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Published: August 8th 2007
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The next morning Liz was complaining about seeing little bugs around her bed and she had some really nasty bites on her which looked really angry. However we had to get going so vowed to deal with it later and then took advantage of the free breakfast the hostel puts on. Outside we got picked up for our trip into the Happy Valley to do the sky wire. When there, we kind of got talked into quad biking so rather than being driven up to the hire wire, we quad biked up. Neither of us had done this before and it turned out to be really fun; revving up the dirt tracks towards the summit, round corners and over rocky ground. We stopped a few times for mini trips into the undergrowth to look and learn about the indigenous trees and plants and their properties, which was a lovely touch. Eventually we made it to the hire wire located on the edge of a giant gorge. There was already a New Zealand couple up there waiting to have a go so we joined them and got strapped in (see pics of this on the slide show- very weird contraption!!!). After
a sec one of the crew hit a button and we were hurtling at over 100 km across the valley with our feet dangling over a huge drop to the valley floor. Once across, the ride stops and after a short wait somebody once again hits a button and you are hurtling at over 100km backwards in the other direction, pretty cool.
After getting back we mounted the bikes and continued to the highest point of our excursion that was near a beautiful look out. Here we had coffee, cheese and biscuits and a few photos as it was a stunning spot. On our way down it was even more fun on the quad bikes; taking sharp corners, trying not to skid into bushes and avoiding the huge dragonfly like things that really hurt when you, at full speed and they, at full speed, collide. At the bottom, back on the farm, we were in for some real fun involving three laps on the bikes round a ready made circuit with huge muddy puddles and random sheep to negotiate. Once I was sure the sheep weren't going to do anything silly I got up some great speed, however on
the
last lap I hit one of these huge muddy puddles at a wrong angle and got totally drenched by a tidal wave of smelly water. That aside, and with a smug face I will tell you that our guide thought this couldn't have been my first time on a quad bike!
The rest of the day- and following a shower- we went into Nelson and enjoyed the little parks and coffee shops this sweet town has to offer. When back we discovered our kitchen had been reserved for some stupid swim team which meant that there was now one tiny kitchen to serve the entire hostel. To avoid cooking we ended up ordering the Thai food that comes to the hostel every eve- which was quite nice- and then tryed to do laundry with the only two washing machines that were working. It was a tooth and nail battle to actually secure one but it was eventually managed. That evening Sarah and Mickey arrived at the hostel.
Next morning was our day at Abel Tasman. This is a trip that so many people that we had met along the way recommended. Well i'm not sure what
we were expecting but a sunny day would have been a good start, however it was tipping down with rain from the start. We set off from our hostel and the coach dropped us on the coast where we were picked up by a speed boat and taken to the main boat. After a scenic tour of the coast we were all hoarded onto the speed boat and taken to a random bit of shore where we were told we had a four hour trek to get back. Well this was news to us; we were all in flip flops with no water and definitely not set up for a four hour trek. I'm still not sure why to this day, this bit of the tour was never made clear to us but luckily one of the guys from the boat showed us a two our trek we could do- as for me and my still recovering foot, four hours was out of the question. Well we set off in the rain up and down the cliffs next the beach, stumbling on tree roots and getting muddy. This was a very different day to the sunny chilled out day on
the beach we had imagined. However we did laugh quite a lot.
We eventually came out onto a beach at the end of the trek. Here we waited for the speed boat to pick us up and this is where things got messy. When back on board the boat we were told we should have done the four hour walk and because we were back with them this soon they were charging us 30 dollars each. The crew on the ship thought the captain was being really unfair and they ended up buying us coffee and beer off their own back, really sweet of them- so thank you guys. When back, Liz's bites were looking terrible and the word bed bugs was bought to he attention of the hostel- they of course denied it but gave her clean bedding and said they would check it out. We just about managed to make dinner among the other 12 thousand hostellers in the kitchen and after a few games of cards, we, with the exception of Liz, got a goods nights sleep before the next day travelling to the north island.
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