Very random places and activities in New Zealand

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Right - I'm back in civilisation. Have been to visit "Old Macdonald" on a farm in the midlle of nowhere and some very strange locals in "barrytown". Both were very small places filled with villagers whose main passtime seems to be to perv over the young girls who come in on the backpacker buses. Old Macdonald was particulalry bad and growled "ooo ahhhh I'll be waiting for you" every time he saw anything female.

I decided to abandon the "f*ck truck" and go off on my own. This was slightly scary as having taught me how to sail a big boat the lovely Kiwis just dumped me on a beach on my own and told me I had to hike to the accommodation. Unfortunately for me the accommodation (a boat) had sailed away for the day, but just as I was about to start building a fire and hoping to make smoke signals to get rescued, the boat came back and I had a bed for a night.

Then back on the truck to Barrytown (don't go there - there's nothing there!). Met some very "interesting" locals there - lots of hippy people standing round - sometimes just meditating/staring at a single tree for several hours. When not doing that, they forced us to partake in random activities such as making lethal pointy knifes and firing air rifles (while stopping for big drinks of home made alcohol between shots). The knives were particualry scary as you had to stick them in big fires and grind them on grinders. Luckily no accidents during the day, but did almost chop a girls head off in the bar while posing for a photo with the finished product. Must be less clumsy! (see photos).

A final word about the company I'm travelling with - OMIGOD!. I went for a company which takes you "off the beaten track" and is for active people. I was hoping this would mean I would avoid being on a bus of 18 year olds trying to pull eachother. Well as you can imagine I was fairly dismayed when I was wandering round the ferry terminal unable to find my bus when I came upon a clapped out old thing with no stickers on it or anything and a big fat sweaty bloke with a big hang over lumbering round outside it trying to touch up 18 year old girls. It turned out this was in fact my bus and the driver's name is Noddy. Nice. Other drivers include "Chopper" who chopped several fingers off in a lumberjack accident and "Dodgy Dave", who came to the bar last night wearing only an apron. Luckily there are some nice people and we are sticking together and trying to laugh about the general shambles of moving from place to place. I'll deffo ditch the bus in Queenstown though and go back to being an independent traveller.

If the weather's good tomorrow I'm hiking on a glacier and jumping out of a plane. Will post a survival picture! V excited!!!!

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