The Fox

November 24, 2010

I woke up this morning still at the hostel in Greymouth.  I was nervous about packing up, getting out by 10 am and what I was going to do with my morning.  I was also nervous about going to Fox Glacier.  It sounded so small and I was nervous about meeting Chris, the GM of the hotel.  I was worried that maybe I got something screwed up again like I had with the original dates.  But I just kept going.

I went to Greymouth and visited a photo gallery.  The girl working in there was so sweet.  She asked all about me and showed me pictures of some of the places I was heading to.  She recommended a coffee shop in Greymouth too.  

I love talking to New Zealanders.  They have such an endearing way of talking to a person that makes one feel so loved and welcomed.  It’s more than that though.  It’s a sense of being accepted, appreciated, and comforted.  Their words are very comforting.  I love when a stranger calls me luv or darling.  It’s just wonderful!

I took her advice and went to the coffee shop.  I had never noticed it before really and I’ve walked through downtown Greymouth countless times!  The cafe is called DP: One Cafe.  It felt like a vibey Seattle coffee shop.  The girl at the counter had dreadlocks and it was all very funky. I noticed that the cafe was filled with working people.  I felt like I had found a local’s hangout.  Pretty soon I realized that while there were quite a few locals there were also a lot of the camera crews and newspeople.  They are in Greymouth covering the trapped miners.  

I sat on the couch and sipped my flat white.  I read a gourmet food magazine and people watched.  It felt lovely.  The cafe was warm with the sunshine shining through the front door.  I felt quite at home.  I love the moments like that that I’ve been having while here in a foreign country.  Moments like that go a long way to making this trip even better.

I love to be in places I’ve never been before but I also kind of feel like an outsider.  So when I have moments like that in a cafe or on a train or bus, I just feel better.  I need that mixture of adventure and belonging.

After the cafe I figured I needed to find something to eat for lunch because my bus was coming at 1:30.  I went to the grocery store but couldn’t find what I wanted.  I stood in line for a minute to check out, but changed my mind.  I didn’t really want what I had decided to purchase.  The guy in line in front of me talked to me briefly.  Then I left the store and walked back to downtown Greymouth.  The man who had been in line with me caught up with me on the street.  

He asked me if I lived in Greymouth.  He said he’d seen me around the last couple of days. I laughed and replied that I wasn’t surprised!  I figured people would start to recognize me.  He said I stood out because I was tall and gorgeous!  We had a little chat as we walked down the street and he left to go back to work.

I finally got to the bus station.  Now I was really nervous.  I had had that coffee and sometimes that just makes me more nervous.  I got on the right bus and everything was okay.  The first bit of the road was fine.  We even went over a one lane bridge that also had the train tracks on it!  (Can you picture this?  Cars drive on it in both directions.  They take turns.  But if there is a train the train also goes over the bridge so the cars have to yield to the train!)  But after a bit the road became very windy.  I had chosen a seat as close as I could to the front of the bus, but still I began to feel a bit car sick.  It was a tough 4 hours.  We stopped half way between and that helped.

I moved up closer to the front when we got to Franz Joseph Glacier.  It was around this time that I began to feel like an old-fashioned schoolmarm from the 1800s going out to a small community from the east coast.  You know how those stories go.  Some young woman is leaving behind everything she knows to go to a small, harsh community to teach.  Someone has come to pick her up at the train station and take her in their wagon to the community.  They tell her all about it and how much she’ll love it.  But she still feels a bit apprehensive.  This is kind of what happened to me.  The bus driver found out I was heading to Fox Glacier to work at Te Waheka.  He told me it was a great place and that I’d love it. 

I also started to imagine Fox Glacier as something like Glacier, Washington, where our family cabin is.  First of all, they kind of share a name.  Plus from the descriptions I’d heard of Fox Glacier it kind of sounded like Glacier.  

The driver dropped me off right in front of the hotel and I walked up to reception.  I was pretty nervous.  There was a sweet, Scottish girl named Caroline who greeted me.  Then Chris, the general manager, showed up.  He walked me around the hotel.  It has 21 rooms and all of them are named after a settler from the area.  He walked me through some paperwork.  He is letting me stay the first night here in Fox in a hotel room.  

This is about the nicest accommodation I’ve had so far beside Rachel’s home.  They are very nice rooms with nice amenities, but somewhat simple.  They don’t have a very warm feeling to them.  In fact the rooms are quite cold!  But beside that they are kind of plain.  Maybe that’s just this hotel or that’s the New Zealand style.  It might just be that we are so far out in the middle of nowhere!  The bathrooms are exquisite and have a shower and extra long bathtub!

Tomorrow I’ll move into the house I get to live in.  I’ll just be there one night because Friday I will go to Nelson.  I’m pretty excited about living in a house.  I’ve never shared a whole house before!  At least not with flatmates.  

For dinner I went to the very popular Cafe Neve. I ordered a small margharita pizza.  It was delicious!  This was the first time that I’ve gone out to eat at a restaurant since I’ve been in New Zealand.  I decided to treat myself afterward with a hot chocolate.  Yum!  It was also very good.  

By this time two ladies had joined me in order to free up a table.  They were finishing off their drinks.  We started chatting.  They were two very sweet sisters from the Netherlands.  I really enjoyed chatting with them.  We laughed and talked about travel, family, and what they’ve seen so far in New Zealand.  They were the perfect finish to my meal!

I walked slowly back to the hotel.  The birds here are beautiful.  I haven’t seen many yet, but I could hear them as I walked to the hotel.  They make such different sounds than any birds I’ve ever heard before.  They kind of sound like a cell phone or door bell.  It’s odd but beautiful.

When I arrived at the hotel (the first time) Chris told me that there had been another explosion in the mine.  They are no longer calling it a rescue mission.  I’m really sad about this, but I also have some hope that the miners might still be okay.  With God all things are possible.

Sorry for such a long post!  I had so much to say!