Today marked the first cafe stop I experienced with the Magic Bus...but more on that in later posts. I didn't get enough sleep the night before since the night ended pretty late, so I definitely needed some coffee to wake up. Unfortunately, like I posted before, coffee is ridiculously expensive, so I figured if I'd have to spend so much, I might as well try something different. So I got a "marshoccino" (unique to this particular cafe)...for some reason, it sounded so good on the price board haha. I thought there'd be a couple of giant marshmallows, but instead there were only 2 tiny marshmallows (can you believe that cost $0.50 NZD extra, compared to the $4 NZD cappuccino?...yea, $4.50 NZD for that drink!)! The cafe proclaimed itself as having the largest teapot collection on the South Island, which seemed pretty possible (there were more than just the 2 photos I took). I know, the 2nd photo is blurry - it's surprisingly quite hard to take a steady shot with my phone's camera.
Next stop, the tiny town of Ross, a former gold rush town. This was the only thing worth taking a picture of...obviously a town that survives on the tourism the bus brings them. There was a "gold panning" activity where you could try to find "gold" in dirt using the old filtering method with a pan - obviously just for kids.
Third stop, the Bushman's Centre in Pukekura. Yet another tourist trap, but a pretty interesting one. For $4 NZD, they show you a movie showing how the Kiwis in west NZ used to make a living by hunting deer (an introduced species to NZ which blew up in numbers with no natural predators and began to overrun the country, destroying much of NZ's natural vegetation) to attempt population control, plus a look at their possums and other creatures. I couldn't get a good photo of a possum (they all seemed to be sleeping). The last photo is supposed to be of the rare albino possum.
Perhaps one of the better attractions wasn't an advertised one, the Centre's sense of humour. An apron in the gift shop that caught my eye.
The Bushmans menu...some pretty funny names haha.
The biggest attraction for me, getting to try their famous possum pie! According to them (it may just be another one of their jokes, I don't know for sure), but they legally can't sell possum meat since there's no regulation for its quality, so they have you "donate" some money, and as thanks, they give you a homemade possum pie haha! It was real possum meat! I was surprised to find quite a bit of hair in the pie, still attached to some of the meat (others who tried it found some in their pies too). Tasted sort of like turkey and it was quite chewy...
Some more of their humour - a slew of greeting cards surprisingly dirty and hilarious. I've blown up the cards (last 2 photos) since they're not too legible in the original photo (the beauty of shooting at 12MP).
We rolled into Franz Josef just after noon. Like I said before, it is a tiny town, which probably only survives because of the tourism that the nearby glacier of the same name attracts. So of course I was going to see the 12 km long Franz Josef glacier. How often do you get to see a glacier up close? With the company that Magic Bus affiliates with, I had the option of doing a half-day hike on the glacier, a full-day hike (which would require staying an extra night, which I couldn't afford to do), or a half-day heli hike (where they bring you farther up the glacier in a helicopter, and then you do the hike). There was no way I could afford it...I didn't even originally plan to do it...but the view was supposed to be a lot better higher up the glacier (the ice was supposed to be more blue and contain less dirt)...so yes, I sprung the $370 NZD (about $296 CAD) I didn't have and opted for the heli hike. At least I was killing 2 birds with one stone(!): I'd never been in a helicopter before, and I'd never walked on a glacier before! So was it worth the money? Yes, I'm glad I did it...though the view wasn't as spectacular as they made it seem: the ice looked pretty dirty to me and not as blue as they said it'd be, and when I described it later to some other people who did the half-day hike, they said they saw pretty much the same thing. Obviously, if my schedule had allowed it, I would've much preferred to do the full-day hike (you hike up much farther than the half-day hike and its a lot cheaper than the heli hike). And I was disappointed with the actual amount of hiking we did - they're so concerned with safety and making sure everyone can keep up that it slows everything down - they really should divide groups by fitness level. Anyway, enjoy the many photos (of course I took a lot of photos - keep in mind this isn't all of them - especially with the heavy price tag attached hahaha); the views were still amazing even if they didn't live up to what the tour company described and I did have fun!
At base camp. Surprisingly it was colder and more windy down here than up on the glacier!
About to board the helicopter.
Getting up there (about a 5-10 minute ride). That's Sally sitting beside me in the first photo.
First view of the glacier from the helicopter.
Getting closer to the drop point.
Zoomed in shot of the glacier ice. You can already see the dirt dispersed everywhere (and unfortunately not much blue).
Some more views as the pilot circled around a bit to give us some more perspectives. I really like how the 3rd photo came out.
