I'm still very annoyed so here it is. The Palace Backpackers in Nelson, unhelpful staff & dodgy location. Had a quick tour of parks & scrubland nearby but no other stuff dumped. Getting out of this place tomorrow....sure I would have quite liked it if no crime had been committed against me but there it is. Shit happens.
Have been to World of Wearable Arts this afternoon which was pretty funky and gave me some new career aspirations. Won't share them with you...my career thoughts change daily right now, far from focusing me this travelling thing makes me want to do everything there is to do, ever! Also took a walk to "The centre of NZ", convieniently located at the top of a hill. Don't think they'd have made such a feature out of it if the centre was in the carpark or the ditch by the side of the river. Fortuitous hey, or am I being cynical because I am not Nelson's biggest fan.
Spent most of Friday walking part of the Abel Tasman track, got sad when we found an injured tiny little shark struggling to get away from the shore. Tried to help it but it was so heavy and, weirdly, partially inflated so I think it was doomed. Trying to make up for the little bit of wildlife that Jermey killed (he ran over a bird...that's got to be pretty hard to do) so, readers of blog, I could do with some cheering up to sort me out after various instances of crime and wildlife carnage. x
grrr
Not best impressed with Nelson so far...woke up to find we had been the victims of a burglary. From our room while we were asleep! Bad manners. So, yet again had a Nokia 3310 stolen...I need to get a new type of phone, they're bad luck. Hostel girl in charge was not helpful in the least (she was nursing a huge ugly hangover), but I managed to find the non-valuable-to-druggie-bastard-thief items that had been dumped by the back door, so still have glasses etc. but am a couple of sets of carkeys down, so we moved out pretty sharpish! Scored a twin room for cheap with our sob story and are now trying to recover from the 'been robbed' feeling. Grrrrrr. rrrrrr.rrrrr. I cannot stress this enough, people who thieve are low down dirty 'amoebas on fleas on rats'. (Frenchie, Grease)
Loads of things we wanted to do in Nelson, so trying to muster up some enthusiasm for them and go do them all.
Met up with Sarah (from home) and Olly for a day in Greymouth, went walking and let them cook us a complex meal (thanks S & O) !!! Drove up the West Coast in beautiful sunshine again, took a detour to Blackball to visit the Salami shop (NZ sausages are only good when not bought from the supermarket, we have now visited a number of gourmet sausage shops!) were impressed by Punakaiki and the pancake rocks (they rock) and blowholes, wandered over the longest swingbridge, got a go on the flying fox for child price...and then....decided to stay in Murchison. The middle of nowhere. And at around 6pm, Murchison decided to show us what its got and produced a 10 second long rumbling loud shakey earthquake. Wow. Bought a huge bag of kiwifruit for $2.
The last couple of days have also been brilliant...have been right up to the North of the South Island, staying in Takaka at a great hostel with free bread, free spa pool and some lovely people. Barefoor backpackers if you ever stop by. Ran around the caves at Wharakiki beach, found a proper chocolate shop, collected shells on the beach and then stopped for mussels and garlic bread at the
Mussel Inn on the way back to our temporary home. Met a boy who owns legwarmers. Worryingly, I have contracted some kind of lurgey in the form of red circles on my back. Been told to keep an eye on them, luckily I can twist my double jointed top half round and can see them myself so don't have to keep showing my back to complete strangers.
Back to the North Island on Wednesday...daylight ferry this time so might get to see some of the coastline rather than falling straight to sleep and then spending an uncomfortable night in the drivers seat of Jeremy. Thought the earthquake had made his only real asset pack up, the cd player wouldn't work! Luckily Liz is an expert at coaxing some sound out of it...would be nice if more than one speaker worked though! Actually, I think my car would have been pretty flash back in 1985...electric windows, sunroof, some special gadgets (function unknown), cruise control etc. It looks a little sad now, little bits of rust keep falling on Liz as we drive along, but he has mainly done his duty now. And he may well be the nicest car I will ever own.
Got a new email address.
