Road Trip

Hello! I thought I'd update on how our road trip is going.  So far so good!

Day One: Monday 4/25-  We left Alexandra and about 9am.  The plan was to drive to Franz Josef.  Franz Josef is a town, but also a glacier.  It was about a 5 hour drive.  We stopped several places along the way to get out and stretch our legs.  We stopped at Fox Glacier, about 30 minutes from Franz Josef.  We did a few short walks and were able to get as close as possible to the glacier face without being in danger.  By the time we finished our walk it was about 5:00.  We checked into our backpacker and walked to the market to make dinner at the backpacker.  We stayed in the backpacker the rest of the night and played cards, a few board games and watched movies in the tv room.  Through out the trip we are staying at YHA (Youth Hostel association) backpackers, they have all been very nice and clean.

Day Two: Tuesday 4/26- We got up and were ready by about 9:30.  We planned to do another short walk to the face of Franz Josef glacier.  It was about an hour walk.  I enjoyed the walk, but kept comparing it to our Mt. Cook tour and it just wasn't as cool.  It was still fun.  After Franz Josef and drove up the west coast to a town called Hokitika.  It is known for it's Jade Factory.  David wanted to stop and get some Jade necklaces.  It was a nice stop half way through the drive.  We had lunch at a cute cafe and then continued driving toward Punakaiki.  I was expecting the drive to be pretty easy and pretty along the coast.  I was wrong, it was still pretty but very curvy up and down hills.  I have realized after coming to New Zealand, I get a little car sick. :/  I'm fine as long as I'm driving, so I am either sleeping or driving.  Punakaiki is known for it's pancake rocks. There were pretty amazing to see.  Geologist don't actually know how the rock formations were formed, but they are pretty cool looking!  We called ahead to make reservations for the YHA in Punakaiki.  It was possibly one of the coolest backpackers so far.  We drove a bit out of town and onto a gravel road near the beach.  The backpacker was an adorable little cottage back in the woods.  There was a kitchen on the main floor and a loft like bedroom.  We ended up sharing it with a girl traveling from Israel.  We decided to take a walk down to the beach as the sun was setting.  It was amazing!  We tried to leave before the sun went down because we had to walk through the woods.  We were lucky we had the light from our camera.  We ended up coming out of the woods a different way we went it.  It was quite the experience. We found our backpacker and enjoyed dinner and cards.

Day Three: Wednesday 4/27-  We had a rather long drive today so we planned to leave around 8.  David was the driver for today.  There weren't too many places to stop so we ended up driving the whole 4 hours straight.  We got into Nelson at about 12:30.  Nelson is a larger city on the northern coast of the southern island.  Unfortunately it was pretty crappy weather, it wasn't raining but cloudy and windy.  We got to our backpacker, which ended up being pretty central.  A few of us were hungry for seafood.  The receptionist told us of a good place in the harbor.  We sat down, looked at the menu and ended up getting up because we didn't know what half of the menu was.  We walked a bit farther to a cute cafe.  We sat outside and enjoyed watching the boats come in.  We tried to figure out our game plan for the next few days.  We are going to finish driving along the north coast and then down the east.

If you would have asked me a week ago, I don't know if I'd have had the same response, but I'm happy to say I'm ready to come home! I miss my friends and family and want to sleep in my own bed.  I want this last week to go by fast but at the same time I want to makes the best of my experience.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in less than a week! :)