After Kaihoura and swimming with the nicest dolphins I've ever happened to have met, I traveled around Abel Tasman National Park for 2 nights. I met some great people from Dublin County, Peter and his sister Sue, who I've been traveling around with since on the Stray Bus.
Unfortunately we arose too late for the sea Kayaking (I blame the Irish I'm traveling with!) and instead hired out mountain bikes for the day. We climbed 1500 meters before plummeting down over mountain bike trails through the National Park at high speed. We arrived at a beach with 'split apple rock', a huge rock that looks like an apple, split open!
We immediately jumped in and swam out for some photos, little knowing that there had been a rare sighting of a Great White in the area a few days before! Ignorance is bliss!
We finished the day by joining the others for a barbie and drinks by the camp fire, making many new friends also on the bus tour. The age group on the bus ranges from 18 to 45, with a very diverse range of nationalities, evenly mixed, so it makes for a very friendly atmosphere without one age group, demographic or nationality dominating.
After Abel Tasman, we headed down to a tiny village called Barrytown. However, the whole of the west coast of the south Island only contains 30,000 people, so it may be viewed as very large by NZ standards! Here, it was time for an overnight stop, and a fancy dress party! I chose carefully- going for a pimp outfit, complete with staff which was also a prop in the film 'Lord of the Rings' - Gandalf's staff! It was a great night, and everybody got into the spirit of it, from the youngest to the eldest (including the 32 year old pimp!)
The next day we were off again, this time to Franz Josef, another small town near some dramatic mountains and a glacier. After an early night (we all need one sometimes!), we headed off for a fill day trekking of the Franz Josef Glacier one of only 2 in the world to finish next to a tropical rain forest at the base! It was a hot day and surreal to be standing on 150m thick ice in shorts and a t-shirt! It was pretty dangerous in places and all of my fitness was needed (!) to scale up over peaks and crevasses, some over 60m deep. the weather was beautiful, with waterfalls coming off the valley hills, and a deep blue sky. I managed to fall twice leaving a couple of cuts on my arms and legs, but nothing to write home about! If anyone else plans to walk on a glacier, beware- ice is sharp! One of another party, however, managed to dislocate her arm and had to be airlifted off the glacier- a helipad was quickly carved out of the glacier by our guides, and we all watched as the unfortunate girl was rescued to what I'm sure would be a great view- if it wasn't so painful!
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