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Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier
Dec. 9th, 2005 06:20 pmWe saw some huge frikkin chunks of ice.
No. HUGE.
Actually, they're Glaciers.
In the middle of the mountains. You just round a mountain and BOOM! Ice.
The first one was Franz Josef Glacier.
The Maori name for it is 'Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere' Which means 'Tears of the Avalanche Girl' ('Hine Hukatere' means 'Avalanche Girl')
Hine was a Maori woman who loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover Tuawe to join her climbing the mountains. He fell from the mountain while climbing with her and died. The Gods felt sorry for her and froze her tears as a monument, which then formed the glacier.
Which is a much better story, in my humble opinion, than saying some Maori asked some guy in the mid-1800 if he wanted to see something cool. He then sees the glacier and in an effort to gain some bonus points decided to name it after the then current king of Austria, because hey, he's already got a town named after him several kilometres to the south.
We got to walk pretty close to it, which was damn awesome. Even if we learned to EAT before doing so. ~_~ Stupid hypoglycaemia.
Fox Glacier
Or 'Te Moeka o Tuawe', which means 'Tuawe's Bed'. This is where Tuawe fell to his death (Moeka = 'final resting place') and more of Hine's tears froze.
It's named Fox Glacier because in 1872 the Prime Minister of NZ visited the Glacier and decided to name it after himself. -_-
By that point, it was pouring rain, chilly and WET. >P
So we saw the big chunk of ice, agreed that we'd seen the big chunk of ice, forewent walking over an hour to see the big chunk of ice up close, got back in the car and went to Greymouth to spend the night.
-it's called 'Greymouth' because it's the mouth of the Grey River. ^__^ It's also the largest town on the West Coast, which means it's a small town, but it takes longer than a minute to drive through. ~_^
No. HUGE.
Actually, they're Glaciers.
In the middle of the mountains. You just round a mountain and BOOM! Ice.
The first one was Franz Josef Glacier.
The Maori name for it is 'Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere' Which means 'Tears of the Avalanche Girl' ('Hine Hukatere' means 'Avalanche Girl')
Hine was a Maori woman who loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover Tuawe to join her climbing the mountains. He fell from the mountain while climbing with her and died. The Gods felt sorry for her and froze her tears as a monument, which then formed the glacier.
Which is a much better story, in my humble opinion, than saying some Maori asked some guy in the mid-1800 if he wanted to see something cool. He then sees the glacier and in an effort to gain some bonus points decided to name it after the then current king of Austria, because hey, he's already got a town named after him several kilometres to the south.
We got to walk pretty close to it, which was damn awesome. Even if we learned to EAT before doing so. ~_~ Stupid hypoglycaemia.
Fox Glacier
Or 'Te Moeka o Tuawe', which means 'Tuawe's Bed'. This is where Tuawe fell to his death (Moeka = 'final resting place') and more of Hine's tears froze.
It's named Fox Glacier because in 1872 the Prime Minister of NZ visited the Glacier and decided to name it after himself. -_-
By that point, it was pouring rain, chilly and WET. >P
So we saw the big chunk of ice, agreed that we'd seen the big chunk of ice, forewent walking over an hour to see the big chunk of ice up close, got back in the car and went to Greymouth to spend the night.
-it's called 'Greymouth' because it's the mouth of the Grey River. ^__^ It's also the largest town on the West Coast, which means it's a small town, but it takes longer than a minute to drive through. ~_^
