Adventures in Catton hunting (and discovering which glacier is right for you)

We should first start by congratulating everyone on surviving the most recent apocalypse threat. We can't deny that we found ourselves slightly caught up in wondering at what time all the world's volcanoes would simultaneously erupt as we approached the looming end of the Mayan calendar, but, like Y2K, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the "coming out" episode of Ellen, we all woke up to find out that the world was spinning as usual. Next on the horizon: Fiscal Cliff triggers Yellowstone Super Caldera.

When we last left off, we were spending a few rainy days in Franz Josef Glacier. The tiny village of Franz Josef is going through a pretty rough patch currently. Now neither of us are glacierologists (at least not officially), but we can sum up the current problems of this village for all the amateurs out there. Basically, the economies of the towns of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier are centered primarily around glacier tours. These can be guided hikes, where a guide leads a group up the adjoining cliff side then onto the surface of the glacier, or heli-hikes, where a group is loaded into a helicopter and flown high onto the glacier, where they then embark on a similar guided hike. You can guess which is more economically viable and thus more popular among tourists. Well, recently the terminal face of the Franz Josef Glacier collapsed, and the NZ Department of Conversation deemed that for the time being, guided hikes are not safe, and therefore only heli-hikes are allowed out of Franz Josef. Well, that's devastating enough for the local business. But to make it worse, the glacier terminates in a rain forest, where helicopter flying weather is never a guarantee. We arrived in town during such a stretch of "no-fly" weather. It was a real bummer. Lucky for us, our hostel had wonderful spa facilities where we could beat the rainy-day blues:

It was comforting to know that know that none of the nude people would bring drinks into the hot tub.

We weren't about to let a little soggy weather dampen our visit, so we set out to explore the area. Even though hikes onto the glacier are currently prohibited, you can still enjoy the 45 minute walk up to the terminal face, so we decided to check it out.

Even on a gloomy rainy day, it was an incredible sight to see: miles of ice dropping out of the clouds, grinding and carving a valley out of the mountains. Feeling energized by our early afternoon hike, but not ready to call it a day, we decided to hop over the pass to the next town over, Fox Glacier, and scope out the scene. Fox Glacier is an even smaller village then Franz Josef, but it feels bigger because it sits among wide pastures that open up all the way to the coast.

For whatever reason, it was a nice sunny day on the Fox Glacier side of the pass, so we grabbed some ice cream and enjoyed the sunshine. As we were sitting outside of the grocery store, we observed a bus from Fox Glacier Guides pass by, and we decided that the time was right to track down a rare breed of human beings: a Catton!

As many of you know, we have a dear friend, Ben, who worked together with us in Wyoming for 5 years. Well before we came over here, he informed us that his baby brother, Eli, was working in Fox Glacier. We had been in touch with him, and were planning on meeting up with him in a few days, but since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to see if we could catch him at work. Well, it didn't take long. As soon as we walked up to his work, we found him outside, hanging up wet pants.

 

We had a great time hanging out over dinner, and before we parted ways, we made plans to return the next day and camp out in his yard, with the prospect of our own glacier tour with a pro by the end of the week. So we came right back, enjoyed the company of Eli and his girlfriend, Jessica, and their two roommates, camped out in the yard, enjoyed Jessica's delicious cooking, went for a picnic on the beach, went on a few hikes, and soaked in the surrounding beauty of the Southern Alps. We quickly grew fond of the area and all it has to offer.

Despite the apocalyptic front that moved into the region on the day the world was meant to end, we survived the 21st of December. The world was sunny and full of promise again the next morning, as our newest Catton friend bravely led us on a glacier adventure!

 (full details on that to come at a later date)

We had such a great feeling about the place, that we decided to stick around for a while. So we went out and got some jobs and our own place to stay (because it's just that easy, right?). We start work on the 27th in our new home for 2 months, but before we start getting our hands dirty, we decided to treat ourselves to a Christmas vacation in one of New Zealand's top destinations, Queenstown! So that's where we'll leave off for now. We'll pick up with our glacier hike, and perhaps some of our upcoming adventures in F&B! Happy Holidays!