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Fenny took pictures of all the Chinese entries in the guestbook at the Ivory Towers backpackers in Fox Glacier, because she felt they echoed her own sentiments in many cases, and because they interested her in general. If you read traditional Chinese, there you go! Here are a few pictures to try to show you how hard it was raining the entire time we were in Fox Glacier. We didn't go out for any walks. We didn't see any scenery. We just sat around waiting for the rain to stop. It never did. I wrote a lot of diary entries (what you're reading now is what I call a diary entry). I watched people play chess. Fenny and I both played with my camera. Next up, you see us playing with the camera. I drank hot tea and played on my computer. This is what most people do at Fox Glacier. Drink hot tea, sit around the kitchen, and watch television. Playing on the computer is just my version of watching television. Fenny was bored. Bored bored bored. Here are pictures in and around the Ivory Towers backpackers. It was a nice place. Would've been nicer if it was sunny. The morning as we were leaving. The weather started to clear up. In fact, it became quite sunny and nice after we left Fox Glacier (so the national weather reports said) which didn't cheer us up much. Taiwanese tourists and scenery on a clearing day. Fenny says they were Taiwanese. I've learned to trust Fenny's judgement about the nationality of Asian tourists. She trusts my judgement about the nationality of European tourists. This is rather unfortunate since I was listening to some Spanish tourists who then began speaking a language I didn't understand. It kind'f took away credence from my proclamation that they were Spanish. What's even sadder is that it might've been Italian. Oh. Am I exaggerating my own incompetence? Okay, let me be perfectly clear: They absolutely were speaking Spanish. I recognised idioms and verbs and grammar. But then they really did start speaking what I assume was German. Why is every nationality in the world bi- or trilingual, whilst Americans are generally semilingual? It's a sad state of affairs. Me, on the bus, doing my best me impression. Various odd animals whilst we were travelling up the west coast in search of sunnier cities (ie: Nelson). Various tourists at a rest stop in some unknown town betwixt Fox Glacier and Nelson. I'd guess somewhere near Greymouth? I don't even remember what town this was. It was either Greymouth or Westport. The bus stopped at the infamous Pancake Rocks, where we were given a reprieve from bus carriage for about 25 minutes. The walk 'round the Pancake rocks threatened to take 20 minutes, thus including restroom break, we didn't have much time for taking pictures. These images were all taken in a very frenzied 20-minute walk. At the beginning, strange rock shapes. Then pancake rocks and crevices and fissures and other interesting things. Then a cool hole in the cliff face where the water came through into a little inside pool thing. Then more pancake rocks. Then Fenny and I walking up the path, and a cool-looking beach. In the metropolis of Punakaiki. A cafe. An info centre. A road. A particularly difficult-to-take sunset picture. The bus driver just wouldn't line this pic up for me. But the sunset was cool, if you were there. Here we've arrived in Nelson! The Tramper's Rest backpackers, run by a guy whose name I THINK was Aloen (pronounced like Alan anyway). He was an awesome host in every way. The backpacker seemed to be just a double room, a small double room, and a 4-bed dorm room. All the people there were quite subdued and friendly, as was the host. Overall, a highly recommended stay in Nelson. It was rather interesting that the two best hostels we stayed in were the first and last (Criterion in Napier and Tramper's Rest in Nelson). |
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