Thompson Gypsy Adventure

From November 2009 to September 2010 Tyler and Paula will be on a grand adventure. We have lent our house to another family who need a place to live while they are building a new house, and we have hit the road. New Zealand, Australia, Texas (!), Ireland, Scotland, England, and Japan are planned.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

From Fox Glacier to Wanaka

Friday, February 12, 2010  Driving from Franz Joseph Glacier to Wanaka

Leaving our accommodation in the village of Franz Joseph Glacier, we drove the short distance down the coast to Fox Glacier and walked up a nature trail to get a closer view.  Along several such tramps (NZ for "hike") we have encountered breath-taking suspension footbridges, just wide enough for one person at a time, passing high over a river.  Here is the one over the Fox river, being crossed fearlessly by our intrepid botanist.


I won't bother to take up server space to show you a picture of Fox Glacier.  Trust me, it's just another big dirty chunk of ice when you get right up to it.  Oh, what's that?  You really really want to see a picture of the famous Fox Glacier?  Well, alright.  Here's a nice closeup:


Further down the coast we discovered the beach along Bruce Bay where generations of creative visitors had made an art form out of piled rocks and driftwood.  The beach is naturally covered by a wide variety of colorful rocks, mostly metamorphic with all of the layers and veins.  Here is a sampling of the whimsical creations.  This one, of course, shows the most whimsical creation of all, the one in white, red, and black:





   


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About Us

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Midland, Michigan, United States
Tyler is a retired research scientist (PhD Chemistry, University of Illinois) who worked for The Dow Chemical Company. The last 16 years of his career he served as grants and contracts manager for Dow's External Technology program, involving Dow sponsored research grants to universities, government research contracts into Dow, and a variety of other industry/university/government research partnerships. Paula is a botanist with graduate work in plant taxonomy. She worked as a microbiology research assistant for four years while Tyler was in graduate school, then led a busy life raising 3 kids, gardening, and serving in a variety of church ministries and activities.