IT HAS FINALLY STOPPED RAINING.
And about time, as I was starting to get slightly feral, cooped up in this motel room for days. I got out this afternoon and walked to Lake Matheson, which is "famous" (I'm not sure in exactly which circles but okay) for--on clear days--reflecting perfectly Mounts Tasman and Cook. It was hardly a clear day but just as I stopped to take this picture, the sun came out for a hot second and the lake was still (Brandon, I can't decide if I want you to look at this or not!):
Five minutes later, the lake looked like this:
On my way back out of the park, it looked like this, and no, neither Tasman nor Cook are even remotely visible here.
I will not be ashamed to report that I spoke to a number of birds on my way to and from the lake, and none of the motherfuckers were kind enough to give me the time of day. I got fantailed at repeatedly by several different fantails and some kind of hawk-like thing all but spit at me as it flew away.
The one bird I got close to was the Pukeko, also know as the Australasian swamphen, and wow "swamphen" is a great word. I saw two adults with chicks and look--this picture makes it look like that one bird is walking on the fence wire! (It was not.)
I also watched a Pukeko take off in flight and holy mother of mercy they look RIDICULOUS. Hahahaha they have these stupid legs and for ages after take-off they flap them almost like they're wings but of course they are not hahahaha dumb bird. Here is a video of them if you don't believe me.
I also needed to look up some information about these birds and it turns out they have positively scandalous private lives, my goodness:
Pukeko have a highly variable mating system. Birds may nest as monogamous pairs but can also form polyandrous, polygynandrous and, more rarely, polygynous groups. Any of these groups may also have non-breeding helpers. When multiple breeding females are present, all lay in the same nest, a phenomenom known as “joint-laying”. Clutch size is typically 4-6 eggs per females and when multiple females contribute to a single nest the total clutch size can be as high as 18 eggs. Incubation is predominantly by breeding males, with some assistance from breeding females. All group members contribute to chick care.
Polyandrous means a lady has a lot of gentlemen friends but each gentlemen has only one lady friend; polygynous is the reverse of that, and polygynadrous means woo-hoo par-tay! Basically, these birds are swingers.
Last night in Fox Glacier/the end of my personal Groundhog Day; tomorrow it's back to Christchurch and then a flight to Sydney. The Australian Motorcycle Adventure begins on Tuesday--KOALAS AND KANGAROOS AWAIT!
Pictures:
The storms we've had over the past few days were really super bad. This is one of many trees I saw that had been blown over. I was informed this morning that the access road to Fox Glacier had been breached in two places by "slips" as they say, and so that glacier is now accessible only by helicopter until the road is repaired. No timeline for that provided. Just another reminder that New Zealand is a legit WILD place--they really don't have a lot in the way of back up plans. One road closed? No other options. They also shut down the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound during the storms, which meant anyone on the Milford Sound side was just stuck there until the road reopened. This sort of thing seems to happen all the time and I've lost count of the number of times I've passed a sign that informed me the road I was about to take was, in fact, "open." I am very glad to have had mostly good weather on this trip and to have been able to wait out the bad. New Zealand, you really don't leave much margin for error!
These are from the walking path to Lake Matheson. Kept waiting for someone to step out of the woods and send me on a quest.
Oh, I forgot I saw these ducks. Meh.
Because I have had a LOT of indoor time, I made a little list of my various NZ rides. For all my millennial friends, this is what is known as a paper map. There once was a time before the existence of Google and during that time we used these for navigation. They could not speak to us, nor could they "recalculate," and if you're wondering how we survived with such rudimentary tools, you can piss off you helpless tech-dependent fools. When the End of Days comes, y'all are gonna be the first to go--your Instagram accounts and craft beer won't save you.
*This is a stab in the dark--is Candy Crush still a thing?
And about time, as I was starting to get slightly feral, cooped up in this motel room for days. I got out this afternoon and walked to Lake Matheson, which is "famous" (I'm not sure in exactly which circles but okay) for--on clear days--reflecting perfectly Mounts Tasman and Cook. It was hardly a clear day but just as I stopped to take this picture, the sun came out for a hot second and the lake was still (Brandon, I can't decide if I want you to look at this or not!):
Five minutes later, the lake looked like this:
On my way back out of the park, it looked like this, and no, neither Tasman nor Cook are even remotely visible here.
I will not be ashamed to report that I spoke to a number of birds on my way to and from the lake, and none of the motherfuckers were kind enough to give me the time of day. I got fantailed at repeatedly by several different fantails and some kind of hawk-like thing all but spit at me as it flew away.
The one bird I got close to was the Pukeko, also know as the Australasian swamphen, and wow "swamphen" is a great word. I saw two adults with chicks and look--this picture makes it look like that one bird is walking on the fence wire! (It was not.)
I also watched a Pukeko take off in flight and holy mother of mercy they look RIDICULOUS. Hahahaha they have these stupid legs and for ages after take-off they flap them almost like they're wings but of course they are not hahahaha dumb bird. Here is a video of them if you don't believe me.
I also needed to look up some information about these birds and it turns out they have positively scandalous private lives, my goodness:
Pukeko have a highly variable mating system. Birds may nest as monogamous pairs but can also form polyandrous, polygynandrous and, more rarely, polygynous groups. Any of these groups may also have non-breeding helpers. When multiple breeding females are present, all lay in the same nest, a phenomenom known as “joint-laying”. Clutch size is typically 4-6 eggs per females and when multiple females contribute to a single nest the total clutch size can be as high as 18 eggs. Incubation is predominantly by breeding males, with some assistance from breeding females. All group members contribute to chick care.
Polyandrous means a lady has a lot of gentlemen friends but each gentlemen has only one lady friend; polygynous is the reverse of that, and polygynadrous means woo-hoo par-tay! Basically, these birds are swingers.
Last night in Fox Glacier/the end of my personal Groundhog Day; tomorrow it's back to Christchurch and then a flight to Sydney. The Australian Motorcycle Adventure begins on Tuesday--KOALAS AND KANGAROOS AWAIT!
Pictures:
The storms we've had over the past few days were really super bad. This is one of many trees I saw that had been blown over. I was informed this morning that the access road to Fox Glacier had been breached in two places by "slips" as they say, and so that glacier is now accessible only by helicopter until the road is repaired. No timeline for that provided. Just another reminder that New Zealand is a legit WILD place--they really don't have a lot in the way of back up plans. One road closed? No other options. They also shut down the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound during the storms, which meant anyone on the Milford Sound side was just stuck there until the road reopened. This sort of thing seems to happen all the time and I've lost count of the number of times I've passed a sign that informed me the road I was about to take was, in fact, "open." I am very glad to have had mostly good weather on this trip and to have been able to wait out the bad. New Zealand, you really don't leave much margin for error!
These are from the walking path to Lake Matheson. Kept waiting for someone to step out of the woods and send me on a quest.
I'm sorry if that felt harsh, millennials. Did y'all know you can tell what direction you're going in by looking at the position of the sun in the sky? Hahaha I'm just kidding--obviously you need to open your compass app. Hahaha kidding again! Compass app, please. This is your Uber driver's whole job! Sit back, relax, and get back to your game of Candy Crush.*
In conclusion: this is a picture of one cow assiduously licking another cow's neck. This went on for some time, and the lickee was stoic throughout. Sometimes you get the lick and sometimes the lick gets you, cow.
*This is a stab in the dark--is Candy Crush still a thing?
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