No wucking forries

After finishing the Milford Track it was a short boat ride into Milford Sound. The original plan was to spend two days there to be able to explore around a little bit. On the boat ride into town though, I soon found out that the town comprised of a hotel, a hostel, and the wharf. The hostel was about a mile and a half walk from the wharf. I made the quick decision to find the bus and try and hop on it that day. Thank goodness there was one seat left on the bus. I threw my stuff below and hopped on board. Seeing that it had been four days since I had a shower and I had just spent the entire day walking, I didn't think that I was smelling too fresh. I kept my raincoat on thinking that if it kept the water out, hopefully it would keep my stench in. It seemed to have worked, as no one made any comments or complained about a rancid smell on the bus. Too bad for them anyway, it was a four hour drive back to Queenstown.

After an extensive cleansing session back in Queenstown, I had a few days to kill there before catching my bus head back north. I didn't accomplish too much in town that week but a bunch of reading and lounging around. I did go on a mission checking every single bar in town for coverage of the mens basketball tournament. No luck, and I went to every single bar in town. If it isn't cricket or rugby they don't show it.

Heading back north, I hopped off the bus at the town of Twizel. This town is where they filmed the final battle scene of "The Return of the King" and if you are inclined enough you can pay to go dress up as a dwarf, elf, hobbit... and run around on the hills. I'm not that fascinated with the books or the movies so I just grabbed a bus heading up along Lake Tekapo to Mount Cook Village. Mt Cook Village is situated a few kilometers from the base of Mt Cook. It is a small town that harbors more tourists than citizens. There are two options there, stay at the hotel for $NZ800 a night or stay at the hostel for $NZ23 a night. I opted for the hostel. After dropping my bags and changing into my boots, I headed off for the base of the mountain with some friends. We passed a statue of New Zealand's most famous citizen, Sir Edmund Hillary, before heading off on the track to the mountain. The track took us through the dry plains at the base of the mountains, around lakes grey from the glacial moraine and over the murky rivers flowing from the lakes. After the two hour walk to the base of the mountain, we were rewarded as the clouds parted for the next half hour, exposing Mt Cook in its entirety. The mountain was beautiful, with the snow peaks running down into glaciers flowing down the mountain, into Lake Hooker where we were standing. The lake itself was pretty interesting with large icebergs from the glacier floating around the lake. All good things come to an end and the clouds soon returned to pull the curtains on the show, but I was thankful I was rewarded with the views.

The next morning, it was back to Twizel to hop back on the Kiwi bus and head up to Christchurch. It was a Monday night in a town that is usually quite quiet and there was not a soul out. I headed to a nice little brew pub, Dux Lux, with my friends from Mt Cook and proceeded to take full advantage of the good beer in New Zealand with a few jugs of the local brew.

The next day, after rehydrating, we were back on the bus headed back to Kaikoura. I opted not to do any of the activities again, as I'll leave the marine stuff to my sister. I did head off to the local seal colony again to walk around. Unfortunately the tide was out and most of the seals were with it on the far rocks. They just looked like dark rocks on top of the real rocks. On the way back to town we stopped for a quick bite at a local fish shack on the beach and had the best scallops I've had in my life.

Leaving Kaikoura, it would be a day mostly spent on the bus. We headed up to Picton where we grabbed the Inner Islander ferry for the trip up to the North Island. It was a three and a half hour boat ride, leaving from the Nelson Sounds and heading through the straight to Wellington. The Nelson Sounds were beautiful with forest continuing all the way through the sound with only the occasional house scattered here and there. Luckily it was a calm day and the seas were pretty calm. Even on such a massive ferry and calm water there was a bit of rocking. It wasn't so much the water that was making me sick but the groups of doddering elders trying to feel young again. Half of them decided to sing their favorite songs from their younger years while the other half had fun taking turns trying to get a brass ring hung from a string around their waist, towards the rear, around the neck of a beer bottle on the floor. There is nothing like watching a bunch of old people squat down with their head between their knees and the brass ring hanging from their asses as they try to hit the bottle. I thought someone was going to break their back, but fortunately no one was hurt in this lamentable event. A few people even managed to get the ring around the bottle and received the reward of a jelly bean. Unfortunately I have been out of practice so opted not to participate out of fear of embarrassment. Eventually we arrived in Wellington where I had an hour to run through Te Papa Museum before it closed. It was a whirlwind journey through the history of New Zealand and the start to my North Island experience... get amonst it bro.