riverECHO

Guest blog entry by BJ’s mum, Jean Hansen . . .

A rolling stone gathers no moss except if that stone is located anywhere along the western coast of New Zealand.  As we traveled from  Franz Joseph further west, I noticed that moss was glistening off the top of fence posts and fence rails and hanging like shimmering veils from the limbs of the trees.  We had truly traveled to the rain forest regions of the west coast.  And per my last guest blog that was how we arrived at Punakaiki.

We actually spent three nights in that region because it was an area that no one in the group – BJ, Lisa, and of course not me, had yet to explore.  The Tasman Sea was fantastic with gigantic waves.

We visited the Pancake Rocks and were intending to go out this morning at high tide to experience the blow holes, but after staying up until 2 am to finish a book I had started, the bed was simply too enjoyable to get up.  As BJ and Lisa will most likely be living there for approximately 6 weeks before they leave NZ, they promised to take a video of it and send it to me.

BJ and Lisa both worked some over the past two days.  And I seriously doubt that you could in too many countries in the world, get up and work for ½ day, drive from the rain forest of the West Coast, over the Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass, and back to the pastoral lands of the East Coast.

We were so taken by the first place that we stayed near Christchurch that we are back there again, with the Giant Schnauzers and the Clydesdales for my last night on the South Island.  Tomorrow, I fly to Wellington and then the next day I start my long journey home to the Tetons.

Every time we went exploring I would come up with questions about what I was seeing and asking why – sort of like traveling with a very inquisitive child and most likely, very annoying to my cheerful, helpful traveling companions.  But what could they say – after all one of them is related and the other is too much of a lady to dismiss me.

Actually, they were able to find answers to a couple of my questions, like how did sheep get to NZ and when did they arrive? The country has no native mammals.  And why does the ice in the glacier appear to be so blue?  But I have other questions to explore like why in the Canterbury portion of the South Island, the farms appear to have borders of evergreen trees that are trimmed like huge hedges?  And what motived the early settlers to plant portions of their ground to forests?

As you can most likely tell from this blog, I am one for exploring the countryside and not much of a city explorer. Just today, we experienced  an ocean and it’s beaches, a rain forest, high mountains, open plains and green pastures.  Yes, and the animals keep finding us – yesterday, we shared lunch space with a cat, a dog, and a Weka.  And today we interrupted a Kea who was eating someone else’s castoffs.

Now it’s back to work for me so I can  – hopefully – meet up with the traveling duo again – where ever, they may be – this fall.