West Coast and St Patricks Day in NZ

Spent the past week making our way down the west coast, staying in hostels and backpackers. First stop was Westport. A small town with not too much to do, but it was nice to be back in civilization after backpacking. Also nice to finally see the ocean after almost five weeks. The next day we hitched down to Punakaiki, a very small costal town, I don't even know if I can consider it a town, it didn't even have a grocery store. There we stayed at the cutest beach hostel right on the water. We saw the famous Pancake rocks, went for lots of hikes around the rivers and along the beach, and we even found some self guided caves. Trying to fit as much as we could into our days we packed up the next morning and headed for Hokitika, the town of jade mining. We got our first hitch from a camper van to Hokitika, it was quite nice. Again we packed our day in Hokitika full of fun and adventure. We went to a farmers market, ate lunch on the beach and I saw my first kiwi bird (the national bird of New Zealand, and very endangered) we got to be about a foot away (ok I'll admit it was in the national kiwi centre, basically a small zoo, but it's really hard to see them in the wild because they are nocturnal not to mention rare). We also saw giant eels (quite scary) and some interesting amphibian that could regrow parts of its brain or heart if needed, I can't remember what the animal was called, oops. At night we went for a hike to see the glow worms. Very cool. Looked like I was starring up at the night sky, only I was really gazing up at a waterfall covered in little sparkling lights. The next morning I woke up to the sound of rain. Damn, the first thing I thought was, crap we have to hitch today. You are probably thinking that hitching in the rain sucks, and let me tell you, it does! When it is wet and windy no one wants to pick up soggy hitchhikers not to mention our soggy cardboard sign that is falling apart. Despite that we got a ride fairly quick from Hokitiki, but our ride wasn't going all the way to Franz Josef (our next stop), so she dropped us at a junction and that was where we have waited the longest for a hitch, nearly 45 minutes before we got a ride. (Not too bad compared to some guys we heard who waited three hours until they got a ride! Thank god we are harmless looking girls.) Once we got to Franz Josef we immediately went to check out the hot pools. Relaxing and hot, just what I needed on that cold rainy day. That night was St. Paddys, so we headed out for happy hour, yay for budget drinking! Our night consisted of green beer, tequila shots, fun cocktails and mixed drink and dancing, lots and lots of dancing. One shot which I cannot remember the name of, consisted of some unknown alcohol and Tabasco sauce. Damn that was nasty. Danced until the wee hours of the night, until the bar closed down and they asked everyone to leave. Got a couple hours of sleep before we woke up early this morning to go for a hike out to Franz Josef Glacier. Hungover as hell, it was still amazing and I made it all the way. This morning we also parted ways with Emah who has begun her journey back up north. I really enjoyed traveling with her and I will miss her a lot. So now our duo is headed to Queenstown, on a six and a half hour bus ride. Going to hopefully catch up on some sleep, seeing as almost everyone on this bus is hungover as well. Joy this is going to be fun.

Cheers!