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After a lengthy day on the bus stopping at various beauty spots along the way and after dropping people off at the ferry port for the North island in Picton I arrived in Nelson in the late evening. Nelson is a picturesque city on the tip of the West coast of the South island, a lot nicer than Christchurch! The hostel I stayed at was probably the nicest so far in NZ, it had a pool and a hot tub as well as a volleyball court! My room even had an ensuite toilet and shower, I was well chuffed! Luckily the room only slept 4 people too so I was pretty much guaranteed a good nights sleep, something which I havent really gotten when sharing a room with 10 or more other people.
I was only in Nelson for two days as after looking at my schedule for my time in NZ I realised that time is tight if I want to fit everywhere else in. Why oh why did I waste so long in Christchurch? ha ha.. I went for a walk into the city centre as it was still only late afternoon and had a look around. After checking my emails in the library and grabbing some food from Woolworths I went back to the hostel to chill as I had a big day the following day.
The next morning I was up with bleary eyes at around 6.30am before the sun came up. I had booked a half day hike round Abel Tasman national park which is about an hour or so's drive north from Nelson. After snoozing most of the way over there with my hood up we pulled in at the entrance to Abel Tasman. After being given a brief explanation of the route of the walk from the ticket office I boarded the ferry which took me up into the park and dropped me in a bay about a 4 hour walk from where I was due to get picked up 5 or 6 hours later.
I set off on the walk around windy forest tracks and got a lot of great pics along the way, especially when the forest tracks lead out a bit a look out over the water. The fact I was so high up meant a lot of really good angles for photos. The walk itself was fairly easy after I'd gotten past a pretty steep hill at the start. After that it was mostly flat. I stopped partway and had some lunch and a rest in a little bay and watched a seagull try to swallow a piece of bread I had thrown him that was a little too big. I nearly had to carry out the Heimlich manouvere, he looked like he was in trouble! They're notoriously greedy so he was OK..
Later, I reached the end of the track and looked around a cool hippie type arts shop by the roadside that had loads of brilliant carvings as well as other arty type stuff for sale. I then had a snooze on a bench til the coach turned up before travelling back to the hostel. On arriving back at the hostel I found that I had a new roommate, a fairly ancient Chinese man. He looked like Lo-Pan from Big Trouble In Little China and he STUNK to high heaven. I'd spotted him when I was waiting for my coach to arrive in Christchurch a couple of weeks ago and he absolutely reeked. I'm not just being horrible, it would make your eyes water! I opened all the windows in the room and it didnt make a lot of difference. Some girls who were also staying in the room were visibly aware of the smell too as they kept making wafting gestures whilst pulling a face, ha ha I thought about changing rooms but was only staying for one night so didnt bother. I awoke the next morning and got up early to depart for Greymouth and found that Lo-Pan had gotten up before me (after sleeping in his clothes, ugh) and was sipping neat whisky at 7am, as you do. It must be the elixir for long life, who knows? ha ha
After spending most of the day on the coach, I arrived in Greymouth where I was to spend two nights. I had already heard that there wasnt a lot to do there but had booked two nights as I wanted to do some go karting the next day and it would be too late by the time I arrived to do it that day. Mind you, it wasnt so late that I didnt have time to go on the Monteiths Brewery tour along with a crowd from our bus. After getting a shower I got picked up and dropped down at the brewery. The tour was only 30 mins or so long but was interesting to learn of the brewery process and see the brewery in action. We were told something that I didnt previously know - green bottles let light into the beer which is bad for it. Brown bottles are a lot darker and do not let much light in, therefore keeping the beer tasting better for the drinker. Green bottles are all about marketing as a lot of companys use them as they just look better. I'm gonna 'go brown' from now on I think!
After the tour we assembled in the bar and were given a taste of the seven beers that they produce along with a glass of their crushed apple cider which is very crisp and tasty. So tasty that I sneaked another glass out of the pump when the barmaid went out of the room, ha ha. She saw me on the security camera but didnt mind as I wasnt the first to have tried my luck, ha ha
Afterward, a crowd of us headed down to the Railway pub for a meal that was included in the price of the tour. The meal wasnt at all bad but the best thing about the pub was that they do $6 jugs (about 2 pints) all night, every night! After 4 or so jugs I stumbled back to the hostel bypassing McDonalds on the way. Bad idea drinking so much as the next day I went go karting which was to involve a lot of getting rocked about all over the place! I got picked up and taken to the go kart track in the pouring rain which luckily had died off by the time I got started. When I say go karting, I mean off road go karting which luckily for me meant it was to be very messy as it had rained for 2 days solid up until this point! I was kitted out in full length waders that came up to my chest and other geeky waterproofs. I was also handed a hairnet (?) and shown to my kart. As luck would have it I was the only one on the track for that session so had full reign of the space. I did have a guide with me, Anthony, who was on a quad bike in front.