Had a beautiful day on Friday for walking up the glacier, the sun was shining, everyone had their sexy thermals and waterproofs on, and a few peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. However, our group of ten didn't really bond until we all spent an hour walking down a really thin crack in the ice, only to be told by Carl, the self-professed "clumsiest glacier guide you'll ever meet" that there was a lake in our way and we had to turn back. Turn back! The dismay was palpable. You see, anyone at all, er, fatter, bigger in any way, than me, had immense trouble the first time round squeezing through a tiny and oddy shaped part which was followed by a hole in the ground. I got through. It was Dave from Arizona's misfortune to be unable to get through without turning himself horizontal and pushing till he popped through the other side (pop!) and sent me flying, so I found myself balanced with one leg either side of the hole. And Dave from Arizona backwards, head downhill, having landed on my leg. My right leg was the hero of the day having saved him from going headfirst down a hole. With much trepidation 20 people turned around and tried to get back the same way....with the ice melting, the puddles becoming deep lakes, inched through the skinny bits, everyone pledging to lose a few pounds, and afinally arrived at the edge of the glacier nearly 2 hours later than expected, went home got in the spa, then went out for several beers and a bit of pizza. Yum. Title of blog should be don't follow katie. Arrived in Greymouth late yesterday afternoon, found ourselves a new home, "Noah's Ark" , Liz and I have the penguin room and the ginger cat has taken a liking to us and slept on my bed half the night, then, spreading his favours equally, swapped to Liz for the rest of the night. And Liz met someone she went to school with. Got my phone on loud hoping Sarah S phones at some point as she is supposed to be in Greymouth too. Bought more vegetables and some honey from the side of the road yesterday. Bargains to be had on Highway 6 if you ever make it to this part of the world.
23 today....
no not me, that has been and gone, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZ!!!!! We're at Franz Josef, going to see about trekking on the glacier tomorrow. Drove up in the horrid rain, waterfalls gushing off the mountain all over the road, and scarily the car in front of me containing a whole family came off the road right in front of me, no injuries just a few shaken looking people and a whole bunch of people who stopped to help push the car back onto the road. Jeremy has coped pretty well , we finally cleaned him after his Catlins dustry track experiences. Sang Liz a very croaky version of Happy Birthday at 8.30 this morning. Going to treat oursdelves to dinner tonight. No cooking for once, hurrah.
By the way the swede was huge and we still haven't finished it. Turned it into soup.
I don't think I've already writen about Milford Sound. As luck would have it, it's a good thing we didn't get there any earlier as the road had been closed for a week! Trapping innocent civilians in that beautiful area with all some gorgeous weather and a bunch of kayaks. And nobody else could get in, until Saturday, when the road opened and Liz and I joined a small bus trip up there to go kayaking. The great weather continued, and the sea was like a millpond. Got trussed up in some rather fetching purple gear and jumped in the kayaks and off we went after a quick safety chat. In case the NZ tourist board hasn't got the message across quite thoroughly enough yet...it's a FIORD not a sound. We had lunch and hot drinks out on the water, found a couple of fur seals to disrupt from their sunbathing and experienced the effects of dwarfing. Something weird that happens when absolutely huge, stunning, impressive mountains, suddenly seem less impressive because they are surrounded by equally huge mountains...so everything seems smaller, nearer and all-round normal. The waterfall we were looking at was 163m high, over 3 times the height of Niagra, and looked only 10m high. Me and my aching body then went back to the hostel and did nothing for the entire evening, except befriend a French boy. For conversational purposes you understand. Sunday was a day of driving, and I am now in Wanaka. Today (after fully defrosting my car) I have been shooting a 22 smallbore rifle and I am a pretty good shot. (Trumpet blowing is allowed occasionally....no-one's here to do it for me) Then took a quick scoot over the road for some beer tasting at the Wanaka Beerworks (Brewski, Cardrona Gold and Tall Black)....day going good so far, shooting and beer. Tonight's cheap activity continuing with the theme of complete indulgence is the cinema in Wanaka that has comfy sofas not flip-top chairs.
