Westcoast

Cape Foulwind actually has nothing to do with the seal colony found there but was in fact named by Captain Cook after his ship met with day after day of strong seas in the 1800s. Live and learn. We got to the Cape in the late afternoon and made the walk up the bluff where we could look down on the seals lolling on the rocks below. There were about twenty or so full grown seals and about a dozen seal pups that we could see. The pups were gamboling after one another, slinking awkwardly from rock to rock as the adults, assumedly the mothers, basked in the sun. After checking out the seals we walked back down to the beach and surfed for about an hour and then headed down the coast. The rip tide was the strongest we had experienced so far, and we got into the water at the south end of the beach and in thirty minutes we had been pushed about 250 meters north - a good reminder to pay attention to what the water is doing.

We left Cape Foulwind and headed south, parking outside of Barrytown in the dark. Along the drive, I added another possum to my tally - unintentionally if you are wondering - bringing my total to two. With possum skins fetching thirty dollars in the tourist stores, it might actually pay to start aiming for them along the side of the road. I'm kidding of course. Really. Barrytown is a tiny little hamlet, and in the morning we slipped into the hostel in town to brush our teeth and then headed on down the road.

Arriving at the town of Franz Josef Glacier, we booked a half-day hike for the following day and then drove down a track near the river to find a place to park the van. We woke in the morning to mist rising from the water and low-lying cloud wrapped around the mountains - a magical view, and all the more enjoyable for having spent the night cocooned in our warm van as rain pelted down. Looking carefully, we could just make out the Franz Josef Glacier up the valley as we headed back into town for the 9:15 AM departure of our hiking tour. We spent the morning and a few hours of the afternoon walking through the rain to, on or from the glacier, though occasionally the sun would break through, making a great view spectacular.

After getting back into town, we again headed south, stopping briefly at the Fox Glacier where we ran to the lookout point in the rain, snapped a picture, and then ran back to the relative dry of the van. We kept on driving, getting into Queenstown at night. After driving around in the city for forty-five minutes looking for a place to park and being foiled by a night watchman in our attempt to sneak into a campsite bathroom, we found a promising-looking parking lot where we bedded down for the night.

Today we headed out to the Nevis Bungy, the biggest jump in NZ at 134 meters, where I had a bad case of the shakes before I threw myself into thin air. You rest the soles of your feet on the thighs of the attendant as she attaches the straps above your ankles, and I had what she termed "a little bit of Elvis going on." My legs were shaking so strongly that I was in turn causing her body to shake. Hobbling to the edge of the platform, I looked down as my toes peeked over the edge, and the ground seemed much further away than it should have been. As the countdown reached "ONE!" I turned off my brain and leapt away from the platform. After the tension of the line pulled me up for the first time, I relaxed and enjoyed the sensation and the fantastic view of the canyon, albeit upside down.