After the free beer of the night before, it was an early wake up, as we had to be on the bus for 7, for an 8am ferry. None of us were really awake, nor were we enthused for the journey, which we were told could often be quite rough.
Thankfully, the journey wasn’t too bad, and we found a place to sit and have a nap before eating breakfast that we had taken with us. The weather also turned out to be quite sunny, so we went up onto the deck to see what the south island looked like.
the south island (and some boat)
The bat journey took about 3 hours in total, as although the distance is quite short, the boat has to go in and out of a lot of the small islands and sand banks around wellington and Picton, where we got off ont he south island.
We got off the ferry at about 11, and got on out new bus, which could seat about 40 people, although there were only ever about 20 of us on the bus at any one time. We were heading west to the national park, where we would be spending our next two nights. Before we got to where we were staying, Fiona and I were dropped off at a nearby airfield to do a bit of hang-gliding and microliting. Fiona went first for a flight in the microlite, which is a really small plane. It was then my turn to go hang-gliding.
I was with Barry, who could actually fly the hang-glider. Firstly I was given a big fleece to wear, along with gloves and a helmet. I was then put into a sleeping bag type thing, which is how I was attched to the glider. It was quite uncomfortable as the material was stiffened to stop me falling out! We were attached to the microlite, which towed us up to 1500 feet before we were released to float back down to the ground.
view from the hang-glider
Once the hang-glider was gliding, I got to have a go at steering. It was more difficult than I thought, as you have to shift your whole bodyweight to change the angle. It is also really difficult to go straight, as if you lean one way and then go back to the centre, you keep going the way you leant until you lean in the opposite direction and counteract the tilt. Once I had finally got the hang of it, we were nearing the ground, so it was back to Barry for the landing, which is surprisingly smooth and not scary considering how small the wheels were and how close we were to the ground!
After sorting ourselves out, we had a quick grocery stop before heading to Marahau, which is where we stayed for the next two nights. The hostel was an old converted tobacco drying shed, so it had really high ceilings. The bedroom that I was in was int he main part of the house, and had a gigantic bunkbed, which was 4 beds wide, separated by small screens. The bunks were really high off the ground, and had a 8ft ladder to get up to the top bunk, which is where I was for the nights. We cooked dinner in the evening before sitting around playing cards and chilling out, and getting to know the new people who joined us on the bus. There were some more english people, which was strange after spending so much time with so many irish!
The next morning we all had a lie in, as we had the day to do what we liked. Therefore, it was about 10 before any of us surfaced. We then had a lazy breakfast before getting the water taxi. We thought we were going to be picked up in a minibus and taken to the seafront where we would ge into the boat – but oh no. We were picked up in the boat that was also going to ferry us to the next bay along, which was being pulled by a tractor. We arrived at the seafront, and were given lifejackets before being towed into the water. We first went to see a few local landmarks including split apple rock, so named as it looks like the rock has been split in half. The story behind the rock is that the God of the water and the God of the land were fighting over who owned the rock, as depending on where the tide was meant that it was on both of their areas. In a fight one day, the God of the land threw his spear in anger at the rock, splitting it in two, and then they couldn’t fight over the rock anymore. We also saw some seals and a fairy penguin.
on the boat
We then sailed round to the cover where we were to be dropped off. There was no jetty, so we had to roll out trousers up and take our shoes off to get to the beach. I then didn’t bother to put my shoes on for about the next hour as we were mostly walking along the beach.
The weather was really nice and sunny, so walking was really good fun. The walk took about four hours in total, and was a really nice walk, with amazing views over the coastline. It only got cold as the sun started to go down behind the hill where we were walking. We got to see some really good views of Abel Tasman national park, and feel like we were doing some exercise in the process!!
We got back to the hostel just as it was getting dark (it was winter in NZ, so it got dark at around 6ish) after about 4 hours of walking. At the hostel there were outdoor baths, so Fiona and I went to try them out. They took ages to fill up as they were massive stand alone roll-top porcelain baths, but were really nice once we had got in! We sat in the baths until they got cold before cooking spag bol for dinner, and we sat around for the rest of the evening playing scrabble, where we did use a few non-scrabble worthy words to bump up our scores!
the necessary 'field and trek pose'
We left the Abel tasman national park at 9 to start the journey to Greymouth. Skins was in a much better mood, having recovered from the flu, so general mood on the bus was much better, and we drew on the windows again. The West coast of the island mostly consists of some very windy roads, which generally aren’t ever more than one lane in each direction and mainly single lane bridges. We first made a stop at a seal colony, but the seals were quite difficult to see between the rocks, where they were catching the few rays of sun! There was also a sign pointing in the directions of all some of the major cities in the world, and we were a long way from home!
