It was still very cool, and a lot of photographs were taken.
In case you can't tell, that last pic is a photo standee of a local ranger. Pretty realistic, eh?
We continued our walk, and saw some rocks where our Guide pointed out where the glacial scraping could be seen.
So, this photo is significant in that it had begun to rain a bit more at this point, so I was keeping my phone in the outside breast pocket of my rain jacket that was made just for this purpose. At some point after this photo was taken, we stopped, and our Guide was showing us some interesting flora, so I reached for my phone to take a photo of it. And my phone was not there. Trying not to panic, I started going through all my pockets, my travel purse, the pockets in my leggings, but it just wasn't there. I was losing the fight with the panic. Kira saw something was wrong and came up to me, and I told her I couldn't find my phone (which I was using as my camera and my trip planner and pretty much everything for this trip!) We were, *of course*, in an area with no phone reception! Because that would have been too easy. Kira said to continue on with the Guide and she'd backtrack to the last place I was *sure* I'd had the phone, which was the place where we looked at the glacial scraping of the rocks (I wasn't positive about where the last shot I took was). So she headed back, and we headed on, and I kept digging through my jacket and my purse and my pockets, still to no avail!
Kira eventually caught back up with us, but she had not found my phone. I was starting to freak out! We continued on, looking at the amazing bush/rain forest, and eventually made our way to the little parking lot where the vans were that were going to return us to our motorcoach. Several women from our group patted me down multiple times hoping that the phone had just slipped into a deep pocket somewhere, and they turned my purse inside out, but it just wasn't there. Folks even tried calling my phone, but could not connect to it. Eventually, everyone else loaded up to head back to the hotel (the rest of the day was OYO) and Kira and our Guide both returned with me to the path we'd taken through the bush for another try at finding it. The Guide (geez, I wish I remembered his name!) and I started at one end, and Kira went down to the other end by the glacially scraped rocks, and we headed towards each other to scour the route. We'd got past the area where I'd realized the phone was gone, and still nothing. I was getting pretty despondent. Then suddenly he sprinted up a little, then came back with my phone in his hand!!! It had fallen off the path, but he'd spotted the edge of it off the side of the road! He was trained and worked as a search and rescue worker, and was scanning the area looking for signs of a person as he was trained to do, and found it in a spot neither I nor Kira could have seen it. I hugged the bejeezus out of him, and we headed back to where we met up with Kira. Crisis averted!! All 3 of us were quite relieved, and of course, me the most!
One last photo of the glacier, because I could!
Our motorcoach driver had come back for the 3 of us, and dropped off our Guide at his office, and took Kira and I back to the Hotel, where I let everyone I saw know the phone had been found!
At this point, it had started raining fairly steadily. But I grabbed an umbrella and headed out to the main drag.
I needed to get some lunch, plus I wanted to check out the Franz Josef West Coast Wildlife Centre that
@Mathmagicland had recommended in her report. They had some rare Kiwi birds and other animals. It also seemed that it had a cafe, which was a good thing. It was not that far from the hotel (honestly, nothing in the town was), but it was down a very long driveway and it was very, VERY wet out! I made it to the Wildlife Centre, and headed to the cafe, which was pretty small and fairly busy. I ordered a meat pie and something to drink, followed by some ice cream.
It was a little mushed, but tasty!
I then went through the Wildlife area, and saw a tuatara, which is a reptile, but not a lizard (even though it looks much like one). It's endemic to New Zealand.
I then went to the area where they had 3 Kiwi birds.
The area they were in was dark with just a touch of red light, because the kiwis are nocturnal, and they didn't want to mess that up. So you had to stay in there for a pretty long while for your eyes to adjust, but after they did, you were able to watch the kiwis as they moved around. Sometimes all you could really see was their long beaks. I stayed in there for a good long time, and enjoyed watching them. A few other people came and went, and I'd point out where the kiwis were.
Continued in next post.
Hopefully there will be more while you're off enjoying the trip!!
Well those last 2 were never happening even if it was the most gorgeous, spectacular day in the Universe!!! *Maybe* the helicopter ride, but forget the rest!!
