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Date Posted: 03:23:54 04/28/03 Mon
Author: Naomi the Annoyed
Subject: The West Coast and Milford Sound
In reply to: Sir Nomalot 's message, "Abel Tasman" on 02:59:06 04/28/03 Mon

Grrr... these guys playing games in the cyber cafe are being SOOOOOO loud! I didn't know anybody could talk that loud. If you notice my posts tonight not seeming as jolly and entertaining as they could be, that's why :)

After leaving Nelson, we spent 6 days travelling down the West Coast of the South Island. The scenery on this part of the trip was absolutely gorgeous! The majority of the drive was either along a beautiful rugged coastline, or beside breathtaking snowcapped mountains. At one point we stopped for lunch by a stream near the mountains. Sarah and I had managed to escape our bus group for a while, and I remember sitting there staring up at the mountains thinking "Now I understand why people write songs about mountains". I wouldn't know any other way to explain how they made me feel :)

The route we took was Nelson-> Westport -> Lake Manipuaha (I can't remember what it was called, that is a huge guess! I need to bring my guide book in with me ;) -> Franz Josef Glacier -> Wanaka -> Queenstown.

Westport was a nice little town, but it smelled like coal and we got there late and left in the morning, so we couldn't really see much of it.

At Lake M we stayed at a hotel that basically exists for the sole purpose of housing Kiwi Experience passengers. It's basically just a hostel and a bar in the middle of nowhere. You could walk for 5 minutes one way and get to a nice lake, and 5 minutes the other way took you to the ocean. Every night there is a theme party at the bar for the Kiwi Experience passengers. The walls were covered with pictures of drunk (and sometimes half naked) Kiwi Experience passengers in costume having a great time, it was pretty funny. Sarah and I, being the party animals that we are, shared a pitcher of beer and promptly retired to our rooms to read our books! ;) It was Easter the next day. Sarah and I had planned on making a yummy Easter breakfast, but seeing as the power was out, we had peanut butter and honey on bread... not to worry though, we bought ourselves lots of chocolate!

Franz Josef Glacier was beautiful of course... it's a glacier! Most people on our bus were paying upwards of $50 for a half or full day hike on the glacier. Sarah and I opted for the free option! We went on a really nice 5 hour self guided hike which took us up above the glacier for some great views. We could see all the tiny little people walking around on the glacier, and we made fun of them for all the money that they paid to do it... hehe. After that we spent another couple hours walking right out to the bottom of the glacier, just so we could say we'd been on it.

Wanaka was a beautiful lakeside town. We spent an afternoon and evening there, and had quite a pleasant time just walking around. There was a great view of mountains on the other side of the lake, it's supposed to be one of the best places in NZ to skydive, and I could believe it!

Queenstown was amazing, settled right in the middle of some very gorgeous "Lord of the Ringsy" scenery. It was right on a lake, with mountains all around... I think Sarah is going to talk more about it in her post.

From Queenstown we took a day trip to Milford Sound, which is supposed to be one of the 7(?) natural wonders of the world. It cost us $149 and 8 hours of driving in one day, but it was worth it! We took a 3 hour cruise through the Sound (which is not actually a Sound, but a Fiord). We learned all about what a Fiord is, it's really interesting! I had such a hard time believing that we were sailing on the ocean, because the waters were so calm. Also, I couldn't smell the sea salt, but that's likely because of the layer of fresh water that settles on top of the salt water in a Fiord. We also got to go take a look at the underwater observatory, and see some black coral which is usually very hard to find at such shallow depths.

I really enjoyed the 3 hour cruise ("A three hour tour!!" hehehe... getting the Gilligans Island theme song in your head anybody? Mwa haha!). We just sat back and relaxed on the boat, looking at the amazing scenery tower over us. I've never seen mountains just popping out of the ocean like that, it was quite overwhelming being there. I can now understand why people are always "Pining for the Fiords!"

Anyways, we're now in Christchurch, and we'll be here for 4 nights. Haven't seen too much of it yet, but so far it looks nice.

Hope to talk to you all soon!

Love Nomi

p.s. Anybody up for a Murder Mystery Party when we get back?? Wheeeeeheee!

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