Wellington - Franz Josef

So, last time we posted, we were still in Wellington. A lot has happened since then!

We left Wellington on the Interislander ferry to Picton on the south island. There we met our new bus, and our driver Bods. After a stop-off in The Village Winery near the Marlborough Sounds for a free wine-tasting, we arrived in Nelson. Bumping into our friend Simon (who we had journeyed down through the North Island with), we proceeded to spend the evening educating some of his other friends in Lord of the Rings by watching The Fellowship of the Ring (and annoying other hostel guests who couldn't get to watch Grey's Anatomy and Coronation Street!).

Next morning we headed to Westport. We had an hour or so at the Nelson Lakes National Park, where we went for a walk through the bush and along the edge of Lake Rotoiti. We then drove through Buller Gorge, where some people stopped to do a jet boat ride before arriving in Westport. (I'd already done the fast boat Excitor up in Bay of Islands, so we didn't bother!).
We had a bit of excitement that night when the YHA owner caught some kids breaking into the hostel to steal beer from the fridge! A few of us stayed with her until the police arrived and escorted the offenders off the premises.

On leaving Westport we went for a walk along Cape Foulwind, which led us to a seal colony. The seals were out in force, and were trying to teach their pups to swim, which was great to watch. The pups kept chasing each other over the rocks and into the water! Naomi reliably informs me that the seals were rather smelly, but my insensitive nose never noticed!
The walk along to the colony reminded us a lot of the walk we took with Jill and Brad when they came to visit, down in Stonehaven along to the castle on the coast. Walking along small trails right on the edge of the cliffs, the scenery was so similar to our Scottish east coast that we might have forgotten we weren't at home if it hadn't been for the glorious sunshine and searing heat!

Our next stop that day was to Punakaiki - the Pancake Rocks. These are limestone formations which, for reasons which have not yet been determined by The Scientists, form in layers that look like stacks of pancakes, hence the name. The formations seem very similar to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland (but neither of us having been there, we can't say for certain!). We had chips and gravy for lunch at the cafe there, which was WELL FINE!

We were supposed to take the bus from there to Greymouth, but about 20 minutes outside of the town, we had a slight....incident. And older driver ahead of us decided to turn off the road really slowly. The van behind her couldn't break in time and had to swerve to the other side of the road to avoid her. Our driver slammed on his breaks (which didn't seem to work very well) and had nowhere to go except to try and squeeze in between the two. This resulted in some scratched paintwork on our bus and on the van, but the corner of our bus also created a large, bus-shaped dent in the back of the older driver's car, and caused her entire back windscreen to shatter.
Noone was hurt, although the car driver was a little shaken, but it did mean we spent an hour or so on the side of the road while the police investigated and a new bus was sent to pick us up. We spent the time enjoying the sun and watching the four police cars, ambulance and fire engine all getting on with their work. The girls were particularly taken with one younger, attractive fireman, and I think he was beginning to think he was a celebrity, the number of photos that our group took of (and with) him!
A bus arrived and deposited us in Greymouth, where we spent the next couple of hours until a replacement bus could come and take us on to Lake Mahinapua, where we were to spend the night at Poo Pub (otherwise known as the Mahinapua Hotel). Our hosts and the driver cooked us a massive barbecue of steak, venison, pasta and veg, and we then had a fancy dress party, with all the guys having to dress as women, while the women could dress however the wanted (a few of the girls took the opportunity to all dress up as our driver Bods!).
The night was a lot of fun - Naomi and I took a walk down to the beach and also to the lake before dinner, and enjoyed the mixture of massive long sandy beaches and lakeside scenery, all against the snow-capped backdrop of Mount Cook.
The only complaint was the slimy walls in our room, which gathered much condensation over the course of the night. (This was the only place on our trip in which we were in a dorm).

Leaving Lake Mahinapua behind, we headed for the Bushman's Centre, where Naomi had breakfast while I took photos of their pet Pig and Possums. From there we proceeded to Franz Josef, where we planned to hike up the glacier and do a skydive. Our plans were turned on their head a little by the weather. While it was fine and sunny when we arrived at 1pm, by the 6pm skydive time, the clouds had closed in and the jump was postponed.
We arrived at the glacier centre at 8.45am on Monday morning, and were taken by helicopter up onto the Franz Josef Glacier, where we then started what should have been a two-hour hike. After about 40 minutes, though, the clouds came down so heavily that our guides couldn't see far enough down the glacier for it to be safe, so we had to head back to the "helipad" (an area on the ice marked with some stones to show the pilot where to land) and we were flown back to the Franz Josef township. It was still well worth the money we paid for the trip, even just for the helicopter rides alone!

Since we got back, the weather has followed us down off the glacier, and as we sit in a nice red bus, refurbished as an internet centre, the rain is pouring down all around us. Chances of my getting skydive now are somewhere between slim and none (and slim just left the building...or the bus!). I'm going to look into the possibility of doing one further south in Wanaka or Queenstown, as those are our next stops, but perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.

This time....