We then drove further down the coast until we reached Punakaki, or pancake rocks as its more commonly known. The rocks have been eroded over time, and due to the layers of sediment, formed layers, which look like pancakes.
After looking at rocks that looked like pancakes, we had a bit of a pancake craving, but sadly, there weren’t any, so we settled for ice cream instead. We then continued driving to greymouth, where we arrived at about 5.
We checked into the hostel and then headed to Monteith’s a local brewery for a tour and tasting session. The tour was almost the same as walking around Hydes at home, but then afterwards we got to sample their beer and have a go at pulling our own pints. I even found a beer I liked, called Radler, which was basically lager with lime flavour and wasn’t that fizzy.
i look a bit excited here about pulling a pint...
After the tour we went to the local pub for dinner where we had a barbeque and some more free beer. We then partied the rest of the night away at the pub, and spent time laughing at a rugby team from christchurch who had gone out in fancy dress for the night.
We had to be up and out of our rooms for 10 the next morning, so we all packed our stuff and relocated to the living room before getting dressed and having breakfast, as more than a few of us were feeling a bit special. We had a lazy few hours sitting around reading and playing monopoly. Fiona was the best, being the worst out of all of us, and decided that the game of monopoly was a bit too much for her, so she had a nap instead. We left the hostel at about 1, and headed towards Franz Josef, a small town known for it to rain for about 300 days a year.
On the way we stopped to look for greenstone, which is similar to jade, I didn’t find any but one of the girls on the bus did. We also had a grocery stop before getting to Franz. We arrived at Franz in the evening, and chilled out before making a massive frittata for dinner, which was really good. We spent the evening in the bar at the hostel where there was a rock, paper, scissor competition where I made it through to the semi finals. The rest of the evening we spent watch the rugby, where the Wallabies were playing the All Blacks, which was quite a tight game with the All Blacks winning in the end, so everyone was happy. While watching the match a guy asked me if the chair next to me was free, which I said it was, which then followed with him asking me where I was from, as he recognised the accent. It turned out that Ryan was from Stanford, and his mum lived on third avenue. He also was in my year at school, but went to Gable hall so knew half the people I used to get the bus to college with. He didn’t go to palmers, but it turns out that he also had his leaving party in Jumpin jaks. He had been in NZ for two years having finished college, and was working as a tour guide on the glacier.
I left the pub at about midnight after the rugby had finished, ready for glacier climbing. We woke up early, as we had to be at the shop at 8:15 to go on the glacier walk, and it was raining. We got kitted out with waterproofs, hats, gloves and crampons before getting a bus to the glacier.
The Franz Josef glacier
The walk into the glacier took about half an hour, and I even managed to cross a river without falling in – which wouldn’t have been a good start to the day! When we got to the glacier we got to put our crampons on, which I had decided I would like for daily life, as I was just unable to slip over, it was amazing! The climb wasn’t too difficult as we had super grippy feet, and our guide cut out steps in the ice for us so we could climb between the many icy walls. As it didn’t stop raining, we didn’t really stop for lunch, just ate as we went along, as standing around for any length of time was chilly. We climbed up quite a bit of the glacier, and got some really good views, which were slightly hampered by the rain, so we didn’t really want to get our cameras out of our bags as it meant taking our gloves off! The ice was really blue, and just looked like we were walking in a giant ice cube, especially when we were in some of the crevices. We walked for about 5 hours in total, but were quite glad to be turning back, as we were starting to get cold, and as our tour guide put it ‘soaked down to the undies’.
Glacier tunnel
Once we got back onto the bus, we realised how we didn’t actually have any feeling in our hands or feet, so the hot chocolate on arriving back at the shop was much appreciated. We then ran back to the hostel, got changed and jumped straight into the outdoor hot tub. My feet actually loved me for being warm, and we stayed in there for ages, even though it was raining. Eventually we psyched ourselves up enough to get out and get showered and do some washing. We ate dinner in the pub, where we remained for the rest for the evening. We got free shots and jagerbombs form the bar, so even though we were ll shattered we stayed at the bar until about 1.
We were on the bus for 9 in the morning, and the majority of us sat down and went back to sleep fr a few hours, as it was still raining so we couldn’t see much out of the windows. We stopped off at some waterfalls on the way, and did a few short walks when the rain let off for a bit.
Waterfall.
We also stopped at the blue pools, which were looking slightly grey in the rain. The best bit about them were the bouncy suspension bridges, which we jumped all the way across, singing the tigger song.
We got to the hostel in Makaroa at about 5, and it was raining again, so we chilled out for a bit before having dinner and then sitting in the common room playing pool before having an early night.
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