Farewell Fox

It was a sunny day with only passing clouds when Kat and I decided to take one of our last hikes onto the glacier.  This time we traveled in style with a ride halfway up the ice field in a helicopter.  We took our time, poking around and taking in every last site around us.  At the time we did not know this was our last chance to explore the ice however there was an air of closure to the day.  It was a feeling of accomplishment and contentment.  I am happy to have done everything that I have up to this point and satisfied with my place in life.  Now begins the excitement of the next step where Kat and I go exploring Southeast Asia!

Be prepared for a new host of pictures after this our stint on the equator.

Updates from Fox

Fox Glacier sits along the Alpine fault and adjacent to the greatest mountains in the Southern Alps.  Memorably filmed in The Lord of the Rings third movie as they set fire to the beacon lights across the mountains.  This has been my life for the last 7 months and now, once again, life will take a change of course.  On May 25, Kat and I will be traveling via Sydney to Singapore and on to the greater Malaysian peninsula for a little relaxation in the sun.  After this excursion into Southeast Asia we return to Mt Cheeseman for a few more months of snowboarding. As excited as I am for this new adventure I cant help recounting my time here in Fox and seeing as I have been rather lacking in my updates here is a quick look back at Fox, my job, and my parent's visit to New Zealand.  There have been many fantastic moments during my time here but few that hold the same importance for me as when my parents came to visit me and the first time I had seen them in 18 months.

Mt. Cook

Mt. Tasman

Pioneer Hut on top of Fox Glacier

On the Fox Nevé

Mom and Dad after the scenic helicopter flight.

On the Fox Glacier

Down Valley Fox Glacier

Family in New Zealand

Ice cave

Seal watching in Kaikoura

Ohau Falls

Fur Seal Pup

Leaving the South Island

Sulfur crystals in Rotorua

Rotorua thermal springs

Chased by trolls at Te Papa.

"Today was good, Today was fun, 

Tomorrow is another one."

~Dr. Seuss~

Rain O're Me

My new Year in Fox began with heavy rains and flooding. We received over ml of rain in 48 hours.  This much rain closed down our glacier tours  and washed out 3 bridges on the west coast of new zealand.  The phone and internet connection separated too completing our isolation for the world.  It was exciting and worrying.  The public was not allowed into the valley to see the glacier anymore but some of the guides and I went up to see the destruction taking place. I couldn't take many photos because of the intensity with which the rain was falling.  I did get one photo from the car of the 500 meter valley filled with rushing water from side to side.

The Fox Valley completely flooded.  Chunks of ice float downstream to the ocean.

After 2 days of heavy rain the storm subsided and we had a team of 28 guides move up into the valley in an attempt to restore our access to the glacier.  The river had rerouted and washed away a 200 meter section of our path.  The ice itself had been washed clean of dirt, steps and any sign that people were ever on it.  Mother nature has a way of showing us that we are not in control.  We are little more than stewards of the land around us.  Baring witness to events of total natural force bestows a perspective on people that is quite rare.  We already know that these cataclysmic events are beyond our control but actually seeing them in action awakens the understanding.

A roaring river and a field of ice boulders now stands in place of 200 meters of our original path. 

The glacier shining bright

With days off the ice we find other things to occupy our time like tuning our axes.

A few days later when the sun had returned some friends and I drove north to Franz Josef for a horse ride.  It was a good day basking in the sun atop a horse and off the ice.

Kat couldn't be happier to be riding Cheeto for the day.

An excellent picture of us on our horses thanks to KT our guide.

Live My Life

Though I have taken quite a break from writing over the last couple months life has continued on.  I am a functioning member of the Fox Glacier Guiding team and as we enter into 2013 I've been thinking a lot about the year past.  It has been an amazing year for me traveling over the southern hemisphere and living on impulse more than ever before.  I loved ever second of it all starting with the turtles, sharks and seagrass.  Then south to see Kangaroo and  to buy my didgeridoo.  Next I moved east to Tasmania spending time exploring the land with Adriana and building foundations with Ninedot construction.  Then after a few days from Melbourne to Bondi Beach, Sydney,  It was time to hop across the ditch to New Zealand.

My introduction to vineyard work at Antill Estate was to perfect a way to begin this leg of the journey.  Hitch-hiking around opened my eyes to the overwhelming good-will of the kiwis and to a simpler way of life.  Across the South Island I witnessed some of the most unique and engaging places I have ever seen an din the end could not bare to part with the land.  A month in NZ and I had been hooked.  After a sad farewell to Adriana following 4 months of travel together I set a course to find work and extend my Visa.  It was again Antill Estate and some of the nicest kiwis you could ever meet who found me a job and home.  These folks who had been no more than strangers a month ago were now like an adoptive family of sorts helping me to square away all my loose ends.  It was them who suggested working on a ski mountain for the winter, and them again who told me of Mt. Cheeseman.  After 3 months on vineyard labor I was ready to try something new and being the Ski Technician at little Mt. Cheeseman was the perfect chance.  Over the winter up the mountain I met some amazing people and most of whom I hope to never lose contact with.  Some of whom suggested that i apply for a glacier guiding job.  On the last day, when the applications were due I finally got down to business and sent in the application not knowing what to expect. After a few recommendations and an interview later I had agreed to the guide job for a term of 6 months.  It was a significant move from casual ski tech to full time glacier guide and it was a move that filled me with a fair amount of doubt. However, it was a relatively short time before I was a contributing member of the team and now, 3 months into it, I feel very much as though I belong.

