alright. it's been a while. i've had possibly the most spectacular week-or-so of my trip thus far, mostly due to the beautiful scenery of the south island of new zealand as well as some kickass travel companions who i am still have so much fun with. right now i'm at the base hostel in Queenstown (the adventure capital of new zealand!!! more on that to come...). but first, i have quite a bit of updating to do.
SO. Nelson, the town that is supposedly the "sunshine capital of NZ" was a bit of a bust... it rained for most of my two days there, and my only excursions involved a trip to the supermarket, a few jaunts around town (where i picked up some nice glass earrings and a sarong), and buying a roadside sausage on white bread.
On the 19th of December i left Nelson to travel on to Abel Tasman National Park. On the way, I met two lovely ladies-- Janelle from Seattle and Emma from Sweden, who would become my trusty companions for the next few days. We stayed that night at "Old McDonald's Farm" (that's really the name, btw...) right at the entrance of the national park. the three of us girls decided to do the "Kerry Pass With Cheese", and extra stray pass that brings you up into the Golden Bay area of the park, where the 3 days Abel Tasman Coastal Track ends, and where few tourists get to go.
So the next morning, we embarked on our brief stopover to the Golden Bay. first we sailed on a catamaran to anchorage beach, where we stopped and had lunch. on that trip, we saw the huge "split apple rock," an almost perfectly round rock that was split into two halves by some sort of natural erosion thingamagigger (wow, good thing i didn't major in geology...) Then we hopped onto the Maxi Taxi, a speed boat that would whip us around to our final destination. and on that boat was Kerry himself, the man who the pass is named after. He is an older (maybe mid 40s) fellow with an infectious, loud, rough laugh. apparently, the pass is called the Kerry Pass With Cheese because a few years ago, Kerry was driving in his car and was hit by a cheese truck, and was put into a coma after being crushed by a ton of cheese... so a bit of dark humor on the part of the stray crew...
that night we arrived to Pohara Sands Hostel in Pohara, a little town near Takaka. It was by far the best hostel i have stayed at in NZ... we had our own suite with the most comfortable mattresses imaginable. it was a treat. that evening we were all sitting around in the kitchen when suddenly Janelle said "wait guys, what was that??" and we all stood perfectly still... to realize we were experiencing an earthquake. It was about 6.8 on the richter scale up in the eastern north island, but for us it just registered as a short tremble. it was still a bit nerve-wracking...
That afternoon we biked out to a beautiful spot called "the grove" where you can look around at all these bizarre rock formations, which i thought all looked spookily like faces. it was a beautiful bike ride and walk.
The next morning (Friday the 21st of December) we took a long hike on the Coastal track to Gibbs Hill, a look out with one of the best views of the national park. It was a bit of a challenging hike, although the terrain was quite easy, mostly due to the heat. we were happy to reach the top for some lunch and views. all around it took us about 4 hours. That night we stayed at Pohara Sands again.
On saturday, Emma and I went into Takaka to see the Christmas Parade, which was really lovely. Sort of a small town thing with old automobiles and vintage tractors and the like. Takaka is a really cool little town, sort of out of the way and hippyish... I may consider settling down there for work, if Nelson and Queenstown don't grab me first. At around 1 pm that day we left Pohara sands and went first to Pupu Springs, which has the clearest water in the world. It was incredible, you can see the bottom of the springs (up to 10 meters) as clear as if it was under glass.
Then we went on to a farm where we fed tame eels raw meat, one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. man, those buggers are ugly. you stab a bit of meat with a stick and hold it out over the water, and they'll rise up out of the water with their mouths gaping open and clamp down on the stick. weiiiiird. some of the eels were as old as 100, and are the same eels that were fed when this bizarre past-time was established in the early 1900s. After that, we walked around the farm and fed the animals, which included a 5 day old fawn that just loved licking emma's face. absolutely freakin adorable.
From there we headed back to Old McDonald's Farm, and Emma and I went out on a walk on the beginning part of the Coastal Track (so now I can say i've done the beginning and the end!) up to Coquille Beach, where we laid in the sand in our bikinis until we couldn't stand the sand flies any longer.
On Sunday we hopped back on the stray bus with our driver, Ali Barbar, who i've had before and is absolutely hysterical. We drove down to Franz Josef, and epic journey that took around 8 hours. On the way we picked up some groceries as well as secret santa gifts... i had Thumper, the other stray driver, so I picked him up some chocolates and a bottle opener (the limit was 5 bucks). Also on the way, a man who was traveling alone from Taiwan accidentally dropped his bottle of wine when we were passing a sharp curve, and it shattered on the bus floor... so secretly during the ride I sent around a sheet of paper and had people sign up to pitch in some money to buy him another bottle at our next stop... so even though he had bought another bottle of wine in the meantime, it was nice to have a little bit of christmas spirit going around...
alright, franz josef is going to have to be another post, so i'll cut this one short. sorry again for the crappy grammar, etc... i still can't decide which words i feel like capitalizing at any one time.
cheeeeers
alli
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