Some spare time...

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Just arrived at Franz Josef Glacier and I can tell you the view is pretty good .. so why am I inside an internet cafe? Beacuse its too bloody hot. Can you believe it .. I have nothing but jumpers and rain coats in that rucksack and its been 20 odd degrees every day - I'd say its about 27 at the moment!!! We have our trip for tomorrow booked so we have an evening to do nothing for once. It was only a two hour drive from the last place we stayed.

So I suppose I'm going to do some ranting about NZ instead of the whistle stop version I have been giving you over the last three weeks.

We had a brilliant piece of luck on Sunday. We stopped to see the Pancake Rocks on the road between Motueka and Hokitika and B was asking about Penguins and the girl started telling us, not about the usual ones that are around, but this King Penguin that has just turned up on one of the beaches. Well as you can imagine we hightailed and quizzed some more people on the road and eventually found the beach that it is hanging out on. It was amazing. He was just standing there watching us - King Penguins are quite big compared to Fairy Penguins. It was brilliant to see one in the wild and to get so close to it. No one knows what he's doing there.

When we arrived in Hokitika (Hoky to the locals) we landed at this backpackers where the host does Jade carving and you can make your own Jade piece. In we walked and it was a bit strange to say the least. About 4 people sitting at the kitchen table (just imagine your granny's living room)polishing this green stuff with sandpaper and a Japanese guy trying to explain about the hostel. Apparently he arrived a month ago with four phrases ... Hello, Yes, No and I Want! His English was pretty good considering!!!! No one seemed to have a clue WHAT the hell was going on. Can everyone imagine B's facial expression!?!?!?!?! But anyway... the next day I picked out my Jade design, Gordon cut it and I spent 6 1/2 hours sanding it. But it was worth it. You just sat down and chatted to all the other people making their jewellery for 6 hours. Met some really nice people. The Just Jade Experience is the most chilled out and friendly Backpackers I have possibly been at. B spent the day checking out the Hippie locals. Oh, the stories!!!!

The Skydive was fantastic - I was absolutely terrified before we got on the plane. They were doing the hard sell on getting a dvd and made us watch this girls dvd which scared the c**p out of me. I was nearly in tears. But by the time we got up in the plane I was pretty chilled. The scenery was gorgeous and it was a beautiful day. Then the other people got out at 12000 feet and I was like... "what the hell am I doing... I'm going to fall out of the door before I'm supposed to". But we got to 15000 and I just jumped. We got a good minute freefall and it was fantastic. Are you all getting the feeling that I was enjoying myself and I would recommend it to anyone 😊?!?!?!?!

These Kiwis have an obsession with personalised License Plates by the way .. at least 1 in every 10 is personalised. My favourites so far are LIL TSE and BENST2 on a piece of crap Dihatshu.

Also I hate sandflies 😞

Abel Tasman - no digial photos, sorry, as I didn't have my camera with me - we took photos on a waterproof camera so you just have to see then when I get back to Sydney, which will be a week later kids as B and I have changed our flights to a week later - five weeks just isn't enough!!!

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Photos

PENGUIN
King Penguin completely where he shouldn't be. Usually they don't get King Penguins around here. He's also a secret .. heard it from a local and he had only been on this beach since Wednesday.

Shear Like a Townie
My one and possible only chance to shear a sheep - and its not even real!!! The computer game told me that I "Shear Like a Townie"!!!

Sunset at Hoky
Sunset at Hokitika. This place is a must - once you get over the fact that everyone is a Hippie!!