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Published: June 13th 2009
Hey all, am currently in the surprisingly small town of Queenstown. Its much more like a little town or city than the adreline capital of the world (i saw a sign saying that today as i walked around).
Since i last posted, I've been to the city of Greymouth, on the way saw the Pancake rocks, which are a geoglogic formation of i think igneous rocks, which have been pressed together over time and formed distinct layers. I guess alot of people see them as pancake stacks, hence the name. It was a pretty neat thing to see, and we came across what looked like a palm tree, but was actually the biggest lilly in the world. So i have bragging rights on all the so called green thumbs now. On my first night in Greymouth, i met a guy from Holland, who was there to work on dairy farms and wore a legit pair of clogs. He could skip in them. He even let me try them on, but my feet were much smaller then his so they didnt stay on very well. Him and his other dutch companion thought i was funny, and we ended up having a south park marathon with a few british blokes who were also staying at the hostel. The next day i went blackwater/cave rafting, which is where they put you in gaitors or a wet suit, drive you about half an hour out of town, give you a big black donut-tube, and they you procede to jump in and out of a river on it. We went through a very small cave and saw some glowworms. learned some cool facts, but i heard that stuff like that is much better on the North Island, so i might check that out if i make it up there. In my group we had a couple celebrating their 30th anaversery, two swiss girls, a brit and two canadians from PEI. after our adventure we were shown to the spa (which is what they call hottubs here), and given a beer. Not a bad way to end the day.
After that i went shopping and picked up a few necessities. like a needle and thread.
Left greymouth the next day, traveling south (which means it was getting colder). Got into the town of Franz Jospeh at about 12:30pm. The town was named after the glacier which made it famous, and because i wanted to have the ultimate glacial experience (i will admit, i wanted to see some younger dryas, one of the rarest flowers in the world which only grow in the crevases of glaciers) i did the helihike. Which is where you get into a helicopter, they fly you around a bit, then drop you off for 3 or so hours to hike around on the glacier with your group and a guide. I think being good looking is a requirement to be a guide here in NZ, because all of mine have been pretty cute. Anywho, i had a tiny group (4 of us, a brit couple and a dude from austria), and we managed to cover alot of the glacier. we had borrowed shoes, i had borrowed water proof pants (which were pretty much a godsend) and spikes which attached to our shoes. we wove in and out of the glacier, sliding down pieces of ice, crawling through caves, climbing the sides at times, jumping across smaller crevases, peering into really big ones, and just having a good time. We were all resonably fit, and all seemed to be having a pretty good time. I got to sit in the front seat of the helicopter on the way up, and the other girl in the group got to on the way back. I was told it was because we were much better to look at then the guys, which i thought was funny.
turns out that the three girls (two canadians and 1 brit) i did the blackwater rafting with were my roomies. so we had something to talk about already, and we went out to the only bar in town called the Blue ice Bar because we had drink vouchers. The next day, which was an errands day, and trying to figure things out, i burned my lip which really sucked.
Next day we got on the bus really early (we were told this is the one place the bus leaves people behind, and after two days theres really nothing left to do there), and stopped in a small goldmining town called Ross. there we learned how to pan for gold, and i pretty much was a nusance to the historic shopkeeper there, badgering her about how they process gold and different methods used over time. she seemed to enjoy it, which was good. I ended up in the town of Wanaka (wa-Naka) where i was origionally going to spend just one night, but extended that to three nights. It had a place called Puzzling world, and a hailed amazing cinema called Paradis-O (which has a ton of different types of seats, like airplane, lunar lander, couches) and you can buy freshly baked cookies. I didnt go, i ended up having a blast with the people i met at the hostel. there was a group of people who had been there for awhile, one guy on his 30th day when i arrived. they were all there for the season, looking for houses and in some instances work. I managed to get the 7th harry potter book out of the book exchange, and read it in less than 8 hours and returned it. I am now down to carrying one reading book around with me, and one which is on lone from auntie viv and uncle tony for australia. Should i ever make it back there, i know a couple of pretty cool places from browsing through it on cloudy days (i will admit, i am putting off reading Shakespeare's Juleous ceaser). I ended up climbing Mt. Ida, with emma and adam my roomies, going out to a Karakie bar and singing a duet (apparently i am not half bad at singing the Joker), and relearned how to play pool. So it was a pretty productive time, and there i met smokey the evil cat. who really was evil, but he seems to like girls more then boys so i was fine when he came to sit next to me (he had a habit of attacking people, and had been there longer then the hostel owners).
From Wanaka i continued onto Queenstown, and on the way here i met a strange irish man named Olly. We sat together on the bus (no more seats for everyone to have their own section) and i learned some very interesting things about southern ireland. i actually got half decent at understanding him too, which i'm pretty proud of.
Today i walked around town for the most part, then had a nap. I went to an arts and crafts market, where i got handknitted toque (its red and white) and glove type things, which keep me warm in this friggin cold climate. I also booked myself in for bunjee jumping tomorrow, one of the highest in the world, and am trying to decide what else i want to do with my time tomorrow. Tonight is the stanely cup finals, but i dont know when it is so i might end up missing it (heartbreaking, but might have to occur) and debating going out to a sports bar to watch the all blacks vs the french. who are said to be a good team.
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Monica Coulson
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Stanley
pittsburg won, with a fight to the finish! Sounds like you are really adventuring! Keep enjoying ! School is almost over!!! Thanks for all the updates on your adventures.Love ya Becca-babes!