Possum!

Wow what a great few days I've had lately. Remember how I didn't like Queenstown very much? Well I don't. Strange really. I really like everywhere else I have been to obut not this place. It doesn't really fit in, but then again it does. It's like a little hideaway for NZ's party people, well the people from overseas party people that is. Even in Auckland you don't see so many people from other countries. Pretty neat in that respect, it's like a town made from other countries and stacked all into one place. But the town is just way too commercial for me. Too many shops advertising so many things. A lot like the Jasper and Banff in Canada... pretty nice for a short stay but you probably wouldn't want to live there... well not me anyhow. So anyhow I laid low there for a few days. I went and did the Shotover Jet and zoomed up and down the river... for about 15 mins which cost me $109.00 gah. Anyhow I was considering doing a bungy jump but thought I would wait until I get an audience... much more fun if I actually have a witness... that and I wouldn't chicken out like I did this time aorund haha.

So I left Queenstown this morning. I had to drive to the Queenstown airport to drop off my rental car when I thought I would be much better off keeping it for a few more days. I think I was right. Almost as soon as I got back on the road I was amazed at the scenery I keep seeing. I picked up some hitchi hiking dude... form Switzerland and could barely speak english but we chatted as best we could till I dropped him off in Wanaka, nice guy, some snowboarding/ski intructor but only if his english could improved apparently so I think he was taking English classes for about 4-6 hours a day. We talk about a few things but we didn't really understand each other haha. So anyhow, Wanaka s at the southern end of two lakes, Wanaka and Hawea. Both pretty amazing, and I stopped to stop several times driving past each lake. Pretty fantasic scenery. I was thinking that for a $39 flight from Auckland to Dunedin and then hiring a car for 5 days (for a special deal of 5 days for the price of 3) for less than $200 was a pretty awesome way to see the country, I totally recommend it.

After the lakes I got into Haast Pass territory and then Haast itself. Very cool indeed, Huge mountains, dense forest, incredibly clear water and fresh air to die for. Just brilliant, hardly even saw another car as well - and it is a Saturday afternoon for crying out loud! I stopped off in the Haast information centre for a bit of a look-see and saw a few tidbits about the location and the settlers and all that good stuff that only I really like to spend loads of time on :-)

After Haast I drove further north and went up the coast a bit. It included a rest stop that looked like it was something out of Baywatch... amazing beaches and little nuggest of land (like mini islands) jutting out of the water and looking just breath taking. Several group of tourists thought so too, they even have tour buses stopping there for people to get off and stretch their legs, and as soon as the bus pulls up you can see the look on their faces... just like mine, in awe.

After the mad scenery stoppovers up the coastline, I got to the Fox and then the Franz Joseph Glaciers. Having never actually seen a glacier first hand meant I knew I was in for something good. It was pretty incredible, all that ice inching its way downt he countryside. I just didn't realise how big those things actually were, and our ones are probably not the biggest in the world. I had to laugh though, when I was at the Fox Glacier there was a small fence line with signage saying do not cross - DANGER DANGER!!!! Of course there was some idiot wayyyyy past the fence line right up at the foot of the glacier taking photos... You don't know how much I prayed for an earthquake right then. The twit was wearing a bright organe jersey and I was thinking that if there was an earthquake that he would be a new tourist attraction in maybe 200 years when all the tourists would be able to look down at a perfectly preserves man frozen in time with a bright orange jersey and a stupid amazed look on his face. Dickhead. Anyhow he lived and I didn't get any laughs up there, but it was ok because the glacier was pretty awesome. I saw Franz Joseph glacier as well about 30 minutes later but the light was fading and I had another 1.5 hours of driving to go so I took a few photo's, read the signs a bit, and chatted to some of the other tourists and promptly left the vicinity... by the wrong road - doh! I drove down the entrance... whoops - I could just see the other tourists in the campervans thinking, 'look at that idiot!' haha whoops.

Anyhow as I was driving to Hokitika (where I am holed up at the moment) I listened to my CD that I bought just outside of Dunedin. I've now listened to it 7,435,435,665 times and I think I am going mad. If I hear Old Skool of Rock Part 2 one more time I think I will go (even more) mad. So I had to invent a new game. Now, if you don't know, the possum is a major introduced pest in New Zealand, it lives everywhere and destroy much of New Zealand's native forestry and if we could wipe it out, we would. Well, anyhow, I noticed several days ago that there was a lot of dead possums on the road... so today I started counting them and I said that I had to shout out the word "Possum!" as soon as I saw one... (pretending that I had a friend in the car with me and I had to beat them to it - which of course mad me giggle at the thought of how mad I was going). 36 Possums! later I arrived in Hokitika and here I am for the night! I only have 30 minutes of internet time... those motels are figuring out that I like the leech as much bandwidth as possible so tonight I have to pre-write my little blog entry :-)

Anyhow I have the rental car for another day and a half so I will have a look at my map tonight and see what I can do and see tomorrow. Trip is absolutely fantastic and wish I had done it sooner...

Cheers
Matt