South Island roadtrip!

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  Hokitika, New Zealand
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

On Friday we spent the morning packing up and checking out and then searching for our friend Gerard. we met Gerard in Christchurch when we met Vicki and had made plans to got to the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival together. So while Vicki and I tried to find a car to rent, Amanda wandered down to Gerard's hostel to try and find him. We had success on all fronts! Amanda found Gerard who had already made arrangements to rent a car for cheap! We were told that it would be a small car and that Gerard's new friend Tom would also be joining us. While we waited for Gerard to come back with the car, we watched the cars drive by and shuddered at every tiny car that we saw. We were in luck though and the airport was out of small cars, so we recieved a pretty nice midsized car for the same price!! Oh happy day. So we loaded up the car and were off. We drove through the mountains....on the WRONG side of the road and on to Franz Josef. We finally found a hostel that we all agreed on and decided we need to eat. Us girls made some dinner and the boys went out. The kitchen ended up being right next to the common area and everyone else was watching a very intense movie. We were as quiet as church mice and we chowed down. We called it an early night and were off to bed.

The next morning we were back on the road and it was a short drive to Hokitika. This is a dinky town that is only on the map because of the Wildfoods Festival each year. As we drove in, we realized that there was a ton of people dressed up. Nobody told us about this part of the festival so we quickly scrounged through our packs to see what we could find. Amanda had her Canadian flag towel and I had my Cdn Olympic hat and we taped a flag onto Vicki's butt. Fabulous, we were ready to go. The festival was full of 1000's of crazy drunk people from all over the place eating gross food. I mean wild.... There was worms in sushi, crocodile and kangaroo and who knows what else. There was also alot of beer. We tried some eel and chicken flavoured pancakes. It definitely wasn't my favorite meal ever. The best food was some kind of deep fried bread with jalepeno pesto, and tomatoes. Mmmm! It started to rain in the afternoon and things started to wrap up. We had by this time, lost the boys who had the keys to the car so we headed to a pub. We met some Kiwi guys who taught us a new drinking game and had a few with them. We danced to a local band for a while and then went down to the beach. For whatever reason we decided that we could roll up our pants and splash along the shore without getting really wet. We were wrong. So we stripped down to our skivvies and went crashing into the waves. Well the waves really crashed into us I guess. We were salty and sandy and wet and really hoping Gerard and Tom were back at the car. No such luck. So we walked around town with the guys from the pub looking for the place that they were supposed to stay at. It took us hours and when we finally found the scouts hall, it was packed with sleeping people. There were even people sleeping on the porch and in the playground. So us girls decided that we would go back to the car and sleep there. I guess Gerard and Tom had just got back right before we did so we changed into dry clean clothes and the 5 of us piled into the car for one of the worst sleeps ever.

The next morning we left Tom on the side of the road for him to catch a ride North with some people he met the night before. Hope he made it. Gerard and us 3 Canadian girls drove back to Fox Glacier. We showered and changed and each did our own thing for a bit. Amanda and I met a couple of guys from Alberta. Random! So we hung out with them for a bit and after Vicki's nap and Gerard's wandering we all had dinner together. We stayed the night and the following day Gerard and Vicki went on a tour of the glacier. Amanda and I decided that we have these at home, and didn't feel like spending the money. We took the car....yes we drove on the wrong side of the road and lived to tell about it! We drove to Franz Josef to see if we could rent these dune buggies. We couldn't so we had another lazy afternoon. Once our crew got back from their glacier walk we drove down to Wanaka.

Wanaka's a gorgeous little town on the lake and we did some much needed laundry. After a quick trip to the grocery store, we cooked some dinner and made some plans for the rest of our time in NZ. The four of us then grabbed a beer and went down to the beach. We spent some time chatting and looking at the stars. It really doesn't get much better than that. The next morning we were off again and had some breakie in the car. We dropped our little frenchie friend off at the bus stop and said our goodbyes. Gerard, Amanda and I went to Puzzle World next! It's this place full of optical illusions and holograms and stuff. They also have a giant outdoor maze! The maze has four colored towers in the corners and you have to get to each one and then to the garden in the middle. Of course we decided to make it a race and Amanda ended up winning. I came in a close second. After Gerard finished, we went inside to try out some puzzles. They were really challenging. We definitely got a brain work out that day. I totally finished my puzzle first and we almost had to buy Amanda's so she would be able to sleep at night. After Puzzle World, we were back in the car and on our way back to Queenstown.

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