I have felt every emotion imaginable over this last year in an array of intensity.  I have missed home immensely in one moment and completely engrossed in my surroundings the next.  I have made friends and met people of all backgrounds, of all dispositions. I have spent hours under the water in Australia and plummeted from the sky in New Zealand.  There are so many things I have done for the first time and entirely more that I have missed out on.

You can say that I have been running away from something, You can say that I am selfish in the experience that I take, You can accuse me of leaving those I love to seek out something fresh but there is one thing that no person can say to me about this last year.  You can never tell me that I did not live life to its fullest.

My sincerest goodbye to the year 2012 and all of the experiences it gave me.  Now I welcome 2013 and though I worry as always about what is to come, my arms are outstretched to embrace the potential thats this new year brings.

Solar Eclipse in Movember

On Movember 14th Australia and New Zealand witnessed a partial to full solar eclipse, when the moon comes between the sun and the earth momentarily putting us in darkness.  From Fox Glacier we saw about 60% of the sun covered over the course of 2 hours.  I was up on the glacier during a training event but we all took time out to peer at the sun through a makeshift viewing scope of 5 pairs of sunglasses overlapped.  It is not often you that get to witness an event of such dramatic intensity.  It was a beautiful eclipse that you can watch in time lapse taken from the observatory in Lake Tekapo to the east of me.

Watch The Eclipse Here!

You may also have noticed that I wrote Movember... not November.  This is because it is officially Movember, the month in which you grow a mustache to support research efforts towards prostate and testicular cancer.  I have entered the game a bit late due to appearance restrictions but now I am participating 100% as a Mo Bro.  I have decided to take on the symmetrical Mo style Ram's Horns.  This is to compete with my unbalanced Monkey's Tail style of last year.  Please visit my Mo page to learn more and to donate as much as you see fit to support research efforts.

My Movember Page!

2012 Ram's Horns

2011 Monkey's Tail

The Flight Of My Fright

After Kaikoura Kat and I traveled to Motueka, a small town in the north close to Abel Tasman.  We had hoped to kayak and hike about the wondrous Abel Tasman National Park but were restricted by time and money as is always the case for travelers.  However, making the best of what time and money we did have the decision was made to go skydiving.  We figured if we were not able to go explore Able Tasman in person at least we could see it all from a height of 16500ft.  I have never jumped out of a plane before and as I have mentioned in earlier posts... I am terrified of heights.

At least I was... but now i feel as though I have attacked that fear head on.  First was the Gloucester Tree in Australia. Climbing this massive tree with nothing but a bit of rebar and no safety of any kind was an accomplishment that I will never forget the feel of.  Since then I have stood over waterfalls, climbed mountains and ice, and now I have gone to the extreme and jumped out of a plane.  As the plane rose for 20 minutes climbing to our jump height I expected a crippling fear but found only slight resistance and a genuine curiosity within me.  For one brief moment as we exited the plane my face turned to terror. Seventy seconds in free-fall offered the chance to feel terrified as I plummeted towards the earth but instead I was filled with excitement, accomplishment, and probably my fair share of adrenaline. 

"The appropriate response

to reality is to go insane."

~Philip K. Dick~

When We Watched Whales

I had a week off of work to go explore what remains a mystery to me on South Island. First I traveled with some ski field friends to Christchurch to pick up Kat and to see the Mumford and Sons concert.  They are one of my favorite bands at the moment and put on an amazing show for us all.  Then we drove north along the east coast to Kaikoura.  The next four photos depicts some of the beauty found along the east coast.

An angel wearing white as the snow topped mountains.

(Kat Eatough)

Kaikoura is a breathtaking scene surrounded by snow-topped mountains with pure blue ocean water stretching out beyond.  There is a gigantic deepwater trench offshore by only 20 km.  It is deep enough that Giant Squid live in the abyss and their predators, the Sperm Whales, live here year round to hunt them.  There is also a mixing of warm northern waters with the cold antarctic currents... reminds me a bit of Shark Bay though two more different habitats would be difficult to find.  

Sperm Whale Diving

Only Mountains can make this Sperm Whale look small

For these reasons Kaikoura is one of the best Whale and Dolphin Watching places in the world.  They have a 98% success rate for the whale watching tours and you can see anything from Sperm Whales, Killer Whales to even the occasional Blue Whales.  On this tour all we saw were Sperm Whales, Dusky Dolphins and Fur Seals.  The ocean is just teeming with life and a place like Kaikoura brings it to the forefront of our minds. Perhaps that is why I draw the connection between this place and Shark Bay.  This is also one of the few regions where you stand a good chance of witnessing an Albatross on wing or possibly even at their breeding ground.  Only once before have i seen this on Isla de la Plata, a small island off the coast of Ecuador near to the Galapagos Islands.

A small pod of Dusky Dolphins.

Kat and I went swimming with the dolphins and as cheesey as it may seem I would highly recommend this.  These are 100% wild dolphins with a curiosity to parallel our own.  We ended up swimming in a super pod of over 100 dolphins!  One dolphin in particular took an interest in me and we swam all about just testing each other.  Entering into their world is something many people dream of but will never understand until you actually get the chance to do it.

Know for there acrobatics this playful little dolphin shows off.

We left Kaikoura with a feeling of connection to the natural world and as we drove further north along the coast we stopped at a Fur Seal Nursery.  It was a place where the babies can go up onto shore and be a bit more safe from the predators of the ocean.  Here they play underneath a waterfall and develop those social skills necessary for a life among their kind.  It is an heart warming scene to watch them flop about exploring their immediate world.

A moment when I felt like David Attenborough

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts."

~Bertrand Russell~