Gillespie's Beach and Galway Seal Colony

Its been nothing but rain and cold since I have been Fox Glacier, save for one day.  On this day I got out and went for a walk along the beach.  There had been a gold mining rush here in the 1930's and I followed a trail along to see some of the bits left behind.  There is an old dredge now overgrown with plants and further along a tunnel dug through a mountain and exiting at a cliff face to the ocean for what purpose i have no idea.

This was one of the most beautiful walks I have yet been on in New Zealand.  Starting on the shore you move along behind wind sheltering plants with birds flitting about and the occasional sheep scurrying hurriedly across your path. After a nice stroll to the gold dredge and a short examination just in case they happened to leave any nuggets behind, the path turns onto the rocky shoreline itself.  Walking along here is the chance to find shells and a most beautiful array of rocks including the culturally significant Maori Greenstone.

Upon approaching a bluff you turn inland along a milky rivers edge and cross over via a small bridge. This takes you to my favorite part of the walk.  For the next 20 minutes you will walk through a lush rainforest with a thousand different plants all around.  Behind you can hear the waves crashing against the bluff but muffled and distant through the canopy with a soft constant chatter of birds all about.  How I had missed the sounds of birds when I was up above the trees at Mt. Cheeseman.

This is where you then come upon the tunnel, no more than 50 meters in length though the end is nothing but a bright light shining through. The tunnel seems as much a doorway to another world as a miners excavation.  Water drips over the openings like a beaded curtain and heightens that mystical sense of finding something so out of place and hidden. About what is at the end of the tunnel? I will leave that for you to come to New Zealand and discover it for yourself.

A fair hours trek through a wet sponge-like path after the tunnel you come again to the shore and to the the Galway Seal Colony far along past the bluff.  It lies along an ocean facing cliff with cascading waterfalls every 50 meters till you come upon the seals.  I crept up slowly and quietly hoping to get some candid shots of seals in action.  Of course they were all asleep, laying out and sunning on this gorgeous day.  As I moved closer and closer for a good shot of the nearest one I heard a rock just in front of me move about suddenly.  Of course it was a baby seal that was laying so still I hadn't noticed it.  It was not frightened, only curious, as it watched me.  It's mother however was not so trusting. She lie just behind the baby and let me know that she was not amused so I backed off but not before taking a few quick photos of the adorable pup.

Snow to Ice

Backcountry in Tarn Basin (Kat Eatough)

My last weeks at Cheeseman were too short.  The snow was beautiful for the and of the season but with warming weather peoples minds turned back to the oceans and summer sports.  Suddenly we had too few customers to stay open and sights turned to cleaning up for the close.  Everyone became quite emotional at the end when we had to say goodbye to the many bonds that were forged on those slopes.

Now as I leave the snow behind me and look to the future I see ice up ahead.  A great wall of ice... or better yet, a river of ice flowing out of the those very mountains I have just come down from.  It starts up high with the snow falling in heaps.  As the days make their cycle this snow will melt and refreeze again and again compressing harder and harder together until it forms one great body moving all the way down to the valley floor with fingers reaching up to such great heights.  It is flanked by scree covered sloped that gradually take on vegetation as it descends until all around this glacier is a true rainforest.  I've mentioned this in an earlier post but feel as though i must reiterate the point that there are few places if any others that exist on our planet where you can find these two features living together side by side.

This Waterfall is over twice the height of Niagra Falls.

I begin at Fox Glacier Guiding on October 9th.  I am excited to begin and ready to learn all that I can about the glacier but for now I am busy exploring Milford Sound and up the west coast.  This is a great place if you are interested in the outdoors... and able to put up with the rain.  Living in Oregon has been great training for this type of environment and I am excited to become more familiar with the plants, birds and animals of the area.  And there are many; from Penguins to Keas, Cabbage Trees to Orchids, hedgehogs to bats.

During a few days in Milford Sound Kat, Kim and I had the chance to explore.  This is my second time  to this place and it is no less amazing.  It is actually quite deceiving because everything in the area is so grand and so magnificent that none of it appears to be at first.  Making your way around the Sound (actually technically a Fjord) the scale of it all becomes more apparent and slowly it sinks in how incredible this place is.  On a boat ride about the sound we saw dolphins bow-riding, waterfalls that flow upwards with the shear force of the wind blows through.  The next day we kayaked about, giving a more accurate sense of the grandeur.  The highlight of this excursion for me was when approached a beach to see 4 Fiordland Crested Penguins come out to greet us.  They bathed in the water and then all swam right past the boats porpoising as they went.  It was an lifting moment to witness from the endemic penguin.

