more icecubes and relatives

on the west coast of the south island it's always raining. that's why doubtful sound was so beautiful full of wildlife, plants, trees and other vegetation. also the franz josef glacier only exists because of lots-of-rain that falls down as snow high in the mountain and the valley functions as a funnel with the 200(!) meter thick snow pack being compressed into the valley and forming a long ice cube.

somehow in the first two weeks of the trip there was only one morning of rain. the family liked visiting the glacier so much that they booked a helicopter flight to see franz from close by. heavy rain was forcasted that day but the weather looked nice. the scheduled flight at 1pm got cancelled because the first clouds were coming in. the heli people advised to schedule for the next day but laurian wanted to move on, so it got rescheduled to 3pm. one more time the fam drove to franz j where tom and allard did two walks with great views over the glacier. when they got back, they heard heli's going so they'd all prepare for helicopter flight to what mette still called the big little ice cube.
the trip was fabulous. a helicopter seems so light and when it flies up the mountain and up a waterfall, it feels like you're in the middle of an imax movie. oh, no, the other way around: the imax movie is an imitation of the heli...

mette was only watching and didn't say a word. down below there were tiny spots of people climbing the glacier and a helicopter hovering over the glacier. and then, the top layer of snow appeared and the chopper skied onto it and everyone could get out. mette was confused with so much cold and got picked up by laurian. tom had shorts on and his shoes sunk in the snow so that in the picture it looks like he's bare feet.
on the way back to the helipad everyone was still very excited but allard fell asleep. too much excitement?

as soon as the helicopter landed, it started raining. what a lucky two days had just passed!
the trip was supposed to go up north so off they went. through the rain to a beautiful lake next to the road and the next day to a beautiful lake rotoroa - known for its eels that can grow huge at maturity. in an eel's life maturity is 90 years - 11k off the road in the rain and as soon as it stopped raining, full of sandflies, more than anywhere. sandflies are like small normal flies but they sting. they are slow, so when you feel them you can kill them instantaneously but if they sting, they leave a itching red spot that can turn into ugly wounds when you scratch. mette had two stings on her cheek, allard a few on the top of his head, laurian a few but didn't scratch and tom had 40 on each shin down to his foot. no fun.
by the way, a great new zealand invention is suncream and insect repellant in one!

off to further north (north is good in the southern hemisphere) to pohara where it wasn't supposed to be raining anymore and where tom's distant relative mieke gilligan-voute was living.
even there it rained and tom and laurian checked into the holiday park that mieke and her husband barrie sold 6 years ago. there was a speed sheep sheering event and wood cutting at the pub nextdoor but unfortunately they were just handing out the prizes when the whole family arrived.
tom found out that mieke and barrie lived in 5 minutes walking distance so he figured to meet up, he'd call the next day when it was really supposed to be good weather again.
that evening brother jan reinier sent him a text message:
"where are you?"
tom: "at pohara, mieke and barrie's town"
the next morning jan wrote: "did you meet them yet?"
before tom could write a reponse, a car pulled up with mieke getting out, which totally surprised tom.
then he saw rising from under the front seat window nephew hugo and then from under the back seat window his brother jan. it turned out jan had had dinner at mieke's and stayed at their front yard the night before!

newsflash on allardje: he can roll over so where he used to sleep anywhere on the double bed, he now has to be laid away from the side.