Off we go again - north along the Karawau River - where we saw the bridge made famous by A.J. Hackett, the Kiwi inventor of bungee-jumping. This is the bridge where the world's first commercial bungee jump took place - is this an historic place or what? A bit further down the road, we made a quick stop at Mrs. Jones' Fruit Stand - and loaded up on just-picked fresh cherries. Yum.
We went on to the nearby town of Cromwell, home of the most southerly vineyards in the world. We stopped at the Iwi Vineyard for a special 'wine experience' to learn about the wines produced by some of the 250 vineyards in this area. Pinot noir accounts for 85% of the grapes grown here, but we heard about other varieties as well. The first part of our experience was a visit to the aroma room, where we tried to guess all sorts of aromas that the experts say they detect in wine - fruits, flowers, trees, woods, hay, leather, spices - you name it and somebody's wine probably has a touch of it, at least in smell. The second part of our experience was a movie filmed mostly from a helicopter - to get a good look at the area and some of the featured vineyards. At each of our places in the auditorium, there was a rack of six wine glasses, all ready for us to taste and learn. At each of six stops in the film, we met the owner, who told us about his wine - how to look at it, how to smell it, and how to taste it. We tried Pinot Gris, Riesling (2), Pinot Noir (2), Block Chardonnay. Most interesting was the Reisling from Two Paddocks Vineyard - the owner was none other than Sam Neal, star of Jurassic Park.
From the wine experience, we drove on through lots of vineyards and sheep farms.
We stopped again at Lake Wanaka, supposedly the home of Shania Twain. Rumor was that she often wore a disguise to escape her admiring fans. We admired some gigantic trout in the lake and tried not to get blown away by the 40 mph winds.
We drove into Mount Aspiring National Park, stopping at the Blue Pools Track for a walk in the woods - in the rain. The path and its two suspension bridges lead to the junction of the Blue River and the Makarora River to form deep pools of blue, glacier-fed water - unfortunately, the rain somewhat obscured the color. Thoroughly cold and wet, we pressed on into the Southern Alps - tall mountains, one-lane bridges, rivers and waterfalls. Pretty impressive, even in the rain.
Finally, we crossed the Alps via the Haast Pass and we're officially arrived on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand - a place reportedly as wild and legendary as any in the American West. We came across the longest bridge in New Zealand and stopped for a short walk to Thunder Creek Falls, a 100-foot high waterfall that tumbles into Haast River. The terrain in this area is rugged, isolated, harsh - and wet.
Wayne pulled out cookies and a movie (World's Fastest Indian) to keep us entertained until we arrived at Franz Josef glacier in late afternoon. It was a long day's ride.
After a group dinner at the hotel, the hardiest (or craziest) of the group headed out (in the rain) in search of glow-worms. They are not really worms, but are small (about 1-inch in length) larvae of the fungus gnat. As darkness falls, they begin to light up. We found a colony of them on a fallen tree - the roots were covered with moss and the moss was covered with glow-worms. Even in the rain, this was a sight to behold.
By the end of this little adventure, we were seriously soaking wet - and cold. We hustled back to town, back to our rooms, and huddled around the heater to get warm again.
