 Where we've been so far. Our route is superimposed over a neat T-shirt I found. Today was a fairly light day of riding, about 175 kms south from Greymouth. We've struck a fairly leisurely pace during this trip, averaging around 250 kms a day, with a good ratio of riding and sightseeing. We met a couple of local riders who were touring their own backyard and when we told them our daily mileage, one of them remarked, "That's easy! We're doing 600kms today!" It reminded me of our riding days back home where we don't really stop to admire the sights. It's nice to see some of the country if you're visiting instead of just focusing on the inside line of the curve ahead of you all the time.  I had always wanted to try Vegemite and Marmite. For breakfast, Susan at Inifinity Eden provided me with both. It's like Bovril, what I used to eat when I was a kid in Malaysia. Bovril is a thick, dark, salty beef extract you spread on toast or mix in hot water to make a beverage. Originally made in the UK, New Zealanders and Aussies have their own version of Bovril called Vegemite or Marmite which is the vegetarian version made of yeast, but tastes the same as Bovril. Wow, that was a long explanation for this picture...  Getting ready to depart Inifnity Eden. I love the names of these places! About 40 kms into our ride, we stop in Hokitika, which we're told is the best place to shop for jade and green stone jewelry. Neda is really looking forward to this stop. The Jade Factory is the largest store in this small town and they cut, sand and shape all the jewelry pieces here on-site, and the customers can view the process. We talked to a guy who must have been the foremost expert on New Zealand green stone!  Hokitika, home of the Jade Factory  Not only can you buy jade jewelry, you can see it being shaped as well. We also found the Kiwi Preservation Society, where we could see live Kiwis! The area they had the Kiwis in was very dark, since they are nocturnal and we weren't allowed to take pictures because the light from the flashes would bother the birds. We saw two different types of Kiwis, I think there are over 6 in total. They're actually quite larger than I thought, about the size of a small chicken, and they are CUTE!!! There was an older one we saw running around sticking it's long, curved beak into the dirt looking for worms. He was quite vocal as well, and made a loud high-pitched scrawking noise. We giggled when we heard it, they're such funny birds. They are flightless and quite endangered because their food sources are being eaten by other species. It seems they're not very good Darwinian candidates for survival, but being the national bird has it's priviliges as they are a sheltered species now. We found out that the Kiwi fruit is actually named after the fuzzy bird, not the other way around. Originally, it was called the Chinese Gooseberry before adopting the avian moniker.  The Kiwi Preservation Society  I didn't get any good pictures of Kiwis, so here are more fake Kiwis. This is actually pretty close to what they look like. Like Kiwi fruits with beaks...  Riding towards the mountains Another hour of riding, we stop for the day at a town called Franz Josef. Well known for being situated beside quite a number of glaciers in the region. Due to the westerly winds, the western coast gets a phenomenal amount of precipitation, mostly snow near the peak of the mountains - around 16m a year! The snow gets crushed under it's own weight and becomes ice, and the accumulation slowly pushes this sheet of ice, a glacier, down the mountain at the rate of about 2-5m a day. It takes about 70 years for snow that has fallen at the peak to work its way down to the bottom of the mountain. We have to see this for ourselves, so we hop on a chopper (the whirlybird kind, not the motorcycle kind) and make our way above the cloud cover to land on the glacier and walk around. Being in a helicopter is an amazing experience, especially when it pitches and rolls across the mountain faces and dives as the rocks disappear from under us. It was a pretty overcast day on the ground, but as soon as we broke through the cloud cover, the sun glinting off the snow was so dazzling, I was blinded without sunglasses. I think I took over 100 shots up there, these are just a few.  This is the view of the glacier from near the bottom of the mountain  Side view of the glacier shows how corrugated the ice becomes as it's being pushed down the mountain  The helicopter lands at the top of the glacier giving us some time to walk around  Neda looks like she is standing on clouds!  View from the top of the glacier looking down. Wish I had my snowboard!  Walking around the top of the glacier. It's about 15C up here. Without sunglasses, the glare is pretty unbearable up here.  BTW, about that rock that hit me in the neck yesterday - we're thinking it might actually have been a bee or wasp. My neck has become quite red and swollen today and the impact area is white like a stinger had hit it. I must have rear-ended the bee instead of hitting it head on if stung me the way it did! Neda says it might take a few days for the swelling and itchiness to subside. DOH. We're checked into the Westwood Lodge, which is more hotel than it is B&B. Bed and Breakfasts' seem to be quite a big business in New Zealand, and still there are "No Vacancy" signs posted in every city we pass through, due to it being high season right now. We made our accomodations through a touring company about 8 months ago, and Paul, our host at the Westwood Lodge said that it is virtually impossible to just show up in NZ during this time and expect to get a room as a walk-in. Food for thought if you're planning a vacation in NZ during high season. This is one of the main differences about this trip vs. others we've done in the past, where we've just wandered around knocking on doors at the end of the riding day. You just can't do that here.  Our stop for the night. Westwood Lodge at Franz Josef. I checked the forecast and the weather looks dismal for the next few days. Prep the sausage-suits!
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