Day 29: Franz Josef & The Glaciers

Monday, Mar 5th

It was nice to sleep-in or “lie-in”, as the New Zealanders say, this morning.

We had decided on 9:30 AM as our time to head into town and carry-on with our Franz Josef activities. Right on cue, Julie and the van arrived and in a few minutes, after another entertaining ride, we were in town and seated at The Landing for breakfast. Here our plan for the day materialized and soon after breakfast we were headed out in different directions. Well as it turned out, it wasn’t so different; we all ended up in the Westlands National Park visitor center but from there we divided into several small groups and toured the town, several visited the Kiwi Center where they saw real live Kiwi birds and some walked out of town toward the local river basin.

By 1 PM we were together again at the local bakery for tomorrow’s breakfast pastries and then settled into the bar at The Landings for a beer or other drink while we awaited Julie and our ride back to the cabins. Once back at the Franz Alpine Retreat we settled in for a restful afternoon and as predicted by the local weather girl, that would be Julie, the rains started.

This afternoon we got together for wine, cheese, humus and M&M’s with Peanuts in Diane and Greg’s cabin. Somehow joke telling began but what was obvious was that our memories are slipping, several of us, including me could get the old joke started but would soon realize that the punch line was missing or somehow the joke lines were out of sequence. Our ability or inability to properly tell a joke was probably funnier than the jokes themselves. Anyway the afternoon “tea” was a welcome departure from our norm.

Undaunted we headed back into town, compliments of Julie, this time with daughter Tasman, where we again landed at The Landing for dinner. We were treated to a great meal, quantity, variety and taste of food was good. A special of the night was the “dream weaver” lamb stew, but you will have to ask Chris about that. Again, good ice cream was available so we imbibed in that as well.

By 9 PM we were ready to return to our cozy cabins; Julie showed up, again with Tasman (who by Mom’s account should have been in bed but since Dad was off conducting nighttime fire fighting training she couldn’t be left home alone) to deliver us back to the lodge.

Side Note on Julie: I don’t think I can properly describe Julie but as I have said she will undoubtedly be one of the great stories of the trip. In this town of 300 full time residents, between she and Michael, her husband, they hold down any number of jobs. They are both in the tour guide and van driver business, she is the local EMT and he is the local fire chief, seems that they both assist the local police force (the active police force is likely composed of one person with Julie and Michael as back-up). Julie is also the local school swim coach and I would say, in all likelihood the town social director if they have one. Anyway, her demeanor, her sense of humor (e.g. living by the cow shed, the brother living in Tacoma, WA, the local stallion showing interest in her daughter’s pony, refusing to bring her son home from boarding school, her husband deciding at the last minute to conduct fire fighting training on a school night, etc.), the thick local accent and her customer friendly nature are what made her the story of Franz Josef. We’ll likely never see Julie again, but we’ll all remember the encounter as a real treat.