Found a bit of money.....back in business. Went to the cinema last night and ended up throwing my empty drink cup at a gaggle of teen girls near the front. I don't normally do thiskindof thing, except that at least 5 of them had their mobile phones out waving them around like they were surgically attached and talking every 2secons. I don't care if Mark's a good kisser or not!!!! Am on the shores of Lake Te Anau, drove up slowly from Invercargill, taking in the sights. Went to the Art Gallery & Museum this morning, looked at some old-by-New Zealand's-standardsbuildings, and then came through the sausage capital of New Zealand, where we, yes you've guessed stopped to buy some sausages at the sausage shop. We didn't stop for trout in the trout capital, or foxes in the fox town of NZ, nor kiwifruit in the kiwi capital of the world. But sausages seemed worth the stop. And then we found a historic bridge which was beautiful and then we bought a swede from the side of the road and left 50c in the honesty box. Milford Sound tomorrow hopefully for kayaking. x
Spent three days slowly wandering down through the Catlins, looking at inland bits of sea, petrified forests, nuggets of rock, a paua shell house etc. Now in Invercargill, the place where everyone says, "there's nothing there, don't bother with it". They are probably right, and we are probably leaving tomorrow. Been having a mid-nineties revival in the car and listening to Sleeper and Blur. In 1995 I thought Louise Wener was god and that I would marry Damon Albarn. I am over this now, but was still a bit miffed a few years ago when he got married to someone else and had a baby. My Dad has just informed me that I am poor...so that's probably the end of blogs and emails for a while. Unless of course, anyone wants to pay me to keep going? Yours hopefully, Katie xxxxxxX
cold, cold, cold! Liz and I are in the Catlins....kept myself awake long enough to drive us down here, Jez is still functioning like a trooper. Having major troubles with booking my flights within the Statea (online cheap sites discriminate against non American credi cards). Today is the day for waterfalls and walking and nuturey stuff as it's sunny but cold!!!!!
Saturday's Cadbury tour didn't disappoint, we got lots of free choccies and then went mad in the special Cadbury's shop. Even got to keep the sexy shower cap like head covering. Earlier in the morning, we did a tour of the Speight's brewery in Dunedin, getting to taste some good sized samples but as it was only midday we decided to leave larger scale testing for later. By happy coincidence it is Scifest here in Dunedin (aka the NZ International Festival of Science) so T & I went to a lecture on oceanography iven by Dr Sylvia Earle, who is Explorer-in Residence at National Geographic. Really interesting, inspirational & worth going to. Yesterday Liz and I wandered up he steepest stret in the world, not taking Jeremy to the top as he objects to being put under such pressure to perform. Also went to the Otago Settlers Museum (Dunedin means Edinburgh of the South and is desgned to the same street plan as Edinburgh), attended another lecture on submersibles and the topography of the Pacific region (almost as dull as it sounds) and took in 'Shark Gordon's most dangerous moments' in the evening, a film about beautiful sharks and the mad bloke who likes to handfeed them with fish heads. Today has been wildlifey too...Liz and I have been out to the peninsular to be chased by sealions and look at penguins. Unfortunately the albatross were hiding. So, with the exception of last nights being a little drunk and to bed at 5.30am, I have been busy educating myself over the last few days. I know lots about brewing proceses, how crunchies are made, the behaviour of sealions, how people ended up down here in the first place and how clever sharks are. Yehar!
Yesterday I tricked my body out of bed by pretending to be an active person...threw my rental snow gear on and got on a bus before 8am to get up the mountain and be taught how to snowboard at the Remarkables. No-one really ever tells you how hard snowboarding is! As my sense of balance went sailing out somewhere over Central Otago, I also lost my inner monologue. Did lots of muttering to my board..keep straight, no not right, not right, stop stop STOP!! There should be some kind of warning that snowboards neither understand nor respond to English. (Maybe if I called it 'bro' and said 'sweeeet' a lot??) I was pretty crap at it and spent much time on my arse...and my battered and bruised little body is feeling the effects today. That said....by the end of the day Liz and I were managing to stand up and direct the thing around, even if I can't go left and Liz can't go right. It's amazing how quick some people picked it up though! Jealous, moi? Maybe a little. Not too much though because I am off to NZ Cadbury world tomorrow. Yes I did spend three years living one train stop away from Bournville and never went to the British Cadbury World. But this is different! They have way more Cadbury brands of things over here. The Mars copy is a beautiful thing and I will be eating lots of them before I leave this country. Read about the Big Brother inmates having a drunken brawl. Isn't it about time hey stopped bothering with Big Brother? And I'm on the lookout for a cheap bookshop so I can get Bill Clinton's autobiography!! beep's gone....gotta goXXX
