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Published: March 31st 2008
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Wow. Time flies when you're having fun! Our first week in New Zealand we spent in Christchurch. Abby's dad and his g/f were really awesome. They came and picked us up at the airport at 1AM, let us stay at their place all week and fed us loads of good food. Abby joined up with us there a couple of days after we got there and she played tour guide for us. We went to the Antarctic centre, took a ride up the gondola, checked out the pier, went to the beach in sumner, and basically just bummed about the city. It was great to just hang out with her. She had to go back to work so we spent an extra day in Christchurch and then met up with her in Culverden where she works on a dairy farm. I have to say, dairy farming would not be for me! Its crazy hours and hard work. She gets up at 3 am to go to work! It was relaxing just being out on a farm again though. I felt totally revitalized. We continued from there and took a mini road trip. Our first stop was Kaikoura. This is a town
totally built on tourism and its pretty expensive. Basically if you want to do anything you have to have money. So we really just wandered about and sat on the beach (in the wind and the rain - it was awesome). The next morning we left for Nelson and stopped at a seal colony. There were hundreds of them! It was pretty cool. We also stopped at a winery and had a wine tasting session. I really don't know anything about wine, but it was a fun experience anyway. In Nelson we stayed at her Aunt's place and spent most of our time visiting with them. Again we had awesome hospitality. We also hiked up a hill to the centre of New Zealand and saw the field where the first game of rugby was played. We really didn't do too much touristy sightseeing on this roadtrip, it was more just a good time hanging out. The next day we were off to Picton where Abby dropped us off to start our hop on hop off bus tour with Stray. We've been having a pretty good time on this tour as well. We've met some great people and my sister is having a ball flirting with all of the boys. Our first stop on the tour was Abel Tasman National Park. It was rainy both days we were there, but we didn't let that stop us from seeing the park. The first day we decided to hike the coastal track. We didn't go as far as Anchorage like some people, but we did go pretty far. It was about a four hour hike return. It was so beautiful - even in the rain. The next day we had been hoping for sunshine so we could get some beach time in, but no such luck. We spent the morning waiting to see if the rain would clear and complaining about being bored. But we had some company so it wasn't so bad! Eventually we did get out to the beach, but the weather didn't hold. By the time we'd walked the half hour it took to get there it had started to cloud over again. But we still busted out the bikinis anyway! After a chillly swim it started to rain again so we made our way back to the hostel. Luckily there is a fire pit at the hostel so we spent the evenings around the fire just getting to know the other people on the bus.
After Abel Tasman we headed to this tiny little nowhere town that is the size of Netherhill. We stayed at a pub here and everyone dressed up in crazy clothes and got drunk. It was a good time. There was a nice beach here as well, but it was too cold to go in the water. Apparently you can find jade on the beach here sometimes, but I had no luck with that.
Right now we are in Franz Josef. Except for the fact that the trees are of a different variety, it feels a lot like BC here. We decided not to take the guided hike up onto the glacier, and instead took our own walk out to it. I guess we miss out on the crevasses and caves, but its a rainy day do I think its all right!
Anyway, thats about all I've got for now. I'm sure I'm missing lots, but it will have to wait for another day!
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