"No Show" baggage

Its bound to happen even with my minimal baggage ;-(. I've arrived at Hamilton airport at 4pm on my way to Waitomo and behold my only piece of luggage is not here!!! Its a darn carry on but with the smaller plane I was forced to check in the bag!

Waitomo village is where I will be doing abseiling and cave tour called "The Lost World - 4 hour tour" tomorrow morning. I'm trying not to panic and hope its on its way with the later flight this evening (~10pm). I leave for Auckland tomorrow afternoon and that's my last day in NZ so lets pray that it will get here. With only the clothes on my back and my backpack, I'm a bit nervous if my bag would show up before I leave the country monday. Adding to my anxiety is that I still have another month of travel to go...yikes! Wish me luck.

Journey to the glaciers - Part 2

The glacial hike was worth the hype! I love getting a good hike and being rewarded with an amazing view at the end, this certainly fills my needs for adventure and a good workout. This was a half day hike (9-2pm) which starts off walking through patches of rain forest to the valley floor where the Franz Josef glacier ends and flows to varies streams afterwards we climbed the glaciers themselves. A somewhat strenuous hike with a range of climate changes (rain forest to open valley to glaciers). It was very, very cool. I just have one minor complaint + suggestion to the Franz Josef glacial guide company...get smaller boots...I had to wear three pairs socks to fit into their boots which left me with a blister!

There's also a cool story behind the glaciers. It was named after Emperor
Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer, Julius von Haast in 1865 (Haast wanted to get on the good side of the emporer, he did!). The Māori name for the glacier is Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere ('The tears of Hinehukatere'), arising from a local legend: Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Tawe, to climb with her. Tawe was a less experienced climber than Hinehukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche
swept Tawe from the peaks to his death. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier. (Legend is taken strait form wikipedia...I didn't want to blotch the romantic legend).

I'm gathering that I must have my "Americano" radar on because of all the people I keep running into and chilling with are folks from the states. On this hike were a few boys from Ohio + South Carolina and a "super cool" woman from Utah (Kamie). There was a total of 28 people in the group hike, we got split up into two groups (one in front, more confident and 2nd group, less confident). Myself and Kamie decided to stay in the 2nd group after no one else volunteered, it turned out to be a good decision because the slower group gave us tons of ops to take pictures and record videos (which I can't wait to share with you guys). After spending a good six hours together through the hike together, I was able to persuade Kamie to join me in the ride back to Queenstown. A very selfish move to have company since its a 7+ hours drive over 400Km...it worked out for her as well...made us both happy.
For this hike, I've decided to start recording events but haven't figured out how to link to this blog yet. Once I do, you'll get to experience my journeys...live! For now, here are some pictures.

in the rainforest part of the hike, took this picture then I realized the direction on the sign...oops.


at valley floor, all geared up with clampers on my the boots (critical for walking on the ice)


the axe used to carve paths on the ice...I'm just posing...only the guide does it

I've just ascended through a very steep stairway of ice to get here...very cool


After the stairway, I crawled through a hole and here I emerged