Hey,
So eventful few days to talk about,
The day I wrote the last blog, I was meeting Sandy in Wellington...We went to the museum, then had a lovely Italian meal (first time I'd had Peroni since being away).
The following morning was an early one for both of us as we had to catch separate ferries across to the south island. I had to be up at 7am, urgh. Anyway, on the ferry I met Rob, who has been on our bus for a little bit but we'd only had a couple conversations...we spent 3 hours talking about films like Anchorman, Dumb & Dumber and so on...plus I had to teach him about how the league system works in English football (as he is a Canadian...which means the only sport he knows anything about is Ice Hockey) I had to teach him this as the Reading vs Cardiff playoff game was on live. Good game.
So the trip went pretty quickly, and on the other side I was reunited with the wolf-pack...and on to Nelson we went.
Nelson is known as the sunniest place in New Zealand, apparently it gets far more sun than anywhere else, and to be fair the weather was pretty good for the few days we stayed there. We booked a half day Kayak, half day walk at Abel Tasman, a National park nearby. Its absolutely stunning there, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, clear blue ocean and rain-forests...what more could you want. Spent the morning kayaking out to a couple of Islands and watching the Seals (while singing the lyrics 'And we'e never gonna surviiiiiive unless...we get a little crazy) every time we saw a seal....classic.
The walk back was awesome, and considering I'm not a big fan of walking, that says a lot. Oh, by the way, Hi-top white converse are not pleasant for walking in...I cut my tow and tore my heels to shreds...but at least I looked good.
Being modern day Indiana Jones figures, the wolf-pack decided to walk up to the centre of New Zealand, a pinpoint showing the exact centre of the country. Some lovely views, but not much more than that.
That night seemed like a good night to go out, so we did (we only had to catch the bus at 8am...so) Hit a few places with Rob, Zoe and Rachel - some cracking banter as per including a complete Air-Band...I was on drums.
So from Nelson to Franz Josef, there's an overnight stop in Greymouth...They (Magic) only recommend staying one night as theres not a lot to do for tourists, so we took their advice. We did, however do the one thing there is to do in Greymouth, the Monteith's brewery tour, which includes a meal and plenty of beer tasting. The tour itself was pretty boring, and you could tel everyone was just waiting for the bit at the end where you get to taste all the beers, and then pour a pint of your favourite to drink. The woman didnt seem to notice that I brought two glasses up to the bar each time for the tasters. Win. After pouring ourselves a few sneaky extra drinks, we went to the restaurant for probably the best meal Ive had since being away, minted lamb, caramelized onions, potato salad with rocket, and a burger...washed down with Monteith's finest.
The next day we boarded the bus again, this time with an even more painful head...
Franz Josef is amazing...the township is named after the big old Glacier that runs from the mountains down a valley..one of the activities there is to do a hike up the glacier...options being a half day or full day hike (or a helicopter hike if you're Bill Gates) we chose the full day and we were so glad we did. Although it was knackering, it was my favourite activity to that point...climbing up a glacier of bright blue ice, surrounded by rain-forest covered mountains with waterfalls streaming down the side...unbelievable...I was convinced I was at Alton Towers or something, queuing up for their latest roller-coaster. We squeezed through naturallly formed ice-caves (one of which I got stuck for a while, but managed to just about get through by doing a sort of hand-stand and diving through the small hole...then got stuck again because I was facing the wrong way...eventually got out, but with a nice ice graze on my hip) Our guide was quite the adventurous type, and took us through huge crevasses ( I think thats the right term) in the ice which is like shimmying between two huge ice walls with barely enough room to breath. It was awesome. In fact, we were the first ever people to squeeze through one of them, as they'd been waiting a while for the ice to move just enough to fit people through. Such a great day, recommend to anyone.
So the next morning I had a morning kayaking trip booked along with Rob and Sarah (Sarah was staying at the same hostel). Our instructor looked just like Oz from American Pie (we only noticed as we'd watched the film the night before) but it was a spitting image. Anyway, we kayaked across a lake and down an estuary, really chilled out morning, very tranquil.
That night there was a quiz on at one of the many pubs (two in total I think) so we went down, our dream team being Craig, Chris, Rob, Sarah, Matthius (a German guy from our hostel) and my good self. It turned out it was all about the 1995 Rugby World Cup...brilliant. None of us really had a clue so we resorted to giving the most stupid answers we could think of...my personal favourite being our answer to the question "Which French winger scored the most points in some game" to which we answered "Pierre Baguette Le Beof" or something along those lines. Obviously we lost the quiz, but we were given a round of beers and a rugby ball for our amusing answers. There was a free pool table there which we made the most of, and once the drinking became more heavy, the pole was also used. I wont go into it, just check facebook soon.
The next morning, Craig and Chris had there sky-dive booked, so they were already gone when I woke up. I was feeling rough, but as soon as I saw the view from the window it all went away...Clear blue skies over a snow topped mountain, right out the kitchen window...I decided I'd give myself a treat as it was the day before my 23rd Birthday, so I went and booked an 18,000 foot sky-dive, walked to the shop, signed the forms, got in the van, driven to the hanger, met with Craig and Chris, got suited up, got on he plane, flew for 20 minutes enjoying the spectacular views, jumped out, free-fell for 75 seconds, did a few back-flips, steered the parachute, landed, went back. Thats how quick the whole process felt like, although it was probably around 3 hours in total. But what an amazing 3 hours it was. Absolutely unbelievable.
Rob was officially inaugurated into the wolf-pack by this point, so he joined us the following morning to Wanaka, an optional stop-off on the way to Queenstown. On the journey down, we pulled up at a cafe...the driver said for everyone to remain on the bus as he needed to sort something out...then he said on the microphone "Is there a James Hampshire? (pronounced wrong)" I put my hand up and he said I needed to bring my I.D to the front of the bus because he needed it for a hostel booking..so I walked all the way to the front of the bus (as we were right at the back...cool kids.), handed him my ID...Then I realised what was going on...Craig had told him it was my Birthday, so the driver announced this to the entire bus (which was packed) that it was my Birthday and started the song...so embarrassing..I had to walk all the way to the back of the bus with everyone singing to me. Anyone who knows me well enough will know how much I hated this...but it was a good stitch up by Craig, fair play.
Got to Wanaka, an amazing lake with a small township...went to Salvation Army to mooch around and the idea came up that the lads will buy me a disgusting shirt that I was to wear that night. It was an old Asics cycle shirt, from the 90's...God knows how many people have worn it...I was also egged onto shave for the evening so I ended up going out with this awful shirt, and a goatee.
It wouldn't have been so bad if we were going to the cinema to watch Hangover 2...by the time we got there, Id forgotten about my appearance, so I was surprised when 50 people were staring at me as I walked to my seat. The film was distinctly average but there were a few laughs...I would give my full review here, but Ive been typing for 45 minutes...I think average sums it up. Anyway, out we went to a few bars, managed to get some free birthday shots, plus a 30 dollar bar-tab at one place. Really good night out, once again.
So that brings me to now, recovering slowly in Wanaka...planning to head to Puzzle-land or something along those lines...meant to be a good laugh.
I think thats everything covered, although with the amount hats happened I'm bound to have left some things out
Hope all is well
Jay
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