Day 9 – January 2:
Small snacks for breakfast then back 30 minutes to Franz Joseph for our Helicopter Tour (!!). Turns-out, our tour actually left from across the street of our motel, so if not for the quick work of the guide, we would have missed this opportunity. Good time for a side note about Travel Agents. I like that we got a travel agent to help pick a good cross-section of activities, but I hate the lack of insight we have into what is actually booked. We have an app that tells us where to be and when, but it doesn’t tell us what we actually paid for and we have to trust everything is in-place. In this case, the helicopter tour actually told us the wrong place to be. There have been a few other outages too. For the most part, it has been great and I am grateful for the trip that was designed for us, but I really hate not having more insight into the bookings. Enough of that.
We were all excited about the Helicopter Tour and it did not disappoint. We took off from right there in-town and got a flight tour around the glaciers, Mt. Cook (tallest in New Zealand at 12,218’), Mt. Tasmin (second tallest), and the rainforests. Fun fact, only other place in the world that glaciers and rainforests exist together is Patagonia. Bonus, we landed on one of the glaciers and got to play round in the snow and ice for a bit. Needless to say, the views were stunning and everyone had a fantastic time. We got back just a little less than 40 min after take-off just in time for some lunch and the next activity.
After lunch, we headed to the shop next door for the Kayaking tour. Quick shuttle (can’t tell you how many “adventure” shuttles exist in NZ) to Lake Mapourika, a national preserve and home to the Rowi Kiwi. In pairs we headed into very windy and choppy waters which was not a great start, but it did finish 3km later into a nice quite creek we were able to paddle up.
About mid-way into the lake, Katy got the text that her mom, our kids Grandma, and my mother-in-law Kay passed away 4 days after suffering a major stroke. As heartbreaking as this was for us being so far away, we were comforted to know she went very peacefully surrounded by many family members. Before we came ashore in our kayaks, we saw a Great White Heron flying off and joining another one. The Heron is rare in NZ, more common in this area, but still out of its primary habitat. More, for the Māori, the Heron represents the embodiment of our ancestors as they pass from this life to the next. Kay was also a bird lover and enjoyed the very environment we were in. Whatever your faith, the beauty of this moment was hard to ignore.
We spent the rest of the day in a somber mood, but still really enjoyed our moments. We visited another Kiwi sanctuary where we say some Rowi Kiwi up close and headed back to the motel for the evening. Dinner again was challenging with many more people in our little Fox Glacier area and only few restaurants able to handle it. But we found this cute little place, Betsy Jane’s, that gave us a seating time at 9pm! Waiting for that, we walked down the one street of this cute place and shared funny stories and memories of Kay. We continued into dinner laughing and enjoying our company and surroundings to close out what was a breath taking and emotional day in so many ways. Would it have been better if we were home during this time? Maybe, but Katy thinks there is a chance that this is exactly where she was supposed to be.
New Zealand Day 10
Small snacks for breakfast then back 30 minutes to Franz Joseph for our Helicopter Tour (!!). Turns-out, our tour actually left from across the street of our motel, so if not for the quick work of the guide, we would have missed this opportunity. Good time for a side note about Travel Agents. I like that we got a travel agent to help pick a good cross-section of activities, but I hate the lack of insight we have into what is actually booked. We have an app that tells us where to be and when, but it doesn’t tell us what we actually paid for and we have to trust everything is in-place. In this case, the helicopter tour actually told us the wrong place to be. There have been a few other outages too. For the most part, it has been great and I am grateful for the trip that was designed for us, but I really hate not having more insight into the bookings. Enough of that.
We were all excited about the Helicopter Tour and it did not disappoint. We took off from right there in-town and got a flight tour around the glaciers, Mt. Cook (tallest in New Zealand at 12,218’), Mt. Tasmin (second tallest), and the rainforests. Fun fact, only other place in the world that glaciers and rainforests exist together is Patagonia. Bonus, we landed on one of the glaciers and got to play round in the snow and ice for a bit. Needless to say, the views were stunning and everyone had a fantastic time. We got back just a little less than 40 min after take-off just in time for some lunch and the next activity.
After lunch, we headed to the shop next door for the Kayaking tour. Quick shuttle (can’t tell you how many “adventure” shuttles exist in NZ) to Lake Mapourika, a national preserve and home to the Rowi Kiwi. In pairs we headed into very windy and choppy waters which was not a great start, but it did finish 3km later into a nice quite creek we were able to paddle up.
About mid-way into the lake, Katy got the text that her mom, our kids Grandma, and my mother-in-law Kay passed away 4 days after suffering a major stroke. As heartbreaking as this was for us being so far away, we were comforted to know she went very peacefully surrounded by many family members. Before we came ashore in our kayaks, we saw a Great White Heron flying off and joining another one. The Heron is rare in NZ, more common in this area, but still out of its primary habitat. More, for the Māori, the Heron represents the embodiment of our ancestors as they pass from this life to the next. Kay was also a bird lover and enjoyed the very environment we were in. Whatever your faith, the beauty of this moment was hard to ignore.
We spent the rest of the day in a somber mood, but still really enjoyed our moments. We visited another Kiwi sanctuary where we say some Rowi Kiwi up close and headed back to the motel for the evening. Dinner again was challenging with many more people in our little Fox Glacier area and only few restaurants able to handle it. But we found this cute little place, Betsy Jane’s, that gave us a seating time at 9pm! Waiting for that, we walked down the one street of this cute place and shared funny stories and memories of Kay. We continued into dinner laughing and enjoying our company and surroundings to close out what was a breath taking and emotional day in so many ways. Would it have been better if we were home during this time? Maybe, but Katy thinks there is a chance that this is exactly where she was supposed to be.
New Zealand Day 10
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A video summary of the day...helicopter to Kayak |