Franz Joseph Glacier, New Zealand

It was cloudy on the east side of the island when we left Christchurch and headed into the mountains.


Fortunately, it was sunnier on the west side.


We arrived in Greymouth, rented a car, then drove down the coast to the town of Franz Joseph Glacier (near the glacier of the same name). The west coast is an interesting combination of rain forest and mountains.

The next day, we hiked up to the Franz Joseph glacier.



That afternoon, we checked out the West Coast Wildlife Centre, where kiwi conservation efforts are underway. There are several species of kiwi in New Zealand, all of them endangered to some degree, because there were no predators (mammals) of any kind until westerners brought them. The local species, the Rowi kiwi, is the most endangered. Their main predator is the stoat, originally brought to the island to keep the rabbit population under control. Apparently, a newly hatched Rowi kiwi has a 5% chance of surviving to adulthood, but at the center, they have an 85% chance. Since there are only about 375 of them left, it makes a big difference! The kiwi grows to almost the size of a chicken, and once it reaches about a kilogram, it can defend itself with the claws on its feet. The Centre incubates eggs until they hatch, then keep the baby kiwis for a few months. Then they are sent to a predator-free island between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, where they learn to hunt for themselves (they eat mostly grubs from the soil). Then they are brought back to the area and released into the wild.

Anyway, we were lucky because when we got there, they had a kiwi that had hatched the previous day. I took a picture of the monitor that showed a live video feed of the kiwi.


The next day, we went to a White Heron sanctuary. It's the only place on the entire island where the birds nest. To get there, we took a "jet boat" ride down a glacial river then up a rain forest river.

Here, a paradise duck plays with the boat by flying in front of it.


Here's a picture of one before it was able to get in front of us!


The White Heron nesting site was not very big. This picture pretty much shows the entire area.


Also nesting in or around the area were shags (cormorants)


and spoonbills (they tended to nest higher up in trees, and my camera only had so much zoom!)


That evening, we travelled south to Fox Glacier.


We also got a little closer


but the trails here were closed due to problems with rock slides.


We had dinner at the Lake Matheson cafe, then hiked quickly around Lake Matheson to catch the sunset. These are some mountains near Fox Glacier.



And here are some trees I liked.


While heading back to the cafe, we crossed this stream, which led west to the sea. It allowed us to see the last light of the sunset.


The next morning, we left for Queenstown.