February 11 - Franz Josef to Lake Paringa - 101 km

So, what did I tell you yesterday?  Oh yes, we were heading south unless we decided not to.  We got up had a leisurely breakfast and headed out about 0845 (very late for us).

Franz Josef on a nice morning.

Franz Josef to Fox Glacier is only 24 km, but with 3 snotty hills that Gerry and Leddy know about from their trip.  We worked up the first hill, breezed down it, did the second one and then ran smack dab into a traffic jam on the third hill.  We passed a hundred vehicles or so (I got two offers to trade my bike for a motorhome).  At the front of the line we also had to stop because they were finishing off some paving.  Finally the traffic could go, but we had to wait for the end of the line, so all those vehicles passed us back.  Oh well.

We sailed into Fox Glacier town (guess what it's named after) and grabbed an early lunch.  We had made our day's objective in 2-1/4 hours.  

So, should we go or enjoy the day?  It was beautiful, but Fox is even smalller than Franz so it might be quiet.  Laura the slave driver made the decision.  Head off another 38 km to Jacob's Creek, where there was rumoured to be a motel.  We took a short side trip for a quick look at the Fox Glacier.

On the way to Jacob's River were 3 interesting suspension bridges, all one lane.  We were travelling through flat open fields next to the mountains.  We reached the motel at Jacob's Creek - it was only 2:30.

Laura the slave driver said, "Press on to Lake Paringa."  So off we headed for another 32 km.  The scenery was actually getting quite boring. We were travelling through a tunnel of scrub brush and swamp.  Then we rounded a corner and beautiful Bruce Beach appeared.  Note the two signs - the large one is rather worrisome (luckily no wind today) and the other one was salvation to Greg the Walking Stomach.  Smack in the middle of the beach is a takeaway wagon!  We had a nice break and some fish and chips.  The photo of the beach shows a lot of debris washed ashore.  Apparently the beach is usually cleaner,  but the junk was washed down the rivers by all the rain two weeks ago.

Next to the takeaway wagon were a pile of white beach rocks, signed by various travellers.  So Laura and I grabbed one and left our mark on NZ (see photo in the left sidebar).

 After filling our faces we trudged (what's the pedaling equivalent of trudged? Pudged?) on for another hour and sure enough made it to the Lake Paringa lodge where we are now.  Check out our neighbours - they are Kea, I believe (Rick, can your bird dog confirm this>)..  The one on top of my bike actually damaged my taillight by pecking at it, but it is still working (the light that is).






  And the last photo is a view of the lake.  I have found out that the long leafed Yucca-like plant in the photo is New Zealand Flax, which  is very common.

Tomorrow will be a short day - about 50 km to Haast, because there ain't nothing past Haast for a long ways.  Laura talked to a couple of fishermen staying here - they saw the sun rainbow we saw earlier and agreed that it means rain is on the way.

Laura just proofread this entry and for the record is complaining about the "Slave Driver" title - according to her I agreed to this willingly!