More photos

I've added photos to three of the albums/sets on Flickr, namely 

- TranzAlpine

- FoxGlacier 

- Lake Matheson

As before, you can find them at

www.flickr.com/photos/chriswoodhouse/sets 

Astronomy

Just a brief post about our astronomy tour at Mt John Observatory last night.  We went with Earth and Sky http://earthandskynz.com/earthandsky/

We kept an eye on the weather on the bus journey up from Te Anau, where the day had started cloudy, and kept looking skywards on through the afternoon.  It cleared up and looked promising, so we duly turned up to Earth and Sky's office at 9:45pm - and we were on.

They took us up to the observatory by bus, just under 15 minutes.  We had two guides.  Jason gave a brief introduction to the observatory, and pointed us to the hot chocolate :-)  He had a telescope set up, and started with Venus - which shows phases, like the moon.  I didn't know that.  He also introduced Maki, who offered to take photos of the moon with any Digital SLR cameras any of us had brought - using their tracking mount.  Andy got four lunar photos that way. The other guide, Andrew, had a second telescope, pointing at a different object.  The guides had us in two groups moving between their telescopes as they lined up different objects.

We then moved on to the 16" telescope.  Among other wonderful views, we saw Tucanae 47. When first discovered, it was thought to be a single object. It's now known to be a globular cluster of about a million stars, aged between 10 and 12 billion years. Here's what Wikipedia says
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/47_Tucanae

We were at the observatory for about an hour and three quarters, and it was a great experience. At the very end, Maki took a photo of the group in front of the 16" telescope, which you can see here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthandsky/10829388566/

I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone with even just a passing interest in the skies or the stars.  Make sure you take plenty of layers and a hat and gloves. And still take advantage of the warm coat loan from Earth and Sky.

Photos

I've started uploading photos to Flickr, putting them in "sets".  Some are still work in progress, with some more uploads to follow. Check out 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chriswoodhouse/sets/

for the first four sets:

- TranzAlpine

- Fox Glacier

- Doubtful Sound

- Lake Tekapo

TranzAlpine, Fox Glacier and Lake Matheson

OK, so my last post took us to leaving the TranzAlpine train at Arthur's Pass.  We transferred to a bus to continue the journey to Greymouth.  The scenery continued to be dramatic, with some quite remarkable stretches of road.  Periodically, the Otira tunnel is closed for routine maintenance.  On these occasions, passengers have to leave the train and go on by bus.  While not as luxurious or as roomy as the train, the bus gave us views we wouldn't have seen, so no complaints :-)  You can see a few photos from the journey here

We had about 40 minutes in Greymouth before we caught our InterCity bus down to Fox Glacier.  We had a couple of stops along the way, and we had commentary - both of which seem to be a feature of most of the bus journeys down here.  We reached the village of Fox Glacier around 6pm and checked into our hostel.  We ate at The Last Kitchen and sampled one of the local beers - "Mac".  Andy had the gold and I had the red.  Both very acceptable.  I went for a wander round the village as dusk approached, and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.

Next morning, Andy came back very enthusiastic from Lake Matheson, and suggested we consider going down at the end of the day - assuming we still fancy the 10-12km round trip walk, plus the 2-3km round the lake itself.

Our check-in time for the glacier walk was 9:10, so we had breakfast at the Hobnail Cafe next door.  After check-in we were given crampons and a safety briefing.  There were 24 of us all told, and we piled in the bus for the 10 minute drive to the Glacier access point.  There were road crews busy when we got there.  Apparently, though the glacier has retreated from the current site of the car park, there's still ice under the ground there so they have to carry out maintenance work to keep the road usable.

We were split into two groups of a dozen and a guide with each group.  For some reason, thsi trip there were three guides, so we ended up with two.  Again, no complaints ;-)

We had a walk in of about 2km, and then we put on our crampons.  A few hundered metres later we were also given walking poles, and then we were on to the ice.  It was an absolutely brilliant experience.  We were really fortunate with the weather with almost uninterrupted blue sky and sunshine.  We heard about why ice crystals on the surface are white, while the deep dense ice is blue - it's to do with wavelengths of light being reflected.  We also heard that the glacier retreats by about 500-600 metres/year.  So, only a few decades ago, the glacier was where the car park now sits.  We saw some great looking crevasses - but they weren't the deepest.  Glaciers in the New Zealand Southern Alps can't get any deeper than about 80 metres.  We were told about holes that develop in the ice, called "moulins".  Here's an explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulin_%28geology%29

And we got to stand in some great structures where a hole started, then got widened by the wind, then starts to melt and eventuually collapses and disappears.

Lunch was a matter of finding a group of rocks where we could all perch.  I stood my day bag in a nice piece of ice - only to find it was in fact a perfectly clear puddle several inches deep.  After lunch, I wore my waterprooof while my bag dripped and dried out on my back.  D'oh!

