STRAY Tour
Day 9
I was a bit down the next day for some reason. We were travelling through some gorgeous terrain, through huge green mountain passes with hundreds of creeks running into rushing rivers. Grey cloud came over and that didn't help my mood. I was having one of those 'why do I bother doing what I do?' days. It wasn't brought on by anything, more just that I don't think its possible to be happy 100% of the time and today happened to be my 'down' day.
Our choice of possible activities for the afternoon was White Water Rafting (cancelled due to not enough interest), Jetboating (which has never really interested me), Horse Riding (something I'd said I'd do in the land of the Lord of the Rings) and the free option was to hike the Buller Gorge.
I chose horse riding. At lunch time, I realised I hadn't bought enough food to fill me up so I'd be hungry for the afternoon. With the grey cloud still over head, Chops said "I've just spoken to the Horse Riding place and someones gonna to have to drop out as they're one horse down at the moment." I put my name forward to drop out, I thought I'd do the free hike, I've spent too much money over the last week or so anyway.
Listening to everyone get off the bus at the activity place sounding excited and going "Come on Matt, its not like you to miss out on this kind of thing?!?" I justified it with the lack of horses and not wanting to spend anymore money and I got the first twinges at the back of my head saying 'You Boring Bastard...'
Chops came on board and said '"We need one more person for jetboating or they can't run it...." Something at the back of my mind said 'Yes' but the rest of my boring self said 'No.' "Anyone?" Chops said, "Matt?"
"Nah, I'm n.....
"WHO'S GOT BIG BALLS!?!?" The jet boat driver said as he jumped on the bus.
"Ooh ooh Me, Me!" My hand shot up.
Damn. Looks like I just put my hand up for a white knuckle ride in a 400hp boat at top speed for the next couple of hours...
MARVELLOUS! I fucking hate being miserable!
I think the boat was designed by Batman himself which added to the coolness of it. We went pretty fast upstream for 40 minutes or so and the driver told us various stories about the gorge and its history. Then we spun around and aquaplaned most of the way back. We drove far too close to the walls of the gorge which was great fun.
Then he'd make a twirling movement with his finger which meant 'Hold on.' Going at about 75km/h he'd turn slightly to the left, then slam the boat to the right, making us do 360 degree spin!
Towards the end of the ride, the gorge dropped away and the curtain of water caused by the spins made a rainbow.
I shook his hand as we got off the boat. It'd blown any cobwebs away and I was feeling really good now from my hit of adrenalin. I also discovered something new at the base camp for it. Put Giant chocolate chip cookies on the Microwave for a minute or so, and they come out soft and gooey as if they've just been baked!
We spent the night at Barrytown. A tiny little town with one pub (that was also the hostel). As having 25 in the pub was a good and unusual thing for the night, the landlord put on a quiz night.
Everyone chucked in a couple of dollars, and our team won it! At the end of the night as the pub was shutting, an excited local invited us to a party which he reckoned had been going on for 3 days now. We were all getting ready to go when someone said "Is there food there? What have you been eating for the last few days?"
"Eating?Ahnotmuchmate. Hehe. WegotsomespeedsomeE'ssomeclassA'sif youwanem'. Hehe. ITsNotrouble.EveryonesPrettyfriendly. YouKnOwACid?? We got someAcidMate. GetMashedandevferythingSWEET... COmeOn. IlldriveyouthereNow. GoodPeopleyouKnow?"
Of all the places in New Zealand, I think Barrytown was last place we'd expect to meet an extra from 'Trainspotting.' We all looked at each other and pretty much all said the same thing, "Cheers Mate. Thanks for the invite but I'm actually quite tired and we have got an early start tomorrow."
"NOSeriouslyIt'llbesweet!!"
"No, honestly, I'm fine. Thanks."
"OKNoWorriesYourloss. Seeyas"
I think we all killed ourselves laughing the moment the pub door shut. I hadn't realised how much he was gesturing with his hands and how wide his eyes were until we all started taking the piss once he left. We ended up going down to the beach and starting a fire to keep warm while we looked at the crystal clear stars.
DAY 10
We made our way to Franz Joseph, a town built alongside the Franz Joseph glacier. We stopped off at a beautiful lake for a picnic lunch. This is the New Zealand I was expecting to see.
When we got to Franz Joseph, we booked our various trips for the next day. Everyone went for the $100 dollar full day's hike option whereas I went for the $240 Heli-hike option. You get less time on the glacier, but that doesn't matter because you get flown up to the best bits anyway. And you don't have to hike up all the dirty, compressed ice and snow at the beginning. And you get a brief check-in without a queue at your own check in desk in reception. I glanced over and saw everyone else having the thermals explained to them by someone standing and shouting, then I looked forward and the bloke was calmly and quietly telling me how I didn't need to bring any special equipment as its all included in the price. Its a 10.30 pick up so I even get a lay-in! As I walked back to the bus, Chops said "Did you book it?... Wait, don't tell me. I can tell you booked it from your swagger!"
As we pulled into the hostel, a rainbow appeared in front of the mountain.
Sunset from the river bed downstream, of the glacier.
We spent that night at the Baa Bar at the hostel. There were 2 big green fuck trucks (Kiwi Experience buses) in too so the place was heaving. I got really hammered and did crap at the Killer Pool competition. But it turned out being a good night because I was chatting to Chops for ages as the place shut. It ended up being me, Chops, a Kiwi driver and both the barmaids shooting 'Five arsed monkeys' (a shot made from Kahlua, Chartreuse, Yeigermeister, Cointreau and Baileys) till the early hours.