Rainy Day

In the backseat of the car on our way to Fox Glacier.

We spent most of the day driving. Bob, Mike and I took turns. The roads are really windy and slow, it helps to take turns so no one gets too fatigued. It rained for about half the 5 hour drive. So far we have been pretty lucky with weather, it has only rained on the days we were driving. Most of the drive was through a rain forest. Yes, the glacier is in a rain forest! This area gets anywhere from 5 to 12 meters of rain per year which adds up to 200 rainy days. On our way into Fox Glacier we saw signs for the glacier but it was too foggy to see them. We had to have our picnic lunch sitting in the car along the side of the road. We might have even gotten lucky with the rain on the drive this created tons of waterfalls.





We arrived at the Homestay around 4PM. The town is about as big as Eagle Bend, a population of 300. The only reason this town exists is for tourism. Folks come here to tramp on the glacier. We stayed in the main house with the hosts. Mike was a little uncomfortable with this when we arrived. Now he has a new BFF. We spent a few hours with the hosts, they were able to answer Lindas one million and one questions she has asked us along the way.



They are so far in the middle of no where that getting groceries is a 7 hour drive (round trip). With all the rain there are lots of rock slides that close the roads.



Food and groceries are super expensive. Out of the few restaurants in town nothing was less then $22, and that was a vegetarian meal.

We have decided the Kiwi's are as nice as the folks from Iowa. They are very helpful and seem to be honest.