Dad visits, we go to Iceland

Seeing as I haven't made it back to NZ in 3 years now, my Dad decided he would have to come visit instead. So he spent a week with us in Scotland, sightseeing by day and seeing various festival shows by night. I only had a week's leave left, so he asked where we would like to go that we haven't been before. The answer, ICELAND. But first a weekend in the fantastic little West Coast town of Oban.

Here Dad and I practice our windswept and interesting looks by the sea.

Looking down on Oban, the ferry to Mull arriving.

So why Iceland? Jo's love of Bjork combined with my love of ice? What we got was a unique and always interesting landscape, where geological processes were both immediate and obvious. The cliche of a land formed by fire and ice was always to the fore.


First we went on a bus trip from Reykjavik over an alien looking lava and moss landscape to the geothermal power plant supplying the city with hot water and electricity, generated from steam from the ground. This makes hot outdoor swimming pools viable, the only way I can see of making winters here tolerable!
We also visited Gysir, with its mineral pools, bubbling water and well, gysers. Gullfoss (above) an icecap-fuelled waterfall, and Thingvellir, a rift valley between the North American and European continental plates.

We then took a bus trip along the South coast passing several spectacular waterfalls coming over coastal cliffs.
We stopped at Skaftafell, a national park at the edge of the countries largest icecap, Vatnajökull. Walks up beside the glacial tounges protuding down to the coast only gave a glimpse of the vast size of this icecap.



More cool coastal cliffs.

And the best way to start/end a trip in iceland is with a soak in the Blue Lagoon, a mineral hot pool set in a surreal lava landscape. My skin hasn't been as soft since Chad's birthday party.
More photos here.