South Island, Part I
Abel Tasman
Carolin, Meg, Amber, Karin and I caught the ferry from Wellington to Picton early on Sunday morning. We arrived in Picton and immediately headed for Abel Tasman via Stray. We arrived and got situated and made dinner in a huge group of 24. We had lamb, mussels, chicken, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, and cake. Fantastic.
The next day, Meg, Amber, and I headed out for five hours on a kayak around Abel Tasman. Meg and I were in one kayak and Amber was in another with Luis, another guy on our bus. It had been rainy and foggy since several days before we left wellington and this didn’t change in Abel Tasman. Overall, it was still really neat, though. We made a fantastic baked mac & cheese for dinner and I drank a bottle of wine and it was a fantastic time.
Punakaiki
We arrived in Punakaiki around 5pm. The six of us stayed with six others in a really neat multi-level cottage in the middle of the forest. It was raining pretty heavily, so we just hung out and made tacos and watched movies. It was a really cozy place.
We got up early the next morning and took the Truman Track through the forest to a gorgeous beach. I walked a 2 hour trail afterward and checked out the pancake rocks.
Franz Josef
Franz Josef Glacier and everything around it was closed due to extreme wind. There was a single trail open where you were supposed to be able to see the glacier, so we walked 45 minutes to get there as it started to rain heavily. We got about 10 minutes up before we ran into a couple who pleaded with me not to continue because the ground started shaking and a tree almost fell on them and they had to run. We headed back in crippling wind and tried to hitch hike back to town, but no one wanted to pick up four people.
The power went out about three minutes after we returned to the hostel. All cell reception was out. This was about 3pm. We went out for a few drinks at our hostel’s bar, who was only taking cash (which everyone was short on). I walked and found Deirdre and Morgan and they joined. Then we made dinner with flashlights and candles.
THE NEXT DAY, we were to head to Wanaka, but there was a bridge that was damaged from the storm that wouldn’t allow our heavy bus past, so we decided to head to back North to Springfeild. All was well until we came upon an accident on the right side of the road. A Jeep was passing the accident in our lane and our options were to hit the Jeep head on, or crash into a ditch. We crashed into the ditch and badly damaged the windshield, but everyone was okay. Another Stray bus came to rescue us. We headed back to Greymouth and then 10 of us went back to the same resort in Punakaiki. Then we bussed 13 hours to Queenstown the next day.
Queenstown
We had the famous Fergburger after a few drinks. We didn’t arrive until 10:30pm and the bars all closed at 12 for Easter.
Yesterday I did my first ever bungee jump on the AJ Hackett Ledge Bungy. It was fucking horrifying to literally jump off of a ledge with nothing for several hundred feet. Not exactly sure what I expected. Free falling was seriously terrifying. Especially when they tell you to run and jump off a ledge. All in all, however, it was really exciting and fun. I’m glad I went. We went out for drinks after. Fun.
Today we walked around Queenstown a bit. I got all of my souvenir shopping done (TWO MONTHS EARLY!) and Amber’s friends drove us to a tiny little town that was really neat and to the top of a really scenic mountain over Queenstown.
