Every we go, it's gorgeous

After yesterday’s glorious trek up a mountain, it only seemed fitting to attempt another hike in our next city, Fox Glacier. There wasn’t much selection according to the info centre, so we embarked on a short 1.5 hour hike around a lake. Turns out it was through a rain forest which was pretty cool. Fox Glacier gets 7 meters of rain every year. Is that nuts or what? Fortunately we picked a rare sunny day. The vegetation here is so rich and luscious. It’s amazing to see trees and shrubs and flowers that I’ve only seen in picture books. The rain forest is pretty cool.

We were still full of energy after the short trek, so we decided to find the beach.

The ocean was intense. There wasn’t a soul to be found. The waves were pounding and ferocious, the roar almost deafening. You couldn’t swim in these crests if you wanted to; you’d drown in a second. It was beautiful. Of course we forgot a camera. There was a spectacular view of glaciers behind the ocean, so we still lament the camera oversight.

A sign promised us that a 3.25 hour trek would take us to a seal colony. It was getting late in the day, but visions of cute baby seals took over, and all I had to do was mention the words and the fellas were game. Enamored with the idea of a 3 hour hike on the sandy, isolated beach, Jamie decided to leave his shoes behind. We started walking, the violent waves somehow producing a thought-provoking and calming effect.

But soon we were lead right into the rain forest. Don’t get me wrong; the scenery was great. But Jamie had no shoes. With every step we heard, “ah,” “ouch,” “that one hurt”, “hey guys, wait up! I gotta get the prickers out of my toes!” It was slow going. I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. Jamie trekking through the rain forest in bare feet. Priceless.

Walking through rainforests

We hadn’t anticipated the physical effort of this trek, nor the time (we had found by this time that the Kiwis always way over estimate time, so we didn’t buy their 3.25 hour timeline. This is the only time they were right!) But the vision of a real live wild colony of seals kept us going.

We finally reached our destination! But where were the seals?

We walked along the beach for quite a while, until we saw something. I was convinced it was a rock. Jamie was certain it was a seal. Turns out we were both kind of right. It was a dead seal, flies buzzing around it’s head like the paparazzi to a movie star.

We did see another one a little further down the shore, and thought it was dead as well until we saw its arm twitch. It was sleeping. Lazy seals! Where was this playful colony I had envisioned?!

Finally I saw one awake, hiding behind a rock. Alas, my chance to see a wild seal live and up close! I went up to it and commented, “Aww, he’s so cute!” I got up even closer to see his adorable little face and whiskers, when suddenly, “GRRRR!!!” The thing bared it’s teeth (and they do have fangs) and growled at me. I screamed and jumped back. Of course the boys had no sympathy for my pounding heart. “You don’t go that close to a seal and expect nothing to happen, Denise. Come on, now. What did you think was going to happen?” Point taken, James.

We were so thirsty by that point, and daunted by the prospect of the trek back, we pilfered some water from a fresh waterfall. It was quite possibly the best water I have ever drank.

We made it home, and crashed into bed and slept like the dead. Well, not really, because Zeek snores.

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