The trip from Greymouth to Franz Josef was pretty uneventful, really. Apart from the weather, which was awful. The rain never stopped. We had a stop on the way at the Greenstone (also known locally as Pounamu, and is actually nephrite jade) factory at Hokitika, which also had the last big supermarket before Greymouth. We decided to go shopping first, and buy stuff for a shared meal. We got a bit damp on the way, but we got back in time to have a look around the factory shop. I bought myself a Greenstone pendant, and I got an (almost) matching one for my girlfriend, Alannah (nearly months on, and I still haven't sent her it). The rain got even heavier as we got closer to Frans Josef, and we were told that the half day hikes for that day were cancelled. I didn't worry, because I was taking the full day hike the following day. The roads on the way were actually partly flooded, and we got concerned for our luggage in the compartment below us. We arrived in Franz Josef with our luggage completely dry, an I got settled into my backpackers, which was across the road from Noirin and Annette. We had some spag bol together at my hostel before setting out to have a look at the i-site, which also had an informational video about the glacier. it was quite informative. We then headed back to my hostel were a few of us sat round and watched 'The Darkness', which was an incredibly unrewarding horror movie. It didn't even have a good ending. After that, we decided to call it a night and get ourselves rested for the glacier hike the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment