Sunday, April 09, 2006
Snow!
Well... I can see it at the top of the mountain at any rate...
I'm in Franz Josef at the moment. I travelled down from Nelson on Saturday to Greymouth ... which wasn't exactly the liveliest town on the planet... We went on a tour of the brewery there - Monteiths - and learned all about how beer is made, and then got to try all of the ones they make, followed by pulling our own pint of the one we liked the most. So that was two pints of beer before we left the brewery, plus inhaling the fumes inside. Then we went on to the Railway Hotel where we had a BBQ buffet and a free mega pint. All that plus the tour for only $20 - bargain. So we had a few drinks and played a few games of pool before realising that we would have to be up at 7 the next morning and that we were actually pretty knackered and drunk. And it was only 10pm. And there were only about 10 people in the bar - on a Saturday night. Apparently it would have been heaving if we'd stayed around, but we just couldn't quite believe it.
Yesterday (Sunday) we travelled down here to Franz Josef, via a jade workshop and a gold panning place. I decided not to do the gold panning given that I would have had to have about 50 goes to get enough for the tiniest pair of stud earrings.
We arrived in Franz Josef at around lunchtime yesterday, and the weather was not good. All the helicopter rides and kayak trip were cancelled because of it. Basically Franz Josef is a really small town at the foot of a glacier. So the scenery is stunning (when it's not absolutely tipping it down and the cloud is high), but it has a tendency to rain like you wouldn't believe. Which it did. After we'd decided to take a bus out to the foot of the glacier and go for a bit of a walk to see it a bit closer, since we didn't fancy doing an actual hike up the glacier that afternoon. Big mistake. Within 20 mins we were soaked to the skin (well my legs were anyway, I had a kagoul on top) and decided to turn back - but the bus wasn't due back for another hour and a half so we had to blag a ride with a bus that was taking some insane hikers back into town. Phew!
Today my friend is due into town so I'm gonna meet up with her and her boyfriend and see what we can do today. I'm hoping the weather holds so the helicopters are still working. I'll keep you posted.
Suz xx
I'm in Franz Josef at the moment. I travelled down from Nelson on Saturday to Greymouth ... which wasn't exactly the liveliest town on the planet... We went on a tour of the brewery there - Monteiths - and learned all about how beer is made, and then got to try all of the ones they make, followed by pulling our own pint of the one we liked the most. So that was two pints of beer before we left the brewery, plus inhaling the fumes inside. Then we went on to the Railway Hotel where we had a BBQ buffet and a free mega pint. All that plus the tour for only $20 - bargain. So we had a few drinks and played a few games of pool before realising that we would have to be up at 7 the next morning and that we were actually pretty knackered and drunk. And it was only 10pm. And there were only about 10 people in the bar - on a Saturday night. Apparently it would have been heaving if we'd stayed around, but we just couldn't quite believe it.
Yesterday (Sunday) we travelled down here to Franz Josef, via a jade workshop and a gold panning place. I decided not to do the gold panning given that I would have had to have about 50 goes to get enough for the tiniest pair of stud earrings.
We arrived in Franz Josef at around lunchtime yesterday, and the weather was not good. All the helicopter rides and kayak trip were cancelled because of it. Basically Franz Josef is a really small town at the foot of a glacier. So the scenery is stunning (when it's not absolutely tipping it down and the cloud is high), but it has a tendency to rain like you wouldn't believe. Which it did. After we'd decided to take a bus out to the foot of the glacier and go for a bit of a walk to see it a bit closer, since we didn't fancy doing an actual hike up the glacier that afternoon. Big mistake. Within 20 mins we were soaked to the skin (well my legs were anyway, I had a kagoul on top) and decided to turn back - but the bus wasn't due back for another hour and a half so we had to blag a ride with a bus that was taking some insane hikers back into town. Phew!
Today my friend is due into town so I'm gonna meet up with her and her boyfriend and see what we can do today. I'm hoping the weather holds so the helicopters are still working. I'll keep you posted.
Suz xx
# posted by Sue Lambert @ 4:16 PM 
