Hyperbolation

New Zealand/Australia, Day 3: Franz Josef Glacier

kara — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:14:57 +0000

be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!

Another early morning - lots of driving to do! We saw the hot air balloon again and lamented not having known about it to book it. We drove through the rainforest mountains of Mt. Aspiring National Park and stopped at the spectacular spectacular waterfall at the Gates of Haast in Haast Pass. It was about twenty degrees cooler down by the water, and I got a nice little rock for a souvenir. We followed the western coast up to glacier country and had beautiful views of white beaches and crystal clear water.

At Franz Josef glacier, Dad hiked to the base of the glacier while Mom and I took a helicopter to the top of the glacier and spent a few hours hiking around the ice checking out ice caves and streams and bottomless holes in the ice. Our guide was an American so we had plenty to chat about. The glacier hike was the experience of a lifetime - breathtaking!

Afterwards we drove up to Westport, stopping for dinner in Greymouth, where Dad’s meat was brought out on a hot stone slab for cooking. Later I noticed these places all over Australia, so that must be big down there.

march 9

kara — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:28:12 +0000

2010, a tuesday

scheduled an early movie with megan tomorrow so I will be forced to get up before 11. this is past ridiculous. anyway - worked out, spent all day cleaning and processing photos. ordered thai as a reward and am currently enjoying some coconut rice and mango, my faaaaavorite!

windows into the tenderloin

kara — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:02:59 +0000

via emma

march 8

kara — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:31:46 +0000

2010, a monday

worked out, worked on the website, sent out a big email to all of the players and am crossing my fingers! also, got surprising/quasi-flattering/distressing communique and don’t know what to do about it. bleh.

march 7

kara — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:56:41 +0000

2010, a sunday

slept late, went to lunch at the mercantile with my valley girls. had extremely slow, poor service, so much so that meghan and i had to bust ass to get to the grove in time to see ‘alice in wonderland’ with renee and terry. we made it pretty much as the previews were finishing. then, i went to elaine’s to watch the oscars. she had a lovely spread out as usual, including crack pie (which is INSANELY GOOD), and i brought snickerdoodle muffins. had a great day!

march 6

kara — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:10:49 +0000

2010, a saturday

worked out, did some returns, went birthday present shopping, saw renee’s play (she was great!). went out after to cat & fiddle with renee, terry, angie, tiffany and renee’s college friend dave. dessert was unsatisfactory, so renee, dave, terry and I went to canter’s. great, weird conversation ensued. finally left at about 2:30am.

march 5

kara — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:10:00 +0000

2010, a friday

ran errands, processed photos, made snickerdoodle muffins (AMAZING), made fish tacos, had a quiet friday night at home.

river of blooooooood!

kara — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:33:20 +0000

ok, not really, but this looks totally cool:

according to atlas obscura:

Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of “primordial ooze.” The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.

beautiful time-lapse

kara — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:49:33 +0000

The White Mountain from charles on Vimeo.

march 4

kara — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:41:32 +0000

2010, a thursday

went to see ‘the wolfman’ with megan g, went to lunch with her and maria and clayton, then went to the mall to use a gift card. did not find anything at the store where i had the gift card, spent too much money at another store (eeeek). met up with friends at red lion and stuffed myself with german food.