Woke up in our motel room alive and had some weetabix from the 70’s and a shower in 70’s decor, after packing up again and hiding the Gideon’s bible in Rachel’s bag and her shoes in the fridge, we got on the road. Today we were travelling to the west coast of the south island. According to Google ( from Rach’s research back home, this will take a mere 3:5 hrs) keep reading to find out how long it actually took!
We had a lovely picturesque drive through mountains, over rivers, bit windy, rainy again but we’re are getting used to that now! Very very quiet, seriously we only had 4 cars behind us for the first leg of the journey. After 2:5 hrs driving we came to our half way point at a small village on the sea called Hokitika. It was quite a bohemian town of small independent shops. Stopped for wee and petrol ( you are advised to keep a full tank here as you can drive for hours without a station) We stocked up on tinned essentials for the next few days and then somehow ended up at a kiwi and eel conservation centre shop and the lady on the to nearly tempted us to get on the bus for the tour but we declined smugly thinking to ourselves we never have to get on a coach/bus ever again. She did inform us though about an art exhibition on the beach! So we had our packed lunch on said beach and after enjoyed observing an art competition on the beach, had recently ended but plenty of pieces still to see, all made out of driftwood and rocks from the beach, very inspiring and great to see.
After our entertaining lunch we got back on the road, our sat nav now said 3:5 hrs to go! Rachel decided to have a go driving and again another interesting drive alongside the sea, and through, and around the mountains. Found a nice lake for ‘leg stretch’. Drove through entertaining looking villages that had us considering if we had slipped in a time warp to 1930 American mining / gold rush. Ended up at our destination – Franz Josef, it only took 6 hrs whoops. Our accommodation today is the Franz Josef YHA. We checked in to a nice looking en suite room then went for a wander to the ‘ I- Site’ information centre, of which all we have visited have been excellent customer service and info for tourists. We got a map and weather update for our walks tomorrow, did consider going today but seemed like to much hard work, and we had wine that needed opening drinking up. Watched some helicopter action.
Franz Josef is popular for one thing, the glacier nearby! Everything in the village is related to this – hotels, motels, restaurants, shops, trinkets, helicopter rides.
Rachel did enquire about the possibility of cheaper helicopter rides but most we would have to remortgage, so walking it is!
Back at the hostel we found the communal kitchen and lounge , cooked chorizo sausages and pumpkin soup whilst drinking red wine felt a little bit bad smug as everyone else seemed to be on 11 cents packet noodles , or helping themselves to the free food basket… But really great hostel, clean, eco friendly, lots of youth about but seem to be nice. That is until we go back to or room and find 5 tents in our the garden! Great. Windows shut, we enjoy some normal telly and get a comfortable sleep. Just. After finding ; curious stain on bed, few odd noises ( possibly German) outside, and chatting going on in the hallway.
