Hostel living is quite the experience. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of the noisy bar atmosphere behind our hostel, and the constant in and out patterns of the roommates! I was happy to leave this morning with our tour at 8 am. Today was mostly spent in the bus, but that was quite relaxing and I slept a good amount. We drove through the Canterbury plains where we saw sheep and cattle constantly.
Our first stop was at Arthur’s Pass - one of only three passes through the Southern Alps. The mountains were beautiful, but there was a heavy rain which kept the waterfalls running quickly. Sadly, it was not prime picture taking - that’s for sure! We also stopped off to look for the “kea,” a New Zealand alpine parrot. Apparently, it is very very large and is known to be a nuisance to farmers because it attacks sheep to eat their kidneys. Unfortunately, we did not see one.
We travelled through to Hokitika which is known for it’s native Jade stone. The Maori people find the stone and carve it - but since it takes so much handiwork, it is quite expensive. That stop was about an hour long, so Mike and I made our way to a little wildlife place where we saw eels, turtles, lizards, and the best one - the kiwi bird! It was bigger than I imagined. The kiwi is a nocturnal bird, so it’s exhibit was very dark, and I couldn’t get a good picture. It was searching for food with it’s long beak and running back and forth in it’s cage. Soon we got lunch at the little cafe in the Jade Factory. Then, it was time to get back in the bus!
The tour group has about 30 people in it - all in their 20’s and 30’s. Everyone is very friendly, and some of them have been traveling for awhile from Auckland! After Hokitika, we drove through a small town called Ross which is a gold mining town. Apparently all of their houses are sitting on tons of gold, but they refuse to move.
The bus made it’s way to our last stop, Lake Matheson. This lake is incredibly still, and normally you can see the reflection of two of the highest mountains in New Zealand in it. However, because today was so rainy, we were not able to see the mountains due to a lot of clouds. The lake itself was beautiful, and the reflections were really pretty of a few mountains and tons of trees.
Tonight we had dinner in the restaurant at the Inn where we are sleeping. Then, we went on a dark walk through the forest near by and saw glow warms... it was kind of frightening to walk through the dark! I was glad I had Mike’s arm to grip on to, especially when someone behind us nearly fell into the creek! Glowworms are actually maggots, and the glowing part is their poop. You learn something new every day! Time to sleep now... early start in the morning!
Cheers :)
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