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Bonjourno. Still in New Zealand. Its absolutely stunning here on the south island. We are currently in Franz Josef. Its the only area in the world where you have rainforest and glaciers in the same place. You can literally go ice climbing and sunbathing at the beach on the same day. Pretty amazing place.
We left Kaikoura, where I did seal swimming, about a week ago. We were back on the kiwi experience bus and heading to Nelson, which has the most sunshine hours of anywhere in New Zealand. Its a lovely sunny town during the daytime, however, during the night its a different story. One of our nights out a massive fight broke out on the streets right in front of us. It started in the bar, the grumpy mole. In England the police would have been there pretty quick, but not here. It continued for a long time. The lads wearing the sombrero hats seemed to be getting on top. And i thought New Zealand was a nice peaceful country. Not here anyway. Apparently, according to the chip chop owner outside the grumpy mole, these happen about twice a week. And its only the locals involved, not travellers. Must be where a few of the rugby stars come from, lol.
As i was saying, Nelson is a stunning place in the day time. On our full day there we did the hour walk to the beach, along the coast line, which was b-e-a-utiful. We also did the walk up a hill to the centre point of New Zealand. the hostel we stayed at was also a restaurant. So, in the morning, locals who had come to have their breakfast had the unfortunate sight of me lulling around in my boxer shorts in the middle of a dirty hangover. Think one of them started choking on his bacon sandwich. Maybe it was the smell.
The kiwi bus then headed to westport, apparently a town with few opportunities and wide streets, according to the lonely planet book. Well, its not like im gonna get a job there. Just want a good nights kip, after 2 nights on the Beano, with the nutters from Nelson. The night i spent here, i spent on the sofa, watching the jackal, american psycho and Any given sunday. I did manage to see a bit of the town when i got off my arse to get some pizza from the local takeaway. I did notice that the streets were wide. Spooky.
Finally refreshed after a half decent kip, the next morning the same bus load of monkeys and our driver Andy headed to Lake Mahinapua. Here we were staying in an old pub. The eighty three year old owner, Les, who is a ex all black, greeted us, with his great long beard. The kiwi bus has been passing through his place for the last 14 years. 7 days a week in summer time and 5 days a week in the winter. Every bus load has a fancy dress night out there. Apparently he hasnt had one holiday since. On the way, we all stopped off at a town to get our fancy dress outfits. The theme..... "what you wanna be when your older". We had wrestlers, tennis players, tarzan, a woman. Me, tom and Lee went as three old men. Tom was the drunk, fat old man, Lee was the dirty old man and i was the crazy old man. Lee ended up being an older version of harry potter as thats what everyone thought he looked like. The pics of the night out are brilliant. The walls are covered in fancy dress pictures from the 14 years the kiwi bus has been there. Thousands of pictures. Old Les is making a fortune. He recently turned down a 2 million dollar offer for his gaff.
The next day was terrible. I woke up on my bed the next morning still in my old mans house coat. The bus left at 9.30am. Its only about an hour and a half to our next place but we didnt arrive till 3 o clock. This is becasue we had about half a dozen stops. A ten o clock stop at the museum is the last thing you want on a hang over. So we arrived in Franz Josef yesterday, which is really stunning. Today we are just chilling out because tommorow we are ice climbing up the glacier. Cant wait. Then we are off to Wanaka, where im hoping to have a day of fishing. Then its Queenstown, the adventure capital of New zealand.
Bungeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (biting nails)
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