the rugged south island!

hey guys! Sorry its been like a week since my last post...... had some issues with my computer and havent had much wireless or anything.. Found out last week that I had 0% space left on my hardrive... yeahhhhh that wasnt that good for uploading like 800 pictures at a time. It was a wee bit frustrating, so i had to delete a bunch of things off my computer, that didnt help much and then ended up using my USB to save other pics and had to buy another memory card for my computer... anyhow, enough complaining.... soooo where did i leave off... wellington, sunday morning i caught the Interislander ferry across the Cook strait to Picton and the south island. It had been raining for about 2 days in Welly and thus making the crossing a bit of a shaky one. It is already a bit rough on a nice day, but the captain was like welcome to the washing machine! haha. It wasnt that bad actually, but the top oberservation deck was closed due to weather and thus making the rather scenic crossing over the charlotte sounds less appealing through the window of a giant boat. Ferry took about 3 hours or so, with the last 20 i got to go on the deck because the weather had cleared a bit and started to see blue skies again as we came into Picton, just a small port town at the tip of the south island. I couldnt catch the bus till the next day so i hung around picton for the afternoon and did some cook treks out to see the sound better. It was beautiful! Picton was a nice little town and the hostel that i stayed at was probably the cleanest and one of the nicest that i have stayed at so far... it was run by a man and a woman and they did all they could to make everyones stay go nice. I coooked a nice meal for myself and got a bottle of savignon blanc, which is produced locally as wineries are scattered much across NZ... Like i said before i am growing more and more to like a nice glass of wine... Caught the bus on monday the 18th on my way to Nelson, which is supposed to be the sunniest place in NZ recording something like 3600 hours of sunlight a year, a nice change from the weather in Wellington. Stayed at a rather busy and pretty nice hostel called Paradiso. I was staying in my tent there. But i got to play volleyball!!!! Figured i would have gotten the chance at the beach when i was up north, but not once. Took a walk my first night to the geographical center of NZ which is located on a hill overlooking Nelson.. it was only like a 20 minute walk but it was a really nice view over the water and out to Abel Tasman national park. I would then visit the park the next morning and we drove like an hour to it and then took a water taxi about 40 minutes up the beach, they dropped us off and then we walked back to the landing point. We had an option for a 4 or 6 hour walk..... I figured i would go all in and do the 6 hour walk. It was pretty with amazing golden sand beaches... but i think i should have done the 4 hour walk instead. It was a bit of a warm day and turned to a pretty tiring afternoon as i thought i was rushing back to catch the bus back to Nelson.... It was about a 25k walk in total and the last like 1.5k i decided i had gone to far and thought i had to backtrack an extra couple of K to get back to where we were getting picked up.. i kinda had a lapse of judgement.. haha i was tired and got really upset with myself for walking more than i had to...... turns out i was like super close to where i was supposed be but i figured it out with a little help from canadian guy named Ben. Was super tired after that walk. Spent the next day in Nelson and just figured out what i could do with my computer and checked out some of the local sites. It was a bit rainy again, but it wasnt too bad out. That night i went to set my alarm on my watch so i could wake up for the busride to Greymouth and the watch died.... greaaaat... pretty much my way of knowing when to wake up for all the early morning buses and everything else. So i set the alarm on my ipod which i had never done before and prayed i wouldnt miss the bus...... soo around 2am that night i woke up paranoid about the time and there was this crazy noise outside my tent. I knew it was some kind of animal but i wasnt quite sure what it was.... i assumed that it was a possum because they are supposedly like everywhere here. I tried to shew it away and it decided it wanted to stay another like 20 minutes making rediculous noises....... woke up and had no idea what time it was in the am, turns out i had plenty of time to pack up.... it was raining again though and it was a bit miserable trying to take my tent down and pack my bags.... got on the bus on thursday morning and we headed towards Greymouth. Stopped a few times on the west coast, once at a beach which has a seal colony which was pretty cool and then at this other place called punakaiki rocks or pancake rocks. It was cool as well. Its 1215 am right now as i am writing this, so i apologize if i am not being the descriptive. Got into Greymouth and was warned that