Juneau

Tuesday July 9th

Today was the first day that we woke up and it was raining. However it was only lighty spitting and a jacket and umbrella took care of that. Of course I was zipped into my rugby ball so it was not a problem for me. We had a very quick look around the wharf side shops before finding the meeting point for our first tour. Once again this was a town with at least 30 high end jewelery shops. They all offer free gifts to entice you in and then they try the hard sell. Compared with China this it mild. Mary has learnt how to accept the free gifts and walk out. They must hate people like her! The first tour was a bus tour to the Mendenhall Glacier. The young bus driver was knowledgeable and gave an excellent commentary on the way to the glacier which was about half an hour away.

The trip took us along the Gastineau channel. On the way we passed by Gold Creek where gold was discovered in the late 1800s and the 4000 acre Mendenhall wetlands State Game Refuge.

At the Glacier we were able to do a self guided walk and then explore the visitor centre.

 Glacier viewed through the trees

 Large ice chunks  breaking off into Mendenhall Lake

 View from outside the visitor centre

Close up of glacial ice.

On the way back to town we came along the motorway. The bus driver told us there was only one exit, so it was known as “The Exit”, one fly over, known as “The Fly Over” and one bridge to the other shore where there was a settlement called Douglas and it was known as “The Bridge .

Junea is the capital of Alaska and has one of the bigger towns we have been to, but it is still small with a population of 32,000. There is no way in by road. You arrive by boat or plane. When Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska she reluctantly stayed here for the minimum number of days but complained about the weather. Apparently it rains 2/3 of the days in the year.

082 Juneau from the Air

We had time to pop back to the ship for hot soup and a roll for lunch and then headed out for our second tour which was a float plane trip over five glaciers in the Juneau ice field which is home to 40 large glaciers and 100 small ones.

Of the 5 glaciers we saw from the plane the Taku Glacier is recognised as the deepest and thickest glacier known in the world. It is the largest glacier in the icefield and the only advancing one/ The planes had not been going out in the morning so we were not sure if this tour would go ahead. It did and although it was dull, the rain had stopped and the clouds had lifted so we got some good shots. Mind you it was pretty scarey for a little kiwi that can't fly. Some of those mountains looked very close. Mary was always pleased when we were flying over the water as the plane had giant water skis on it and could land on a short strip of water. Float planes are used all over Alaska as water taxis. Most are single engine and they require a very short take off and landing area on the water. This tour operater was sending 5 planes all up into the same mountains at once!

 Our plane A DeHavilland Otter Canadian built to operate in rugged bush environment.

 Flying over Taku Glacier

Close up of the ice on Taku

 Hole in the Wall Gacier

 Close up of ice

 West Twin Glacier

 Ice Close up

We discovered the libray and it had fast wifi so Mary got some more blog up. Alan went wandering in the library and found there were no books at all on New Zealand and only two on Australia. Probably this explains why some people haveno idea where New Zealand is.

In the evening we went to yet another show in the theatre. There had been three African American guys with passports and bags getting on the ship in the afternoon and it turned out they were Horizon a Motown tribute trio. The show was fantasitic, especially when you realise that the show band would have had one rehearsal with them in the afternoon and then the evening show. The show band are so versatile. Sure they do have a click track to fill it out at times but they are a classy outfit. They play for all the shows.