Hey All,

Sorry I got called away from writing to go out.

After stopping, we got back in the Coach and continued out ride down the beautiful West Coast. I can’t believe that at one time I considered not visiting here. The West Coast has lots of one way bridges which are really interesting.

The bus was mostly empty, and I had my own seat to stretch out on which was nice. There was also an older couple with a crazy annoying kid sitting a few seats behind me. That was unfortunate.

We arrived at the outside of the Glacier City and started dropping people off. The Coach dropped me and a few others right outside the Glowworm Cottages. I checked in, dropped my bags, and went to explore the city.

As an aside, the room was really nice with an en suite bathroom and kitchen and TV. It was a bargain for $23 a night!

I walked a little bit and checked out the information still deciding whether or not to pay a company to go and walk on the ice. I decided not too.

As I was in information center, a guy came in and started up a conversation. He was apparantly also my roommate from the Glowworm Cottages. We got to talking and soon were joined by another American (there were a good lot in the town) girl. After talking for awhile I told him about the film we went and saw it. It was average but did show some spectacular shots of the West Coast and was about 20 mins long. Probably not worth the $12, but whatever.

It was about dinner time and we decided to go eat. So we went to this Indian Restaurant on the side of town. We ate there until this guy he met on the bus from Greymouth earlier came in and joined us. He also had one of his roommates that he had preivously met at another hostel with him.

We sat and talked for a good long while. Btw these peoples names are Anderson from Brazil, Juan from Argentina, and Saul from San Fran. After sitting for awhile Juan and Saul were hungry so we went to another nice outdoor type restaurant to get dinner for them and dessert for us. We sat out talking til about midnight and had some amazingly interesting conversation. Like real conversation about actual things. It was legit.

The next morning I woke up later than those around me because they had to make it out to the company for their climb. I called home and then attempted to make the shuttle to the Glacier. But it was full and left early so not wanting to wait 2 hours for the next shuttle I decided to just hike the 5k there. On the way there I met a girl named Inga from Germany. She also was walking to the glacier so we had some good conversation all the way. We actually spent most of the day (til about 4 PM) tramping together and talking. It was quite nice.

The glacier was really amazing and the trails to the pools and such around it were amazing as well! It was a pretty awesome day.

So after hiking about 20-25k I was feeling a little bit tired so I went back and read some history about the area. I had heard of the caves earlier from Inga and decided after reading that it would be cool to check it out. So after talking to Brandon for a half hour (and telling him to let everyone know that I might die in the caves) I set out for the caves. I brought the appropriate gear and after a very reflective walk of about 45 minutes I arrived and the cave and started in.

The water went about ankle deep at the deepest and I was surprised to learn that my boots were waterproof!!!! That made the experience a lot better. The cave was quite interesting and surprisingly fairly long. It was an old water sluicing shaft and later a hydroelectric station. I walked to the end, explored, and then started back. On the way back I noticed there were glowworms in the cave and turned my light off (bc I knew about how long it was now) and admired the glowworms. They are weird (sic?) little things and glow a bright blue in the dark. There were some areas covered with them and it looked like looking up at the sky.

Also, the cave was very wet and I had to wear my rain jacket. It was really cool to see the glowworms for free rather than paying the $160 for a tour. And I got to go at my own pace. It was really cool. I then explored a little side cave and did a little climbing on rocks.

On the way back to town I reflected a lot more, even talking a loud to myself (it helps) and I will be detailing these thoughts later.

I got back to my room, changed and went to get some food from the supermarket. I went there, saw more Americans, and then headed back to the hostel. On the way there I saw Juan from the night before and decided to join him. We talked for awhile, I learned a helleva lot more about Argentina, and then his Irish friend he had met from a previous hostel walked by and joined us. We talked for a few more hours and then called it a night because it was really cold. I went back to the room, talked with the UK guys in there, and cooked my dinner, packed my pack, and went to bed.

Anderson and I decided that we would stay in the same hostel in Queenstown and since I had the earlier bus and the BBH guide I would book it. I walked out to the bus and saw it pulling away 10 minutes ahead of time. I signaled the driver and he made some wise crack but in not a terrible function and I boarded the bus. I then found out he was just circling the town.

This driver turned out to be amazing. He provided commentary throughout the bus ride and it was funny and informative. The trip was beautiful (like all of NZ, except for some of Auckland) and we stopped at a Salmon farm which is basically exactly what I thought it would be like. We continued on out journey seeing the coast and rain forests and mountains.

I also found that the aforementioned annoying kid was also on this bus. But at least he was out of ear shot. We continued on our way and stopped at a small cafe in the middle of nowhere (population wise) and had lunch.

We continued on our way and switched drivers to a quiet guy at this Thundercreek Falls. The falls were really cool! We stopped again for a pee break and then continued toward Wanaka, a small city above Queenstown, peed again, and then continued.

I got into Queenstown fine, and found the backpackers very easily. Anderson was a few minutes behind so I went exploring and so I checked out the town.

It is a very new town with almost no historical buildings. It is basically exclusively a tourist town. It is interesting but not my absolute favorite. Anderson got back into town and he said he knew where the previously mentioned Sal was. So we went to his place (Resort Lodge) looking for him. Unfortunately and unbeknown to us, he was registered under someone else’s names. So we left a message at reception.

To be continued.