Sonofabitch. I should probably wait until tomorrow to write this up, but we’re on a tight schedule here. Besides, I’m too tired to go to sleep right now.
I went on the Franz Josef Glacier walk today. The full day variety. I believe it has a "difficult" difficulty rating. Perhaps I should have paid a little attention to that. It suggested that someone be reasonable fit. I guess I’m reasonably fit since I made it through the day, but goddamn it was tough at points. Walking up step stone and/or ice steps got me winded pretty quickly and it took me until lunch to really catch my breath. Actually had to use my inhaler at one point, mostly out of precaution, but also because I noticed I was wheezing slightly. I continually busted my knuckles on the ice as we were squeezing through tight cracks and crev-asses. I even got stuck once in the narrowest crack. I got through with the help of the guide (his name was Basil and as a result I thought about Fawlty Towers most of the day).
Don’t get me wrong, it was an incredible experience, but I won’t be doing it again soon. Unfortunately I felt like I was sucking wind more than looking around at the amazing ice formations and surrounding rain forest. I think next time I might shell out the dough for a helicopter lift up to the top where there are supposed to be breathtaking ice caves.
Tomorrow I have a short four hour bus ride to Greymouth. I’m relishing in the idea of doing absolutely nothing at all, nothing at all, nothing at all. I don’t feel like doing anything for weeks. I’ll be dead tonight while I sleep.
5/27
I still haven’t caught my breath from yesterday—literally. I’m having some trouble exhaling and from time to time I give an asthmatic cough. I’m curious if all the overexertion yesterday has lead to some illness today, though I hardly feel ill, I just struggle with deep breaths. I’m surprised all my bones and muscles aren’t screaming today, all I feel is a little fatigue, and when I step up or down my legs feel a bit dead. My ass is bruised; I fell on it a few times yesterday during our dissent. The most annoying thing is the rawness of the back of my right hand. I’m missing tiny bits of skin here and there.
Today has proven a bit more eventful than expected, mostly because on the bus ride to Greymouth we stopped in a town that had a small indoor aquarium/zoo which included two Kiwi birds. But before I could see the rare nocturnal flightless birds, I got creeped out by a tank of 20-30 large eels. These guys were huge—and over 100 years old—and a bit too snake-like for my liking. As I was walking toward the Kiwi Room, a man asked me if I wanted to feed the eels. Shit. I have no idea why I said yes. So there I was with two small Middle Eastern boys, their mother, and the old man on a small, wooden platform above the eel tank (the eels were easily six feet long and as thick as my leg). We had to get down on our knees and lean over the water to feed the eels slivers of ox heart (why I asked what we were feeding them, I have no idea), placing the food in their mouths with what looked like salad tongs. The eels’ heads would come about a foot out of the water, their mouths gasping for food they could hardly see (“You gotta place it in their mouths cuz they don’t see so well.”). I’m getting chills just thinking about it again.
Greymouth is located at the mouth of the Grey River (hence, Greymouth). I’m sitting right now on a bench next to the Grey River with the town to my back. The river looks anywhere from 300-500 yards wide and is divided by an island of large rocks, boulders, and bushes. I’m maybe a mile or two from the Tasman Sea, and the sun looks to be setting in about a half hour. It’s setting into some clouds, the first large wispy clouds I’ve seen in a few days. The sun behind the clouds is giving off a bright white blinding light that makes it look like there is a deity up over there starting to peak around the other side of the world.
5/28
Traveled on the scenic train ride from Greymouth to Christchurch. I kinda wish the train left a little earlier than 1:45 because some of the beautiful scenery became quite dark and made taking pictures difficult. The good news is that I still took a bunch of good pictures, and I’ve nearly filled up my camera with pictures from my Australia/NZ trip. I’ve taken almost a thousand pictures since the middle of February which is a hell of a lot more than I expected to take, but I also didn’t plan on visiting NZ where I’ve taken a good 400+ pictures. Far too many to upload.
I had a surprisingly eventful night last night. I roomed with a German guy, a female French winemaker, and a French guy who did not speak much English. We went out for drinks and pool and they asked me several questions about the States and about English and I answered the best I could. We would have stayed out later, but by 11pm, we couldn’t find anything that was open so we went back to the hostel, drink some tea, and went to bed. There were only about six people total staying at The Duke, an awkward, pastel colored building, and it seems as a result of the lack of backpackers, the owner neglected to turn on the heat. We could see our breath in our room. I huddled under two comforters and slept surprisingly well considering the initial discomfort.
5/29
Back in Sydney and not feeling too well. Woke up with a head cold after a bit of drinking with someone from the Internet last night. Flying with a head cold is about the worst thing in the world, and I can’t hear much out of my left ear because it’s all blocked up and nothing will unpop it. Time to get some drugs imo.
It was not only a painful flight, but a bit sad, too. I wish I had more time there, but this just means that I’ll be going back there some day, and I urge all my friends and family and anyone really to take the time to go down there. The sites you’ll see will drop your jaw to the floor and leave it there for the duration of your travels (unless you’re in Christchurch which is very uninteresting). Many foreign currencies go a long way in New Zealand, so it can be a surprisingly cheap vacation, and lemme tell ya, you’ll get your money’s worth and much, much more.
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