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Saturday 7.30 pm
Now in Te Anau, a couple of hours from Queenstown. Did a day trip to Milford Sound today, meant to be the number 1 thing to do here, unfortuantly the weather wasn't good for it. Was really nice on the bus journey out there, cold but sunny and blue skys, just before we got on the boat it clouded over and started to rain, so havn't got any good photos, will have to buy a postcard or two. It was a two hour cruise up through to the Tasmin Sea, would have been lovely in the sunshine. In the Fjordland area now so lots of huge lakes everywhere. On the way down the driver during his commentary pointed out some cows and said they were nearly ready to milk as they had turned more white than black, once milked they go back to black! I was the only one who started laughing, maybe everyone else believed him! He started chatting to me then, his aunt and uncle live in redruth!when on a boat was talking to a lady from Auckland, she asked where i was from, she was in Redruth last year researching her family tree, was also talking to a girl on the bus the other day who's parents now live in Lanner - small world!
Wednesday - Had another early start, the Nelson hostel provided free breakfast so had to get up extra early for that, better to eat their cereal rather than mine, It is costing between 8-10 pound a night for accomadation and some of the hostels have free extras like the breakfast. Wednesdays trip was Nelson to Greymouth, really cold and blowing a gale, stopped off at Cape Foulwind, which looked very much like the Cornish Coastline then Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, which were amazing, even better in the wind and rain i think. The Greymouth hostel was the best yet, free cream cakes on arrival, extra blankets AND a HOT WATER BOTTLE, needless to say i used mine. We went to an all you can eat BBQ that night, was a bit disappointing really, just sausages, pasta and salad, but for 2 quid can't really complain.
Thursday - Worst day yet, the news said its the Coldest in 30 years, the journey was Greymouth to Franz Josef, where there is a famous glacier, i had to buy myself a hat, resisted the strong urge to get gloves too. Walked up near to the glacier with Joyce, the dutch girl i did the abel tasmin with, it was so cold, i actually couldn't feel my hands when we got back to the hostel, didn't even get any decent photos of the gracier as the weather was so crap. That hostel had a free sauna so i went in there for 10 mins to thaw out which was nice, spent the rest of the evening in the lounge area in front the fire - just like home!
Yesterday was Franz Josef to Queenstown a really long day in the bus, pickup was 7.30, stopped at Lake Matheson which is famous for being a mirror lake, but it was too windy for us to see the full effect, also stopped at lake wanaka for photos, the lakes are huge, we arrived in queenstown at 6.30, quick check in then went to meet Joyce for a meal as wont be traveling together anymore as she has longer here than i do, had a nice chicken pasta, better than 2 minute noodles! She got a bit upset saying bye, didn't realise i was that nice! i've got an invite to stay with her anytime i'm passing Amsterdam!
Moving on again tomorrow, no time to stop anywhere lots to see - a lie in would be nice though!
Hope everyone is okay,
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