Westcoast & Franz Josef

Welcome to the West Coast,

and welcome to my first stop: Ship Creek & Tauparikaka Marine Reserve. A shipwreck was found here and the story behind it is on display. In addition, the beach and part of the sea have been secured as a marine reserve.

I walked a little along the beach and enjoyed the sun. After this further stop I then headed to my next accommodation. When I arrived in Franz Josef I explored the great campsite and, as is possible, I stayed on Hobbit Lane. Everything in the campsite was green and I had the feeling that I was camping in the middle of the jungle.

The next day I visited the Kiwi Center and attended a jade carving workshop.

The center is doing a really great job of reintroducing kiwis to New Zealand and increasing their numbers. I even saw a kiwi in life (and alive) that was about to be released into the wild. They are really very fast on their feet and almost impossible to spot in the dark. I also learned a few facts about kiwis and the female kiwis are just too crazy animals because they carry eggs that make up a large part of their own weight. It would be comparable to a human baby if a woman carried a 4-year-old child. Simply CRAZY! The male kiwis do most of the brooding and shortly after hatching the young leave the nest to hunt themselves. In order to protect the young kiwis and other native birds, New Zealand has launched a project that aims to make NZ predator-free by 2025. Among other things, poison is used for this, which the birds are not interested in eating. However, there are some problems associated with the use of 1080 and therefore there are some voices in the country that want to ban it.

The center also explains how glaciers work and how the mountain range affects the weather in New Zealand. Very informative and beautifully visualized.

After my visit to the center, we went on to jade carving. The group in the workshop consisted only of women and it was really fun to exchange ideas and opinions with other women and talk about how the piece of jade should be turned into a necklace. The organizer was a New Zealand woman of about 60 who can only be described as quaint and I have to say that a little more information in advance about the possibilities in the workshop would have been really nice. Unfortunately, all of my ideas could not be realized as I had imagined. My necklace turned out very beautiful nonetheless and I am looking forward to showing it to you.

Afterwards I went back to the campsite for a delicious dinner and the next morning I went on another hike to admire the Franz Josef Glacier.

I'll show you some pictures in the next post.

Your Britta