Abel Tasman - Franz Josef

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We all then left Nelson on the 9th April to travel back to the Abel Tasman, when we arrive here we went straight to the Fat Tui to get some food and to show Alison the best massive burger we found, was amazing, then after we ate me and Alison went horse riding. We went we this crazy hill billy type guy called Brian who was just completely off his rocker, was really funny, I rode a horse called Joe and Alison’s horse was called Romper, was a good afternoon, we rode through a woodland area and then down on the beach. Though after spending 2 hours on a horse neither of us could barely walk, we had bad legs and bums for days! That evening we went to the only local pub for a drink, was very quiet there was hardly anyone in there, but the crazy horse guy was, lol!
The following day we left the Abel Tasman with Stray to go down the west coast, we were staying that night in a town called Barrytown, population of 40. On the way we made a few stops, one was at Cape Foulwind which was were a colony of seals were. The next stop was at a beach where a lot of the jade stones were found, so we tried to go and find some, but no one did! We also stopped at some viewing points of the coast and then went to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes which is basically loads of layers of rocks with holes right the way through them so when the tide comes in the water shoot up the holes and blows out the top.
We arrived in Barrytown around 6pm, we had about a hour to sort ourselves out until the food was ready, then it was a fancy dress party, the theme was bad taste, there was a room filled was different types of costumes, a few of us couldn’t be bothered to dress up though! Was a brilliant night had loads to drink and Alison brought a whole bottle of apple sourz which actually didn’t take that long to get through, we had a massive ice fight and also made a human pyramid was a brilliant night!
The next day we set off for Franz Josef, everyone was feeling a little worse for wear so Daisy the stray driver decided to stop in Greymouth to go to MacDonalds so everyone could have a good feed! We also stopped in Hokitika for a supermarket stop and to go to the Jade Factory, we also did a few photo stops. We arrived in Franz Josef at around 5pm but went straight to the tour operators to book in for the glacier tour the following day.

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