it wasnt that special of a place. Decided to go on the brewery tour at Monteiths, cuz it had a voucher for dinner with it as well so it was a good deal. Went to a pub after witha buncha international people from the bus and we got 6$ pints which is super cheap for NZ, decided to just have fun with it........ it was about 2 am by them time i walked back to the hostel, which i forgot was animal themed. It was called Noahs ark and each room had a diffferent animal all over the place. I ended up in the monkey room with two of my new swedish friends. Anyhow, got a little turned around walking back to the hostel after being at the pub and stopped at a petrol station (gas) and there happend to be a policeman there and i asked him for directions, welllllllll he decided to give me a ride, haha...... it was funny... i was only really a street away from where i was supposed to be, so it wasnt that bad..... i realized no one else from the bus was staying any longer in greymouth but i had forgot to book for the next day to Franz Josef, where the glacier was....... so the bus driver didnt know if there would be a space for me cuz he already had 55 people and only 49 seats.... got up with everyone else in the room, a bit tired stilll from my late night adventure and happens i could still catch a ride on the bus.. i was happy...... made a few stops between Greymouth and Franz Josef, one at a little gold mine village called Ross and another at a Green or Pounamu stone factory where we saw the artisans making all sorts of cool jewerly and like things....... Got into Franz Josef and the weaher had cleared up finally. Decided i couldnt really afford a guided glacier walk so i did the valley walk to the glacier with Simon from Sweden and then went my own way and took a ton of pics. It was a breathtaking site.... its a World Heritage site and for good reason. Its so amazing to see all this green mountains and then this giant ice glacier. It almost doesnt make sense to me.... spent a good 4 hours or so just chillen near the glacier, Get it?!!, chillen! haha.... ok im tired and sense of humor is poor, but anyway, walked the 5k back into town where the hostels were, hung around, made some dinner and then did a cool little night walk with 3 australian girls to a trail that has glow worms, much like the ones in Waitomo, but without the caves. We took a torch, (flashlight) but we really didnt need it. They were some crazy girls, but funny as all get out.. we kept scaring eachother as it actually was a bit spooky being on a dark trail winding through native rainforest almost.... we thought we would scare some other people so we stood in a dark place and turned out torch off, turns out the people we were scaring werent who we thought and we nealy gave this german???? lady a heart attack, felt a little bad about that.. haha....... slept in bit this morning which was really nice and then did about a 15-20k walk called the Alex Knob, which runs kinda near the glacier and gives some pretty good views. It was rather warm today and i was sweating only a few K in..... this was really the most rainforesty type walk i have done, as the west coast of the south island get heaps of rain. but it was beautiful, but ruggen trail...... i am in shape, but it was a bit tricky in some places.... i didnt end up walking the whole way up.... the DOC sign said that it was an 8 hour trek return, i walked about 3 hours in and decided not to go up to the next lookout as the clouds were covering the higher peaks anyway.. sat up there for a bit and relaxes and ate some snacks and just admired the shear beauty of the glacier, the amazing waterfalls falling near it and the snow covered peaks around it....... the walk back down was challenging as well, but didnt seem like it took as long... did a small detour to Wombat lake and it was very serene.. also got to see my first Kea or mountain Parrot!!! they were pretty cool and rather large, i snuck up on it with my 400mm lens on my camera, but im not sure i got a good pic as the lighting was rather crummy..... got a bite to eat when i got back to town, took a shower and got on the internet again for the first time in almst a week. Played some cards with my Aussie walking buddies and the swedish kids and here i am now...... deff need to crash and get a little sleep. Bus leaves at 745am for Queenstown, and we dont pull in till about 5ish, which is gonna be a loooonnnng day.... not sure if i am going to go straight to Queenstown, or make a stop in Wanaka and stay a night there, i have heard that it is nice......... then Queenstown and a day trip out to another world heritage site, MILFORD SOUND! which is a very iconic NZ scenery, reallllllly looking forward to it...... anyhow, i cant believe i have been here for almost 4 weeks now! its crazy! i have been having quite an amazing time and it is a beautiful place and easy going, I WOULD RECCOMEND YOU ALL COME SOMEDAY IF YOU GET THE CHANCE! OK, bedtime for me! i will upload more pics to here and facebook in Queenstown! cheers!