These falls never made it to the water below. Instead they would only feed back into the clouds around them.  

Kim is excited about underwater life.

I miss SCUBA

The water system in Milford Sound is extremely unique consisting of a freshwater layer saturated in tannins leached from the plants all around.  This gives the water a black appearance from the surface like tea but meters underwater you can find the saltwater layer which is home to some wild creatures.  Because of the dark top layer it is possible for many typically deepwater species to live at a very shallow depth here.  One of the more profound is huge black coral trees (actually white in appearance). I want so badly to SCUBA dive this wild and largely unseen place, but I will save that for later.For now I go back to Fox Glacier and to set up my new home.

Lake Matheson looking toward Fox Glacier with Mt. Cook's summit on the right.

Mountains of rock

The Ocean

Kat and I

Phoebe and Johnny

This is by far the nicest place I have lived in over a year.

The view from my window with one of the many helicopter flights passing to the left.

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever"

~Gandhi~

The Undie 500

The season is winding slowly down up on Mt. Cheeseman but there may still be a few weeks left in it yet.  New Zealand is known for its spring snow and for a good reason.  The weather is warm, the sun is out, and the snow is heavy but soft, and the skiing is phenomenal.  Today we have been taking turns covering each other and getting out for runs on the cream cheese-like snow.  Without too many customers around on the weekdays now we are making the most of our time.

(Kat Eatough)

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Last weekend we celebrated the Mt. Cheeseman Undie 500.  A day where guests and staff are encouraged to dress in as little as possible and as creatively as they can.  This day includes a race down the mountain and because it was sponsored by Thermatec there was also a fantastic prize give away.  The staff was all over it this year and had quite a range of costumes.  I was super excited when they picked me as the costume winner and I was dubbed "2012 Mr. Undie 500" while wearing a Captain Planet costume I had made.


It was particularly cold day with sleet raining down on us as we booked it down the course in very little clothing.  Some dressed as wildcats, some as old women, some as super heroes and some as retro skiers.  One of our Swiss ski instructors, Fabio, made it down the mountain on a pair of skis from the 60's that are normally mounted on the wall in our lodge.  It was agreed that he was most likely the only person who could possible have finished a race on the pair of wooden sticks with ancient leather straps to hold his toes in place.  It was an impressive day to say the least and got everyone fired up.

I've got competition on my heels

Wildcats Tjeerd and Ueli

Tjeerd was most likely one of the coldest.

Phoebe,  Micky and I ready to race.

Next upcoming event is Pirate Awareness Day on September 15th.

Promoting Pirate Day.

A Short Break

Race Day featuring the sign I painted. 

On the few days off that we get every couple weeks it is important to get out and about New Zealand.  Important to get away from life in the bubble of Mt Cheeseman for just a short while to energize and refresh.  One of the most attractive features of New Zealand is the number of wild and interesting places in such close proximity to one another.  In just a couple hour drive from the mountain you can end up on either the flat, wide open plains of the East coast near Christchurch or in the midst of the moist, overgrown, mountainous landscape of the west coast.

The Fox Glacier

For my last endeavor off the mountain, I and a couple friends made our way first west.  We drove my questionable Subaru down the west coast to Fox Glacier.  This is a town built around the tourist interest  of walking on a glacier surrounded by rainforest.  There are not many places on earth that the two come together, but then there are not many place like New Zealand.  During my travel hitching around the south island with Adriana we came to spend several days in Franz Josef, a glacier town just a stones throw north of Fox Glacier. We skipped Fox only because when you hitch you must take what you can get and at the time we could get to Franz.  As it turns out Fox is a second home to many of my friends from the mountain and the reason for our visit was so that I could interview for the job of Glacier Guide.

From Fox we made our way down to Queenstown.  Queenstown is know for its nightlife, skiing and expensive prices.  Last time I was here I had no money, no transportation and couldn't afford the fun.  This time I was much better prepared.  One day of skiing on a mountain range named The Remarkables was nice but as it happened we picked the worst day of the year.  Normally the snow in New Zealand is a heavy, wet, coastal snow but here it was actually raining from the top of the mountain down.  IT didn't really put us off to much because we were just happy to be skiing some unknown terrain for a change.  

