Glacier Country

6am Still light rains and the roads are still closed.
9am The rain has lightened and the roads are open! YAY!
10am On the road again. We are in the untamed natural wilderness of Glacier Country with pretty clouds in the mountains and more waterfalls.
11am We are in Franz Josef’s i-Site center. Who do we see but Tom and Laurie, a couple of cheesehead Packer Fans from New Berlin that we met at a winery back in the Marlborough Wine Country. We arranged to meet them later at the Snake Bite Brewery. We take a nice afternoon walk out by the glacier-fed Waiho River. Later we were disappointed to find out the brewery is now just a taproom restaurant - they no longer brew their own beer.

The next day it’s a beautiful sunny day for a scenic heli-flight for astounding views and to stand on a glacier. The very first helicopter ride for each of us – and I get to ride co-pilot. We see Mount Cook, the highest peak of the Southern Alps Mountain Range, which divides the South Island into east and west. We fly over the staggering ice formations and vast snow plains of both the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, and land in the snow to step foot on the Franz Josef Glacier. Unfortunately, the snow was too icy to build a snowman but we managed a bit of a snowball fight and enjoyed a bite of icy snow.

These glaciers, like others in the world, have a cyclic pattern of growth and retreat, driven by various environmental conditions, with more rapid retreat in recent years. Note the difference in the same view from 1865 and today. Tourism began here in 1897 when William Batson opened the first tourist hotel at Franz Josef and began guided glacier excursions. So glad I didn't have to wear the outfits of the early toursits!

Packer Party! Ready with our beer, wine and cheese, mid-afternoon on Sunday (late Sat pm in WI), we watched the Packers (was able to stream it on my laptop) with our new WI Packer friends Tom and Laurie. A good game but not the win we were hoping for! Time to drink and eat our sorrows away next door at Alice May’s . The food was OK but the history about Alice May Parkinson, the owner’s grandmother, was fascinating and quite entertaining – it made me appreciate living in today’s age of western womanhood. In 1915, pregnant and wronged by her boyfriend who refused to marry her after she lost the baby, she shot him 4 times. Sent to prison, her case become the legal and social sensation of the times. She eventually was released, married and had 4 children. Google her story some day when you are older…

What will YOUR story be?
XOXOXOXO
Gma & Gpa