We set off and went round a small track at first to give me a feel for the kart. After this we took off onto the proper track which winds all the way up into the hills. After driving over some rocks we hit a bit of mud and them some more and before long I was flooring the kart through tracks that were so full of water they were basically canals. At some points the muddy water was right up to my chest and splashing everywhere, it was ace! We headed into the forest and along some tight windy tracks. On one particular corner, I had a bit of a prang! Some fern was obscuring my view and I could see a tree stump jutting out. I hit it with a bit of speed and bent the left axle of the kart. Oops! Luckily Anthony had seen it all before, said the spot was notorious for prangs and that they would just bend the axle back into place. I then had to drive the kart out of the forest with it pulling to the left all the time - not easy! Lots of backing up and messing about just to get out of there.
Anthiny had radioed ahead and another kart was dropped at a hill ahead of us. Thank god for new wheels! After having some lunch on the hill and telling Anthony some of my nightmare Land Rover customer stories (he is a car nut) we set off on the track again. This time I got stuck in a lot of thick mud and had to be towed out by Anthonys quad. At one point on the way back we had to cross a traintrack which was a bit hairy as I had visions of my kart getting launched by an unseen train. I arrived back at the kart centre and after taking off the waterproofs I found that despite being dressed up like a deep sea fisherman my clothes had still gotten wet! Still, I had a top laugh karting, it was a proper messy day out!
That evening I had my arm twisted into going out for $6 jugs again by Jesika, an American girl who I was sharing a room with. I was adamant that I was going to relax for the night but was persuaded otherwise. Jesika had just got back from 5 months in Antartica where she was a cook on a military base. The main route to Antartica is from Christhurch and she was due to go back to the US via Christchurch in a few days time. Antartica sounded amazing from what she told me, totally different from how I would have imagined it. We sat and discussed how much of an idiot George W Bush is and my plans for travelling in the states. As luck would have it, Jesika is from Seattle which is on my route and she said she wouldnt mind showing me around when I pass through there.
I got the coach the next morning to Franz Josef for 2 nights. The only thing I wanted to do there was to climb the glacier as I'd heard it was amazing. There didnt seem an awful lot else to do in Franz Josef and there was only one ATM too being a small town and all. After checking into the hostel and showering, I headed back to the glacier tour place to set off. After getting kitted out in all the gear and the 3 t-shirts that were told we'd need we got the coach up to the base of the glacier. From the edge of the path that leads up to the glacier base it looks quite near but is in fact a 20 min walk just to get to the bottom, the perspective of it is baffling as it's so damn huge!! Hundreds if not thousands of years ago the glacier stood where we stood at the end of the path but has retreated over time to its present position.
After strapping our crampons (spikes used for ice climbing) onto our boots we started the climb and walked up some steps that had been dug into the ice. As we climbed higher and higher the clour of the ice changed and became much more blue and vivid. You could even see little oxygen bubbles that were trapped in the ice, it was completely solid. After an hours climbing we reached our turnaround point ( full day hikes were available but I had booked a half days hike so only went up so far) and by this point I was glad that I had 3 t shirts on as the wind was really biting!! Just as we were about to start the walk down a Kea (mountain parrot) landed on the glacier and was walking about hoping we would give him a bite to eat. On the way down I got more shots of the glacier as well as the ice cave underneath. We werent allowed in there as sections of the ceiling regularly come loose and crash down. We heard a couple of pieces fall and you wouldnt want to be there when that happens!
I was really glad that I did the glacier hike, it has to be the best thing I've done in NZ so far. There are so many activities to do here, many of which I either dont fancy or are just too pricy for what they are. The glacier hike was worth every penny and an experience I wont forget in a hurry. That evening I cooked a curry, chatted with my roommates and got some much needed sleep!
The next day I chatted to Ciara online for a few hours and caught up on our weeks spent on opposite sides of the planet and then just chiilled with a book for the rest of the day. Like I said, not a lot to do in Franz Josef!
The following morning I travelled to Wanaka, a small town on the edge of a huge lake. The place was so peaceful that I just didnt want to do anything. So I didnt. ha ha. I bought a couple of bottles of wine, cooked some nice food and read my book for 2 days. It was good to just do nothing for a while.
After Wanaka came Queenstown where I spent 5 days but I'll type all that up in the next blog entry as I've already written enough in this one!
Laters!
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