Finally on the glacier, watching the previous group make their way back to base camp.
A borrowed photo, taken while a helicopter was taking off. It was really loud (which is why I'm covering my ears) and windy because of the rotor blades, and the worst part was the specks of ice the blades threw up into the air towards us, like sand in a sand storm - my bare skin, especially my legs (I was wearing shorts), felt like they were being attacked hahaha.
Some more photos as we waited for the rest of the hiking group to arrive.
And the hike begins! This was sadly the most challenging part of the entire hike - the tunnel (best view from the 1st photo) actually got very narrow to the point where we had to crawl with our bellies to the floor to get through. It was a good start in my opinion, and I was hoping the rest of the hike would have some more elements like this (which it didn't).
Our guide chipping away some makeshift steps to get us over the ice cold water.
A glimpse of the blue ice that we heard so much about.
See, the ice was pretty dirty - not even that white.
They provided all the gear - weather jackets, boots, talons for the boots (to grip the ice), hiking socks, a toque and gloves (though I didn't bother wearing either), and a waist pack (for your water and camera).
About to hop the crevice (yup that's me).
Nope, unfortunately we never got to hike up that big...hill (for lack of a better term).
The sun was really bright despite being hidden behind the clouds (which I guess makes sense since we were at a higher altitude).
A stream, revealing the blue ice underneath.
Some caves with really good views of the blue ice.
Chipping away more steps.
Very pretty - the blue ice hahaha. The person taking the photo decided to take it before I was ready.
Another stream, revealing some nice blue from all that really dirty ice.
Hopping another stream (this one was actually pretty big for those with shorter legs). Yes, I chose to go with shorts...they said you could, and it wasn't even cold!
Another ice cave.
Mmmm, nature's freshest water.
Another picture before I was ready! It was really blue inside the cave.
More fresh water (the ice looks dirty, but the spot where the water was dripping was clean)!
An ice cold pond - so blue and clear...it was like from a dream or something. Me, Lily, and Sally wanted to take a quick dip (apparently they used to let people willing to do it to try it out) - Lily and Sally even had their bathing suits on! - but our guide wouldn't let us (something about how there was an incident some time ago).
The water was actually this magical light blue - amazing!
More views along the hike. So it's not just me...the ice is surprisingly dirty right? Some people I met on the bus later on who had stayed in Franz Josef an extra day to do the full-day hike told me the ice was a lot whiter when they went because there was a light rain while they hiked, which washed away some of the dirt and revealed the nice white underneath.
The guide let me, Sally, and Lily pose with his pick as we waited for the rest of the group to catch up.
And on we go...
Pretending to fall off an ice cliff - you can't tell, but it was a pretty far drop on the other side of the ice that I was standing on.
Onwards we push (that's Lily and Sally in the front in the 2nd photo).
Another stream - I liked how blue it was and how it curved (reminded me of a snake).
Sally looking on as I decided to slide down along some of that blue ice - there was a little tunnel we could slide through (if you were willing to get your pants wet).
A view of the tunnel (notice how it's angled? I kept slipping down into the wall despite my best efforts to have a clean run through).
So fun I went twice! How often do you get to slide down a tunnel on a glacier? (You can already see how wet the front of my pants got.)
Making our way back to the drop point (we basically walked around in a big circle).
Killing some time as we waited for the helicopters.
One last shot.
Back down we go.
Back on the ground - the black strip in the air is the rotor blade still in action (I was trying to capture it; shot this at 1/400 seconds).
Over too soon! It really was too short in my opinion - it was only about 1 - 1.5 hours of actual hiking (that's including the many breaks we took). I found the hike to be really fun though; I felt I could do almost anything on the ice with the talons on - I was taking big leaps and strides (it's nice to have long legs haha) and walking my own path for most of it (most people just follow the guide's carved out path), like whenever we had to walk between 2 ice walls with no flat ground, I'd just dig my talons into the side of the wall instead of walking on the makeshift steps.
I saw this at the mini-mart while grabbing some dinner (I had pre-mixed salad greens and a can of tuna pre-mixed with corn and beans in tomato sauce - a relatively cheap, easy, healthy, and decently portioned "fancy" meal in a town where the prices were already a little higher than other NZ towns; plus no cooking - a good thing because the hostel's kitchen was disgusting). It's another region-specific goodie - Squiggles! Honestly some of the best cookies I've ever had - biscuit with sponge toffee on top, covered in milk chocolate and with the hokey pokey flavour icing "squiggle" on top. Hokey pokey is the name for an ice cream flavour that was created in NZ (and so it's popular in NZ) - vanilla ice cream with small chunks of sponge toffee (the term hokey pokey in NZ originally referred to just the sponge toffee).
