October 4th to 9th

Welp, Nelson was not that fun.  I ended up turning the Friday into a rest day.  I went out for a walk to the grocery store and then the beach but that was about it.  The Nelson beach was covered with people in Rasta hats and dreads smoking reefers in their vans.  I guess just the name Nelson attracts certain people. Anyway, the next morning I was up at 6 am to catch a bus down the west coast.  My roomate in this preschool they call a hostel got back from somewhere at 5 am. So I made sure to take a couple tries to get my bag through the door on the way out.  The bus was driven by a german guy. He was incapable of pronouncing the traditional Maori names so he would say it really fast and then just tell us what it meant in english.  I arrived in Westport later that day. It is a tiny town built on coal and fishing. The hostel was a giant house. It was a very cool place to put a hostel. The following day I ended up renting a bike to go out and see a seal colony.  The ocean was incredibly beautiful up and down the west coast. Very rough looking beaches with perfect water. My last night in Westport I was lying in my bed catching up on Mad Men. I had my earbuds in and couldn’t see the door, so when my roommate came in at 10 pm he scared the crap out of me.  It was a 50 or so year old man from Croatia. He was the national coach of the Croatian curling team; although it turns out Croatia only has 70 curlers in the entire country. He told me about his life in back in Yugoslavia and his curling trips to Moose Jaw in January. The next morning I was back on the bus to Franz Josef glacier.  It was a long trip but I had my podcasts to keep me busy (sidenote: I think that on my trip I have listened to over 35 hours of podcasts). I arrived in Franz Josef around 4. The city is spectacular as it is in the middle of the rainforest. The greenery is beautiful with the big mountains behind. That night I went to the Kiwi sanctuary to see some of the Kiwis.  They are surprisingly big birds and very funny looking. The next morning I went on a kayak trip on the lake next to the town. We had a Californian guide with dreads. I could tell she was Californian without asking her because she was able to say cool, sick and dude 20 times in one safety briefing. I ended up being in a dorm with 2 frenchy students at Lavalin. It was good for me because their english was horrific so I was able to speak french for the first time since I wrote my french final.  They ended up being the only other Canadians I would see for the entire trip. It was nice to see Canada get blasted by South Africa this time. Other than Canada the World Cup has been very interesting so far with two matches getting cancelled in the past few days because of a typhoon passing over Japan. The following day was a 10 hour bus ride down to Queenstown with some of the worst fish and chips I had ever had along the way. Queenstown will come out tomorrow as my last note about the trip.  

Best Wishes

Beckett