Day 46 onwards to Day 50

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Sorry for the lack of blog updates!! I honestly tried but there was free internet in the hostel I was in, in Nelson, but slow internet and it couldn't deal with this bog standard website. I've only got a precious few minutes on this computer so I'm going to write down as much as I can. I'll type from my diary, that's easiest.

On my final day in Wellington I got my upper ear pierced. That was about it for the day - I also read a book and bought bread and tomatoes. I live a crazy life. That evening a group of 4 Dutch/Scandinavian girls arrived. They did a group FULL BODY moisturising session (i.e. naked) which was extremely awkward for theo ther girls in the room. It was like one of those movies made by men for men. Gone wrong. They then drank while the rest of us tried to diplomatically tell them to shut up. It was awkward from start to end.

The next day we were up at crack of dawn for the ferry to Picton. It took 3 hours. How was it? I don't know, I slept through the whole thing. Story of my life. The South Island seems nice so far, Nelson is VERY sunny.

I shared a room the first night with Nayheli (who, if you remember, I did the skydive with and was first in a room with me all the way back in Rotorua. we've essentially been travelling together) and a bunch of other girls - mix of Scottish and Southampton, mainly very fat verging on obese and happy to be naked in public. FML. I think I'm going to be permanently scarred by the time I get home from all this unnecessary nudity.

This hostel was "5 minutes outside of town". They didn't have enough beds in the main hostel, so we volunteered to go in the other one. It's 10 minutes away ON A BUS. Walking takes about 40 minutes, not including the first 20 minutes where you get lost and walk in totally the wrong direction. Nayheli and I decided to make a meal together that night, and we decided on Thai green chicken curry. I made the curry bit, she made the rice. I underestimated the amount of chilli in the curry paste and possibly caused permanent brain damage to both myself and poor N (who did say she liked it, and had seconds - while her eyes and nose were streaming and her lips were puffed up).

I went to the beach on Day 46. I thought I could put suncream all over my own back. I can't. The large red mark tells me so (it's now developed a slightly purplish hue).

Next diary entry: 28/2/10
First thing that happened this morning was a tsunami warning. A tsunami was due to hit NZ caused by major earthquake by Chile. True to form, not a single Kiwi was bothered - the guy driving the water taxi along the National Park even had a "no T-word" policy.

Just to fill in - I did a two day kayak/trek in the Abel Tasman national park. It started with a boat ride (water taxi) to a beach and then I walked for a long time, then camped the night and then kayaked home the next day. Exhausting.

I got dropped off by the water taxi in Te Pukatea bay at around 9:30. I was suncreaming up and considered staying until 10:05 which was when the T was due to hit Nelson. I thought, however, waiting on a beach would be a pretty silly thing to do if it turned out to be major so I ran up a cliff and had a good vantage point of the beach. No massive wave hit that beach as far as I'm aware. What a disappointment.

I was prepared for a 3 to 4 hour walk with plimsolls and just 750ml of water. It was, however, 5 to 6 hours due to a lot of water in my way, which meant I had to take the REALLY LONG WAY round. I finally made it to Bark Bay (my camping spot) dehydrated and blistered. I ran out of water after 3 hours, and I can tell you there is nothing worse. I very seriously considered mugging some people passing me for their water.

First stop - I drank some water when I arrived. Then I attempted to build a tent with my own two hands. The main original problem was all the sandflies which bite hard, and continued to annoy me for the entire time. I asked a random couple if I could borrow their repellent and it was definitely the key to the eventual tent-building success. I went for a swim when my tent was up. The water is so clear and perfect, absolutely lovely. I also went for a wander and found lots of little crabs. That's about as exciting as it gets for the girl from the city.

Diary entry 1/3/10
Back in the same bed as I had before, not bad!! The owner is so chilled out about everything it's bizarre. He didn't make me pay at any point, I had to force the money upon him when I got off the bus from the National Park.

The kayak today was nice, but exhausting. There were 3 boats - one with 2x Canadian guys I met last night (had an amazing chat with them about possum willy warmers). The other boat had the guide (a dreadlocked female Kiwi) and a fellow Kiwi Experience-er (who I have since befriended and will see hopefully a lot of in Australia), a french Canadian (yes, she's from Montreal - Helene) called Catherine. I was in a boat with a British-turned-Australian woman called Al who annoyed me right from the start. Al didn't paddle hard or steer well and managed to offend me early on on two counts:
1. Dissing London
2. Dissing young backpackers.

I was ready to capsize the boat and accidentally on purpose drown her by lunch. The kayaking was pleasant though, but the wind picked up making it pretty hairy crossing the final bay. We travelled a totaly of 20km which really takes its toll on your arms.
I saw Split Apple Rock,which is a NZ tourist attraction. It didn't look that impressive but I was in pain and wet and had an annoying woman in the same small vessel as me so I might have been biased. We were told the theories behind the "split" (Google it first to see what I'm talking about):
1. James Cook's target practice
2. Pete Jackson made it out of papier mache and it gets replaced yearly for tourism.
3. Maori warriors fighting, hit it with a spear like thing and released a massive beast that now lives in a nearby cave.
Of course the truth is boring, so I'm not even going to put it in here.

Now we get to today and yesterday!!
Journey from Nelson to Westport was uneventful. In Westport I went quad biking and didn't get the hang of it for a while (mainly because they don't have power steering. I crashed A LOT). The guide treated me like a retard as the result of the first 10 minutes or so, and kept on suggesting that I just go on the easy tracks on my own and he would take the others on the harder stuff. I enjoyed myself though, got nice and muddy. In retrospect I probably would have had more (and cheaper) fun on a horse, but that's life.

Last night we did a three-legged pub crawl with the whole bus. Westport is a tiny town where nothing happens, so they must be emotionally disturbed by 50 whole people tying themselves to each other and drinking. EVERY NIGHT (there's a Kiwi bus in every night). Everyone was tied to a randomer picked out of a hat. I originally had the old guy on the bus who was about a foot shorter than me. I'm sure he's a really nice guy, but not the kind of person you want to go on a pub crawl with. Especially when he told me about 5 minutes in that he just wanted one drink and then he had to go to bed. The aim of the game was to stay attached to someone for as long as possible, so I detached myself from him fairly quickly because it was clear we weren't going to win. The driver of the bus quickly slid in there with the opportunity and I was attached to him for a LONG TIME. It was GREAT fun, and really funny to see how awkward it was when people didn't like each other. And yes, I had to pee and he had to pee and we stayed attached for that (but don't worry, I still have my dignity - It worked.) We were in the top three people still attached but then some idiot broke our ties and the night was better from there on out - the driver smoked and FARTED while he was attached to me.

I have no more time left!! There's a fancy dress party tonight, I'll tell you all about it later.

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Comments

[HELENE]

JEALOUSY
I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOUR EPIC TRAVELS. I WANT TO GO TO NEW ZEALAND SO BADLY. last night at dinner we were talking about travlling and new zealand because my RA is graduating and visiting her sis in new zealand and rtravelling a bit and i was telling her all the fun amazing stuff you are doing and now everyone on my floor is so jealous of you. and i am going to find catherine from montreal.