Once soaked through and through we headed back to town to taste the famous FergBurger.  This is a burger shop with a line out the door from early morning to late, late night.  We were skeptical about the Kiwi take on a good burger but they have proved themselves in my book.  This is one of the best burgers I have had in over 9 months of travel and i cant wait to go back.  Have I mentioned how Burgers are my favorite food?

Stone church on the banks of Lake Tekapo

After a second night in Queenstown we moved Northeast to Lake Tekapo.  Of all the scenic areas of New Zealand this is one of the most gorgeous I have seen.  The picturesque lake is surrounded by mountains and when framed with a few well placed clouds it makes for a great photo op.  

After this it was time to head back home and though we all love Cheeseman it was sad to end our short vacation.  We could all feel it on the ride back, that bittersweet taste of leaving something new and exciting but returning to the consistent and ever-welcoming embrace of home... or at least what is our temporary home.  On the way I got a call from Fox Glacier Guides offering me the position and I couldn't be more stoked for this next chapter.

Snow safety officer Ella stand over Lake Tekapo

Mountains to the North of Lake Tekapo

Ella keeps watch over the lake.

Picture unrelated to the story i wrote but... Kat has made it to the top of Mt. Cheeseman and carved all the way back down again.  I am very proud of my student.

New Snow On The Cheese

We finally got our snow!  Only about a half meter of snow but that has changed the face of the mountain from a rocky outcropping with strips of white to a full powder covered wonderland with only the occasional rock or two popping out.  Life on the Cheese is good but I am still looking forward to what is next.  Potential to be a glacier guide in Fox New Zealand or possibly a seasonal bio job somewhere about, maybe even head back to Australia.  It is difficult to plan the next step when I am busy having so much fun every day.  We are about halfway through the season and already I know how greatly I will miss my time here. As with Shark Bay and any great moment in my life this will forever remain a treasured place in my heart.  The type of place where I hated to fall asleep and couldn't wait to wake up.  Where every single second counted and every single second was filled with the purity of that moment, that specific moment.  Tonight, as the snow continues to fall outside my bedroom window I wonder what tomorrow holds for us all.  A new take on the world no doubt, a fresh perspective through once-again cleared lenses.

The new snow, looking up from the office

A few of the staff members with cheesy poses

The moon above our T-bar lift early in the morning

Five brave souls atop Mt. Cockayne on one of the iciest days of the year

Mount Cheeseman

The snow was heavy early on.

I have been up on Mount Cheeseman for three weeks now and not yet had the chance to write a post in some time.  I worked at a ski shop in Christchurch for a few days getting familiar with my role as Ski Technician before moving up the mountains to meet the other staff and to prepare for rapidly approaching season.  My main duties will be to rent out gear and to keep the stock tuned for use but in reality the work of one role on a small mountain becomes much more diverse than that.  I have been working in the Cafe quite a lot as well.  This customer relation type of position is very new to me and one that i had dreaded previously, thinking it would drive me crazy to deal with random people.  I have learned now that this is far from the reality of it.  As is often the case, my preconceptions led me to a premature and false conclusion.  It turns out that i love helping people solve their diverse sets of problems.  This can be anything from the daily binding adjustments on boards and skis to the more unusual and far more challenging task of picking the lock on the roof-rack of a car to free the skis held captive when someone forgot their key.  Only occasionally am i faced with problems outside of my skill set and will do my best to send them in the direction of someone who can help.  Even less frequently am i faced with the unpleasantness of a disgruntled customer.  It comes as quite a shock to me that this is a job i feel quite well cut out for and one that normally gives me great satisfaction in doing well.  However do take this with a grain of salt.  It has only been a few weeks so far.

Mt. Cheeseman glows at night.

"The core of mans spirit comes from new experiences"

~Jon Krakauer~

View from the Lodge

Living on the mountain can be spectacular.  The view from my room is unbeatable and the slopes are 50 meters away.  When the mountain is quite and customers few, I am able to get out for a few runs at a time which makes it all worth it... if it wasn't already. At the moment I am where I need to be and life is good.

Moving up the mountain.

The view from my room.

My Rental Shop

As time moves along the snow has melted to the bare minimum that would allow us to stay open.  Some creative grooming has kept our major runs in condition but we are all paying for more snow soon.  These pictures above are from the the first week.  It was a good start but we have had precious little snow since.  Everyone think cold thoughts for us that the snow might blanket our mountain in its powdery embrace once again.