Outside the Chateau Franz - looks like a motel because it was also a motel (like I said, hostels are so common they're like hotels here).
Later on that night, most of us on the bus went to pretty much the only local bar (Blue Ice Cafe) for some drinks. Little did we know that it was karaoke night that night! Of course I sang - and the best part? Everything you sang, you'd get a free drink! And the one who sang the best (according to the crowd) that night won a free $100 bar tab. So Rory convinced me to do a duet of Ms. Jackson by Outkast hahaha. We ROCKED the house haha. I mainly sang the chorus (yes, including the high note, which I easily hit) and the last verse by Big Boi (which sadly I fumbled on 2 lines when it just got way too fast for my liquored up mind haha, but I recovered and finished it!), but Rory was awesome - he hit every word in tune while doing the verses solo. So it's no surprise he won the bar tab for the song we did (he got to used the bar tab the next night since I was leaving the next day while he stuck around to do the full-day hike). I think we did a couple more after that (though I don't remember which songs haha). An awesome night: free pool table (I lost all 3 games I played - I came close to winning one against Markus, a Swiss guy I met on the bus, but sank the 8-ball early! - and they play with different rules there that's apparently the same rules used in Europe(?)), people singing and dancing, good conversation, and free drinks for me for most of the night (I think I only bought 2 drinks the whole night - I had a buy 1 get 1 free card with the my hostel key so we'd alternate between who paid). Plus, the bar kept giving me and a few other people free shots (I had a "red peril" which Richie insisted I try...if it sounds bad, it is hahaha...and 2 shots of "blue ice" - basically just vodka and blue curacao)! And I even unexpectedly ran into a Couchsurfer who I had been in contact with in Auckland when I was originally trying to find a way to travel NZ (the funny thing is he spotted me!). But like all good things, the night had to come to an end eventually.
My first set of drinks, and the dreaded red peril, which I was all up for trying before I knew what it was (hey it was free hahaha).
Richie watching, as he knew what I was about to go through (he's obviously done it before). There were a couple conditions to getting the shot for free: you couldn't ask what was in it before taking it, you couldn't smell it, and you had to drink it by shooting it, swishing it in your mouth, gargling it, swishing it one more time, and then downing it. Let's just say my mouth was on fire! The bartender told me what was in it after I finished it, and while I don't remember all the ingredients (there's huge mixture of different liquors in it), it included absinthe, tequila, vodka, hot sauce, and the main culprit: chili powder. There's actually so much in chili powder in it that I could actually feel the powder - yes, the shot was quite grainy haha. Not only did it leave your mouth burning, it burned on the way down, and it burned the stomach for the next 30 minutes to an hour. I'm surprised I kept it down since I didn't eat that much beforehand, but it didn't give me any problems except for the uncomfortable burning sensation in my stomach. My body actually handled it quite well - I didn't puke it and I had no "toilet troubles" the next day hahaha. I definitely got props from Richie and the rest who were there for being the first of the group to try it and actually handle it (there were only a handful of us that tried it that night). The bartender immediately gave me a free shot of blue ice to wash some of the taste out of my mouth hahaha. What a way to start off the night eh? I managed to convince Rory and Andrew (another Canadian I met, from Toronto!) when they came in later to try it...I felt bad for Andrew, he couldn't handle the burning sensation, so he forced himself to puke up the shot in the washroom and then drank a glass of sugar and water to calm him stomach (does that actually work?)! And I think even later on in the night, 2 of the Dutch girls that were with us tried it and kept it down too! I don't think I'd take another one of those shots again though hahaha.
Me and Rory celebrating with a free shot of blue ice (which the bartender gave us on top of the free drink for singing since we did such an awesome job) after stunning the crowd with our rendition of Ms. Jackson hahaha.
A shot of some of the crowd (Markus is the guy in the back wearing the blue cap, next to his wife Corinne).
One last photo as the night was drawing to a close. That's me with Lily; along with her friend Sally, we'd been travelling on the same bus together since Auckland (which is quite a coincidence when you think about it since everybody's schedules are different)! Today was the day we'd finally part ways, as they had to stay an extra day in Franz Josef (the bus was full for the next day so they couldn't get seats to leave; the strange thing though was that there were 5 empty seats on the bus the next day). Funny story about Lily - she started calling me "Big T" with no prior knowledge it actually was my nickname back home! I guess if someone who barely knows me can come up with that nickname, I really must be a "Big T" hahaha.
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