Happy New Year!

We made the short journey down to Hokitika, swung by the centre to stop for a coffee and obligitory muffin and to get supplies from the supermarket and then went back to the hostel. We dumped our stuff and then wandered along the beach for the half-hourish walk back into town. We grabbed another coffee on our wanders and then headed back and tok the car out to look at a swing bridge about 45 mins away which was meant to have lovely blue water under it. It was instead a slate grey thenks to the recent rain, tho the bridge was pretty cool and there was another waterfall that was quite impressive, again thanks to the rain. Back at the hostel we BBQ'd a steak and chatted away to some of the other travellers and then wandered down to the beach to see in new year with a bottle of bubbly we'd bought during our Renwick stay. Five of us went down and seven came back after we found another couple from the hostel getting cold on the beach too! (It was very windy, and much like Scotland, no matter how warm the day, a brisk sea wind is flippin' cold at night!) The skies were so clear and the stars were bright and plentiful...if only it could have been warmer. Back at the hostel and more drink and chat followed, all in all a lovely quiet relaxing new year. A little different from the NineMileBurn all-nighters, but fun nonetheless!

The next day we went for a morning jaunt along a trail next to a lake about 20 mins drive from the hostel. We parked up at a spot where the locals were putting their boats and jet-skis into the water and sauntered off along the walk. It was great except for the dense plant and trees stopped many of the good views over to the lake, though we occasionally got some glimpses and could get down to the shore every now and again. We passed about one walker and a runner went by when after a while Andy decided to stop to "admire the scenery".While he was finishing "admiring the scenery" a local woman appeared on the path - of all the timing! Andy was apologetic and she claimed not to have seen any of his scenic exploits and stopped to chat to the two of us for a while. We turned around after about a couple of hours with Chris encouraging Andy to run back; This was a polite way of telling him to go away and he had great fun on the track back then sat watching the water-skiers etc. for Chris to walk back. Chris' discovery of the day; a woodland track out and back can get a bit samey. Perhaps even Andy's bad jokes would have helped on the return leg :o) (or not - Ed). A very different, and distinctly less chilly, new year's day than we've ever had back home!

The next morning we headed off to Fox as we had two nights there with a trip onto the glacier booked for the full day next day. We got there and it was wet. Well wet doesn't quite cover it, it was teeming down. We got to our hostel and were met by the most bored, unhelpful American girl at check-in who pointed us vaugely towards our room, looking bored as she did so. First impression not great. Once we found our room and looked around the kitchen we decided that shit-hole was an accurate description :o) We offloaded into the s-h and made our lunch. Well, we tried to carve the bread but the knives were more suited to filling rather than cutting. Chris went off to the main kitchen in the hostel to find a knife and found a bread knife and some friends! As always, our two Israeli friends were staying there along with a couple of Austrian women who we saw in the new year with. They all said, yeah the glaciers were great and the weather was great and that "sure, they won't cancel because of a little rain..."

So we walked down (in the rain) to the activity centre to see what the story was and sure enough, all trips for the next day, including ours, were cancelled. We really need to stop booking in advance! The way up to the Fox Glacier is prone to rock falls and the DoC (Department of Conservation) said it was too dangerous. Darn. We retreated to a cafe for coffee and muffin assistance and decided to cancel our second night at Fox. We then drove up to the Franz Josef glacier (in the rain) and walked the 30 mins up to the terminal so we at least knew the glaciers existed! So it was pretty cool anyway (in the rain - can you see a pattern emerging!) and we got back to the car soaked but happy and drove back down to the main highway to drive back to Fox. There were a couple of very wet folk (one German, one French/Swiss) hitching so we gave them a lift as far as Fox even though they wanted to get to Wanaka which was another four hours down the road! We said if they were still standing there tomorrow we'd give them a lift again...

Back at the hostel later and who do we see but the hitchers who failed entirely to get a lift and ended up having to stay. At least they were dry :o) We spent the evening chatting to the Isrealies before heading of to prepare to go to Wanaka in the morning. In the rain.