At every eatery stop so far, the dessert case is the first thing in the cafeteria line! Scones of every kind - except plain, heaven forbid! and slices - that could mean anything from a slice of banana bread to a slice of cake or cheescake. Pancakes are served all day at the pancake rocks cafe, of course. Along the western side of the south island near, well, nowhere, erosion has carved the high rocks along the shore into what looks like stacks of pancakes tens of feet high. The 'pancakes' are thin and wide and the surf spills on them like syrup out of a bottle that has lost its pour hole. Very cool site. The Magic bus took the scenic route from Nelson to Greymouth and 'pancakes' was one of two stops along the coast. We stopped to see Possum Pete too. Pete is well known for his skills in killing the pest of NZ, the possum. He also helped to relocate thousands of wild deer onto deer farms to domesticate them so venison would be easy to come by for 'tea' (dinner). He would sit outside the helicopter, jump off onto the deer and wrestle it to the ground! The movie showing this was crazy or maybe you just needed to be crazy to do it and the music playing during the documentary was "Highway to the Danger Zone"! At the gift shop - and there's always a gift shop when we stop- they sold possum skins for different body parts like belly button warmers and other unmentionables. The cafe 'sold' possum pies. It's illegal to sell possum meat , so some of the passengers gave a 'donation' and got the pie. They liked it -? Speaking of pies, they are the English sort here. Meat pies, mince pies (ground up hamburger), chicken pies... you get the idea - a meal all in one with vegees and meat in a little pie with a crust. Nothing sweet about it.
At Franz Josef, the glacier awaited us. We could heli-hike to it, walk on it or, do as I did, walk to it absolutely free! In all the places we stop, there is always a free way to do - or almost do- (we didn't walk on the glacier, just get really close to it) the fun stuff for the area. Our bus driver took us to the start of the trail, we walked a hour into and out of the glacier field and then started to walk the 4 KM back. Well... the guy I was walking with wanted to hitchhike back! Now, if you know me, you know I have a history of hitchhiking, so it didn't take much convincing! After three thumbs, we got a ride with two guys from Poland in their rental car which was blasting New Zealand polka music! Too funny! My Thanksgiving dinner was fish and chips (fries) at the Blue Ice Cafe. Blue ice describes glacial ice if you haven't seen it before.
Friday, today, we rode on the bus all day - with 'comfort' stops - and got into Queenstown late afternoon. Along the way, we also stopped at Lake Matheson and a little beach town that looked just like it belonged in the Swiss Alps. Before reaching Q'town, we stopped at one of AJ Hackett's (inventor of ) bungy jumping places and watched a couple jump together and another guy go solo. Just looking down from the height of the jump bridge made me sick! No one on the bus jumped. : )
Photos 1 and 2 - pancake rocks; photos 3 and 4 - bridge that is a car bridge AND a railroad bridge! yikes!;
photos 5, 6 and 8 - the Franz Glacier; photo 7 - a view from the bus along the road; photo 8 - bungy jumper falling. Sorry for the sideways photos - I don't know how to rotate them!
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