to stop the selling off of their country to greedy bastards, but they're just too damn polite.
I had the chance to watch some New Zealand TV. There was even a Maori language children's show (completely spoken in Maori). Aporo means apple in case you wanted to know. The media here is fantastic, superb new programming and papers. They have more than their fair share of crap American programming (like CSI and stupid sitcoms) but overall the media reflects the informed populace. I had the unfortunate experience of seeing Bush's state of the union speech in a Pub. Everyone was refraining from throwing beer at the TV (politeness again).
On the news one night, there was footage of a Maori protest, and the Maori leader shooting the New Zealand flag with a gun. The protest was over land, which the Maori believe was stolen from them (and is now being sold off to foreign investment). The dynamics between Americans/ foreigners and the Pakeha is kind of irrelevant to the Maori who beleive that the land was never the Pakeha's (white man's) to sell in the first place. During the protest, the protestors did that intense warrior dance (I think it's called the whaka), portruding tongue, beating chests. It was impressive, and it made me want them to win.....to really win the fight for their land and truly control their destiny and this country. It was inspiring to see such passion for the struggle..which is for their way of life. With all the strife and protests though, it's still impressive to see Maoritanga( the maori way of life) so visible in this society. You'd never see anything like it in North America nor Australia...not anywhere. But I want them to go all the way...and win the big kahuna you might say... How amazing that would be!
I have lots more funny stories of staying in hostels, mostly involving smelly snoring, drunk guys who kept the entire room up all night...but I figured I did enough bitching in the last entry regarding the other travellers so I'll spare you. I'm in a girls hostel now in Christchurch. Hopefully I'll get some sleep in a room that doesn't smell like giant bag of dirty socks. Ugghhh.
posted by Mr. Sophie at 3:54 PM
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