All too soon, it was time to walk out.  It had been a great trip, and I'd recommend it to anyone.  The advice before the day was that a reasonable level of fitness was needed.  In the end, it was a lot less demanding than I expected.  I had anticipated a lot more walking, with a lot more up - but we had much more time to wander about and be amazed at how a glacier looks.  Awesome - really, a sense of awe.

When we got back to Fox Glacier, we felt up for Lake Matheson.  It's famous as the mirror lake, where you can see reflections of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman.  This wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Matheson should give you some idea.  So, we walked to Lake Matheson, with the intention of getting some reflection photos.  We hoped we might get some sunset photos too, then come back for something to eat.  However, when we got there we found that the Lake Matheson Cafe had started evening opening - presumably the season had got going enough for the owners.  Hurrah!  We amended our plans to eat there and stay until after it got dark to attempt some night sky photos too.

The walk round was easy going and we had several photo opportunities.  The weatehr wasn't perfectly still, so there were some ripples on the lake.  We wondered if this would stop us getting good reflection shots, but we found a couple of spots where there was enough still water to give us the sort of pictures we'd hoped for.

Having said it was easy going, we'd spent a lot of the day on our feet, so we were glad to get back to the cafe to "take the weight off".  Pizzas and beer sat outside watching the light just start to fade over Mounts' Cook and Tasman was a delight.  And sure enough, the mountains turned orange and pink, and finally it started to get dark.  So we found a suitable spot facing west and had a go at getting the sunset.  I got one shot, with my Panasonic point&shoot that I was particularly pleased with - but thanks are due to Andy for his advice.  Once the sun had properly set, we then tried to get star photos.  Andy managed to get the Milky Way with his Canon SLR.  My options with my Panasonic were much more limited, with the only options for long shutter speeds being 4 seconds, 15 seconds and 30 seconds.  I managed to get a couple of shots nonetheless.

Photos and more excursion news to follow when we next get a good connection.

Not packing

I've edited this post to correct it.  There were several typos, and the third paragraph was a complete hotch-potch.  Should have checked really carefully - composing and editing on a phone, especially using copy&paste, are clearly not my forte!

It's just after 7 on a cool bright morning with a promising forecast, and we'll be in the same room tonight. No need to pack for a journey today - just a small day bag with vittles, sun screen, sufficient layers and other glacier necessities for the all day guided walk. 

Andy's already out. He left at 5:30 to cycle to Lake Matheson to catch the sunrise. Really looking forward to seeing those photos.

So, what to say about the trip so far. Readers won't be surprised to hear that the journey from Monyash to the hostel in Christchurch was looooooong.  The flight to Dubai was fine, but we lost time on the next leg of the journey and never made up the time. Bangkok was a bit disorganised. We had to walk a lot further than we thought necessary, and there were no services at the gate. And we couldn't get online to behave like phone-addicted kids despite there being several available networks. Sydney was easey-peasey by comparison - though expensive, even for an airport. Christchurch took a bit of time to get through. Passport control took maybe 40 minutes, then we needed to go through bio-security/quarantine inspection because we had walking boots. Andy picked up a New Zealand SIM then we got the bus to Bealey Avenue and we were finally there, after 37 hours door to door.

http://www.kiwibasecamp.co.nz

Walked into Christchurch, as far as Cathedral Square. During our pre-trip research, someone suggested to us that Christchurch is like a building site. We found it like a quiet building site. Maybe Monday evenings are quiet - though more likely we were just not in the busy bits. But the description was right - signs of construction everywhere. We ate in a cheerful Chinese then walk back a different way to the hostel.

Next morning, it was up early to make our date with the TranzAlpine.  We walked, 4-5 km, with our full rucksacks. We went through Hagley Park and part of the Botanic Gardens. They deserved more time, but we had a train to catch. Maybe when we get back to Christchurch at the end of next week.

What to say about the TranzAlpine?

http://www.kiwirailscenic.co.nz

Well, it definitely goes up to 11. The carriages are bright and clean and the seats are roomy. Really big windows affording great views. There's a viewing car at the front with open sides above waist height. There are ceiling mounted screens at regular intervals with a map showing progress and position, with commentary available (complimentary headsets provided) triggered by position.

I started this post Wednesday morning, but here we are on Thursday after a brilliant long day yesterday, so I'll save this for now and start a new post to get us from leaving the train (at Arthur's Pass) to Fox Glacier and Lake Matheson.

Photos show the Southern Alps as seen from the flight in, then two daft blokes on the TranzAlpine.

TTFN

2 down, 34 to go

We're in Terminal 1 at Manchester, and it's 18:30. We left home two hours ago. We take off 20:10 and land in Christchurch 30 hours later. Guessing transfer time into Christchurch I reckon total journey time door-to-door will be about 36 hours.

Wish us luck!