Long Way to the Glaciers

Blenheim to Franz Josef Weather: started out rainy, and then turned to sunny clear skies; temps in the high 60s

LONG day of driving. REALLY LONG. Today we covered over 300 miles. It was raining when we left this morning, but quickly turned into sunny skies! Yeah! Sunshine makes me so much happier... especially when I'm stuck in a car for 10 hours!

Peter's breakfast of champions- a "white coffee" & a Tim Tam

We tried to take a video of the water draining in a sink so that we could show which way the water swirls. It never quite worked out and we never did get an answer. Those New Zealand sinks & toilets are tricky. I gave up & just took a picture of an empty sink.

Trying to get a shot of the water draining

There are a ton of pull offs and scenic outlooks on New Zealand roads. We definitely took advantage of them today!

Just your typical NZ scenery

I got to drive

We stopped in St. Arnaud to see Lake Rotoiti. It was so serene & beautiful. As we were taking in the scenery ducks were taking over the area surrounding our car. They were pretty crazy and wanted any food they could find... including my protein drink.

Lake Rotoiti

The ducks organized a sit in

He wanted some of my protein drink

They liked Peter more than he liked them.

As our drive continued Peter & I enjoyed a little game of "Sheep. Cow." We invented it. Every time you saw a sheep you yelled, "sheep." Every time you saw a cow you yelled, "cow." (Oh, it works for deer too, but we saw less of those.) Well, when Peter saw the following hillside he yelled, "sheep." I called shenanigans on that since those were obviously stones, not sheep! After a short heated disagreement I made him pull over so I could zoom in with our super sweet camera lens (Thanks, Mom & Dad Miller) & see who was right....

Hillside with white specks. Sheep or stones?

Damn! They were sheep!

We drove a little further to outside of Murchison where we visited New Zealand's longest swing bridge. We crossed the bridge & took a short hike. (Lesson for today: I do not like swing bridges, especially very long ones with several people moving on them at once. Much scarier than anticipated.)

Peter on the suspension bridge

Pretty view of below

I forced a smile. I really wanted to get off that bridge!

Then we headed out to the coast where we stopped in Westport for lunch. I had a chili con carne baked potato and Peter had a "kiwi meat roll with pork." He's so much more adventurous. He also got a super sweet gigundous peppermint patty brownie thingy that was one of the best things I've ever tasted! Yum.

We drove a little further & finally saw west coast ocean! ... at least I thought it was ocean, then I learned it's actually the Tasman Sea. Oh, well. It was still awesome!

Ocean!?

We continued our travels down the west coast to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks & blow hole. The blow hole was not active due to low tide, but the pancake rocks & the rest of the scenery were pretty cool.

Pancake rocks

More rocks

West coast NZ

We stopped in the gift shop and learned that possum is often mixed with merino wool in New Zealand wool products. Who knew?!

Yes, possum & sheep

Eww, possum!

As we were leaving I casually mentioned to the cashier that we were heading to the glaciers. She seemed concerned. "You know you're still almost 4 hours away, right?" Uh, yes. I think we knew we were that far away, but it was just beginning to dawn on us that maybe we should make less frequent scenery stops & try to get to Franz Josef before dark. It was almost 4 pm. Time to get moving.

We continued down the coast and that's where things take a turn to the less happy moments. We passed through Greymouth and Hokitika. We then decided that we REALLY needed gas. Unfortunately we passed through Ross and then Harihari with no luck. Their gas stations were closed. Shortly after leaving Harihari the low fuel light came on and I started to really worry (actually I started to get really mad & bitchy). We drove 45 kms to Whataroa. Unfortunately the petrol station there was closed. We still had 40 kms to go 'til Franz Josef. Now, you might be thinking, "40 kms, that's nothing. You can make that on barely any gas! Wrong. If you are thinking that, then you obviously have never driven the hilly, winding, rugged roads of New Zealand! Peter wanted to just go for it, but I refused to. Luckily, the gods intervened. Some random old man drove by to tell us we could go across the street to the inn and have the bartender "ring up" the gas station owner to come out and get us some gas (for a nominal $20 fee). Disaster averted.

Thank God for this gas station!

We arrived in Franz Josef around 7:30 pm and checked into our motel. We headed out to the supermarket to pick up some stuff for our glacier hike lunch tomorrow. We bought shredded chicken, Parmesan, avocado and chiabatta bread for what will surely be fantastic sandwiches! We had a late dinner at Speight's Landing and went to home and headed to bed. Long day! Glaciers tomorrow!

First sign of a glacier

Small farm next to our hotel in Franz Josef

Roadkill

Reason #753 why I am ready to end this daily one hour commute of mine: Dead animals.

