Abel Tasman - Westport - Poo Pub - Franz Josef

Hey everyone!

sorry its been a while since my last update, but i've just been too busy and been having too much fun!!!

Ok here goes...

Abel Tasman national park is absolutely stunning and i think its fair to say that i have never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life. The park is luch forests surrounded by crystal clear turquoise waters with random islands hosting seal colonies scattered around. Me and Claire were up at the crack of dawn to catch our bus to the park, after an emotional goodbye to all our friends we had made since Auckland. (They were all leaving a couple of nights before us and were not coming to the park - idiots.) So off we go, feeling slightly miserable but looking forward to teh days to come. On arrival we boarded a water taxi to take us to the north of the park and the plan was for us to walk for around 4 hours to Bark Bay, stay there overnight in a hut, and then kayak the rest of the way the following day back to the start. We headed out on our walk and the views were amazing, and everything went well until we realised that the tide was still in and we had to cross to teh other side - great! There we were, walking in our bikinis, holiding and bags, clothes and trainers over our heads trying to cross the river - was a funny site and dont worry, i have plenty of pics!

We arrived at Bark Bay aroun 3pm and set about for a difficult few hours sunbathing on thte golden beach - its a hard life, i know. Accomodation for the night was interesting to say the least. It was basically a hut with 2 rooms, and each room have 14 mattresses. That was it. But, due to the fact we had been out partying late for the past few weeks, mixed with the efforts of our 4 hour hike (and i was not very well) meant that we actually went to sleep at 8pm and slept for a blissful 12 hours.

The next day was the kayaking and we had been told that if we were ever going to go sea kayaking, then this was the place to do it. There were 8 of us kayaking (so 4 kayaks) and our guide. It was really hard work but so much fun. AT a couple of points when the wind picked up, we all joined the kayaks together and the guide got out a sail and we made a little boat and sailed for a few kilometres. All in all, we kayaked for 15 kilometres back to the start. Lets just say my shoulders were in agony the following day, but it was well worth it!

A couple of guys in our kayak group had a car so tehy drove us back to the hostel in Nelson and we had an early dinner and crashed into bed.

The next day we were up early to get on our new bus to Westport. New bus, new driver, new people - lets just say me and claire were very sceptical as our last bus had been fantastic. Well, our new driver LJ is just as good as Dave, and the people are 'sweet as'. NZ slang meaning 'cool'). Off we drove to Wesport, stopping off for a lovely scenic walk and more photo opportunitys. Westport is a bit of a dead town with nothing in it..its just a palce to stay overnight to break up the journey. We all went out for some pizza and beer, and set about trying to learn a new set of 40 names.

The Poo Pub. What can i say. Its the oldest hotel in NZ, and it looks it. On the way we went to see the Pancake rocks and we stopped off in a town to buy costumes for the party that night. Ona rrival at teh hotel, the 82 year old owner, Les, came onto teh bus to explain how the night was going to run. LJ and Les cooked a fantasic meal for only $10 each first. Then, we all went to get dressed up for our party. This pub holds a fancy dress party every night of the week for teh Kiwi bus, and on teh walls of teh bar there are photos of every group since 1990 ish - all in costume. Its very very strange. Anyway, our theme was occupations, and i went as an artist. Fully equippedwith my apron, paint brushes and paint i set about painting the rest of teh bus. (little did i know that 2 days later, the paint wont shift!). People were dressed up in all kinds of things. We had - a cleaner, a plyboy bunny, borat, the spice girls, scuba divers, a nun, someone who works at KFC etc etc. It was a fantastic night and the costumes rocked!

Tired, we all got up really early the nect day to drive to Franz Josef...now LJ thought that it would be a great idea to continue the fancy dress theme...so we all packed onto teh bus in last nights clothes and let me tell you, we got some funny looks on the way...especially when claire adn LJ swapped costumes and our bus driver was now dressed head to foot as a playboy bunny! It got ever funnier when the bus broke down adn LJ had to hitch a ride back to the nearest town in his playboy costume to find a mechaninc. Classic. We visited a musean en route to Franz where we saw some possums and watched a videa about deer hunting - was a bit strange, but hey, its the wild west out here!

We arrived at Franz quite late because of the stupid bus that broke, and had a quick dinner before bed. In an hour i'm going on a helicopet ride over teh glaceiers, and tehn they drop you at the top of the gaciers and we hike for 2 hours ebfore being brought back down by helicopter - am soo excited!

keep in touch everyone

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