Travelling First Week

Monday: In the morning I first went to town to send a parcel with all my stuff from school and the music home. It was about ten kilogram which cost me a lot. But still less expensive than paying for overweight on the aeroplane home I thought. When I got home again at half past 9 I packed everything and luckily enough there was just enough space for it. Jude then drove me to town on her way to Motueka. I was at the car rental more than one hour early, but the friendly guy gave me the car at eleven o’clock, so I didn’t have to wait. After a shopping tour I started my trip to Greymouth. The weather first was fine, but then the sky got very cloudy and dark. I stopped at several attractions on the way, the main one was a little bridge and a park. Then near Greymouth I read something about the coal mines who were the main business around nineteen-hundred. After 290 km I finally arrived in Greymouth. The hostel I stayed in for the night was quite nice, the only problem was, that it was a bit cold there. Noah’s Arch got friendly staff, free internet, tv and funny painted rooms. My room was called TIGER and with me was Clare from London. She told me, that she wanted to go to Franz Josef on the next day but that there was no bus, so I offered her to give her a lift, because I was heading to Franz Josef anyway.
Tuesday: I slept quiet well although there was a storm in the morning. The weather didn’t get any better and was raining more or less all day. On our trip we visited Shantytown, a little village who looked like a settler village from the 19th century. After a steam-rail trip I had my first gold panning experience. In the end I got some tiny little nuggets out of the sand and stones. The weather wasn’t easing up, so it wasn’t much fun to see the otherwise certainly beautiful scenery. At two o’clock we arrived in Franz Josef Glacier and what a surprise: As we went into a restaurant for a hot chocolate I met two Swiss girls who had been at the Nelson English Centre as well. I now helped Clare to find an accommodation, in the end she decided not to stay in the glow worm cottages which I already had booked before, but we agreed to go for a walk in the evening, expecting to see some glow worms. At my hostel there was free vegetables soup at six o’clock which was very nice. I didn’t need much more for dinner and spent the rest of the evening with watching TV, because the weather was too bad for a walk.
Wednesday: I had to get up early to be ready for the full day glacier walk at 8:15. Fortunately I realised that I had forgotten my sunglasses and had the time to go back to the hostel and pick them up, while others were waiting. Then I got over trousers, hiking shoes and suitable crampons. They also provided raincoats, but I didn’t need one. Then the about 50 hikers got on the bus which brought us near the glacier. From here it took 45 minutes to the glacier, where we had to put on the crampons. Now we got separated into groups of eight or nine people and begun our walk on the ice. That was a really good experience, to be amongst all this ice and I really enjoyed it. The only bad thing was that our guide wanted to find a new route after lunch and we had to wait almost one hour until he finished the new track. It was freezing and I couldn’t understand why he did that while he is leading a group and not in advance. But it was a great experience all the same and I took heaps of pictures. In the evening I had the soup at six o’clock and then went for a walk with John from England. The receptionist had told us we could see some glow-worms on a certain track, and there were loads of them. I had thought they were big worms glowing on their whole body, but they were very small and only one little dot glow. After that we had a free shot at the blue ice bar and then went to my hostel again.
Thursday: I got up quite early today to leave this place as soon as possible. Finally I took off at quarter to eight. First I went to a view point to see Fox Glacier, the second famous one near Franz Josef Glacier. After that I just stopped every once in a while to see the scenery. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy and I couldn’t see all the surrounding mountains. After about 390 km I arrived in Queenstown. It wasn’t what I expected and I didn’t have a good start here: I parked my car on the only parking near the Youth Hostel to check in and asked for a place to park the car overnight. But only five minutes later, I got a nice little paper on my windshield. It was a fee for wrong parking and I had to pay 40 dollars. That really bothered me, just because it wouldn’t have been necessary. After going to the supermarket and writing my diary I wanted to go out with some guys from my room, but I was too tired and slept at about seven o’clock already.
Friday: I didn’t sleep very well, it was a bit cold, but I still had to get up at six o’clock. At 6:35 I had to be at the real journeys office for my trip to Milford Sound. I was one of the first and most of the others seemed to be late. The sky was still a bit cloudy, like the day before and it was almost dark. For the next six hours our coach drove to Milford Sound, with a stop every once in a while at the tourist attractions to take pictures. At one o’clock our ship took off for the one and a half hour scenic cruise in the Sound. The weather was just too god to be true: blue sky, no clouds, very good sight. It was just a little bit cold. We were meant to eat lunch on the boat, but I was busy taking pictures and finally ate the food I brought while waiting for the bus. On the way back the bus only stopped at several places to drop off and pick up people. After about 640 km today we finally arrived in Queenstown at quarter to eight.
Saturday: I had to leave Queenstown quite early to be in Dunedin by one o’clock for the wildlife tour. In Queenstown the weather was quite good today, but it got worse on the way to Dunedin. I finally arrived there at quarter to one, just before I got picked up by the guy from the wildlife tour at one o’clock. I thought that it wasn’t the best day, but it didn’t rain at least. On our way to the albatross station our guide told us a lot about nature in New Zealand and I learned that most of the animals were imported and didn’t use to live here before the first humans came here. The imported animals were often more powerful than the original one’s and that was a problem. Quite a few species died out because of these new opponents and some of the imported animals were like a pest now, for example the possums. It was freezing, when we tried to see some albatross and I decided to go inside the albatross centre. Later we went to a different place to see fur seals, sea lions and yellow white penguins. Now it was raining, and that made it even colder. I couldn’t enjoy it anymore, it was just to cold and wet, but it was still interesting. When I got home at about half past six, I went to the supermarket and bought a lot of yummy things to spoil myself after this torture. In the evening I wrote a lot of postcards, because I was all alone in my room and there wasn’t a lounge to be and meet people.
Sunday: In the morning I first visited the First Church of Otago, the famous railway station and then Larnach Castle. Unfortunately it was so foggy, that I wasn’t able to see the castle from about 50 m distance. So this was a bit an unfortunate visit. Then I went to the steepest road in the world, located in the north of Dunedin and drove the car up and down. That was quite impressive. Now I went on my way to Lake Tekapo and just stopped here and then, fortunately the weather was clearing up a bit. In Lake Tekapo the weather was quite good, just a bit cloudy. I went to the Alpine Recreation to see where I have to go the next morning and to say hello to my guide. Back in the hostel I prepared everything for the three day trip and ate dinner. Now I was pretty tired and just wrote my diary, sent some e-mails and went to bed then.