The first rule of driving my dad taught me 13 long years ago was, "DO NOT under any circumstances EVER swerve for animals-especially birds! They will get out of the way for you!" About 7 years after that lesson I killed a baby bird that failed to move out of the path of my Cavalier. I was sad for the rest of the day. I was even scared to look in the grill of my car 'cause I was afraid I'd see feathers.

Next, something I neglected to mention a few weeks ago when it happened... I was driving to work around 6 am and was only about 5 minutes into my drive on the 490 when a bird committed suicide on my windshield. Seriously. It flew right smack in front of my eyes and thankfully quickly fell off. I screamed like I haven't screamed in quite a while. That shit'll scare you half to death in the wee hours of the morning! Now whenever I see birds swooping across the interstate I cringe. I couldn't bear to hear that noise of a bird hitting my window ever again!

Finally, yesterday, which is the main reason for this post... Less that 5 minutes on the 490 I saw a dead deer in the middle of the highway. Blood everywhere and body parts scattered. Not something I ever cared to see. About 2 minutes after that I notice the car in front of me swerve and witnessed it barely miss hitting two fawn that were crossing the road. One of the fawn made it's way to the other side of the road, but the other must've got scared. It quickly turned around and fell on the hash marks in the middle of the road. I screamed (probably louder that when the bird hit my windshield). Luckily, it quickly got back on it's feet and headed in the direction from which it came.

The man in the car that nearly hit the deer and I were the only witnesses to this. Thankfully there's not many cars on the road at 6:30 am on a Saturday. He must've been shaken up as much as I was though, 'cause we both spent the rest of the drive on the 490 going about 50 mph. After thinking about that baby deer I had tears in my eyes, 'cause I worried that I'd see it dead on my way home. There's a ridiculous amount of dead animals on the shoulder of the interstate, and I can't take it!

I never used to care much, but I just think it's sad. Especially when the baby ones die. Unfortunately, on my way home, I did see a dead baby deer on the side of the road. Obviously, I don't know if it was the same one from the morning, but it doesn't really matter. I was still sad just the same.... What can I say, I'm getting pathetic in my old age!

So, be careful out there! I'm not advising swerving out of the way of swooping birds, or prancing deer, but watch out nonetheless.

Driving myself sane

Realization #3: I like long drives by myself.

The first question everyone asks me now that I moved is: "How's the drive?" I've been answering it the same way every time I'm asked, "Fine. It's the waking up early that sucks." This still remains true. I enjoy my daily drives. They give me a chance to think, contemplate, etc.

When I was little my mom used to make us take long family drives to the country. "Why?" you ask. "'Cause it's the family thing to do," my mom would reply. Don't worry, I still don't get it either. That was just one of my mom's favorite come backs. Instead of, "Because I said so," she would say, "'Cause it's the family thing to do." Regardless, I HATED those drives. They were pointless! Staring out the window looking at silos & cows as I fight over the back seat with my little brother listening to either talk radio or dad's oldies was not and still is not my idea of a fun nor relaxing time.

When I got older and had access to a car I began to love driving just to escape my parents. Getting out of the house and just being able to drive where ever was such a stress reliever.

When I started pharmacy school my daily commute was about an hour to school and if I was lucky an hour and 15 minutes (depending on traffic) to get back to the lovely south towns. This was when I started to like driving, but not completely. If you've ever been stuck on the 290 in rush hour traffic in inclement weather, then you wouldn't believe me if I said my drives home were always enjoyable. They weren't. I'm not that crazy! Also, this is right around the time that my road rage began. That's one of the downsides to driving a lot.

Now that I've moved to Rochester I've begun to enjoy my daily commute. It's a pretty easy drive. I'm on the 90 for most of it and that's kept up well and on most days traffic flows quite nicely (except for that occasional driver who refuses to move over to the right lane. I mean seriously, has no one ever taught you the ins and outs of courtesy on the highway?) . Of course, there is the chance that I'll hit a deer, spin off the 490 since Rochester doesn't believe in salting it, or have my car burst into flames (I saw that once already on the side of the road, followed by a semi flying down a hill! What are the chances that I'll encounter that again?), but I prefer to stay positive. I find my drive to and from work relaxing (except for the 290 which is still my arch enemy). It gives me time to prepare for my day, or unwind and de-stress from the horrible experiences I've encountered throughout my day.

It's also a good time to weigh decisions I need to make. I still remember my drive to and from Albany when I had to contest my Pharmacy Boards grade. Ten hours alone in a car gives you a lot of time to think about what to do about your boyfriend who left you to backpack around Europe.

See how great long drives are?! You all wanna try it now don't you?!

....Talk to me in a month and I may be singing a different tune.