Meeting Crazy George

With a mixture of sadness and excitement, we left atawhai farm to continue our journey exploring the rest of kiwiland. We were lucky because initially we planned to leave a day earlier on Sunday and hitch hike to Franz Josef or Fox Glacier. When Gordon and Katie, the couple who owned the horse trekking business learned about our plan, they were kind to offer us a ride to Hokitika with them on Monday. They had an appointment there. Hokitika was on the way to the glaciers on west coast. We figured even if we take off a day earlier, we might not be able to travel as far by hitch hiking. So we gladly accepted the offer and hence got to spend another with Bill and Leitu.

On the way to Hokitika, Gordon and Katie stopped at Punakaiki briefly so we could take a look at the famous pancake rocks and blowholes. The pancake rocks looked more like kuih lapis to me.

Punakaiki

Pancake Rocks

Pancake Rocks - check out the layers!

more pancakes rocks - can you see the shapes of various animals?

view from Punakaiki look out

it's a shame we didn't witness the spectacular sight of water funneling up the blowholes because the waves weren't strong enough

arriving at Hokitika, a nice little township

When we arrived at Hokitika, it was around 2-3pm. We had late lunch at a local deli. We ordered a huge thick milk shake to share, thinking an additional $0.20 for thick shake instead of normal shake was a pretty good deal. And so wrong was we! The shake was extraordinary thick...so thick we could hardly swallow. It sure was damn filling but it wasn't thirst quenching at all!

Hokitika main street

After that, we were ready to start hitching ride to the glaciers from Hokitika. It must have been our lucky day for in less than 5 minute after we arrived at the hitching spot, a campervan pulled over. I must have these golden thumbs for hitch hiking :D Anyway, it was how to met George, the crazy Brit. George was travelling alone in his rental campervan and we were the very first hitchers he picked up. And he was heading to the glaciers too!

pebble-skimming competition

George was a funniest English I've ever met. Not only had he picked us up and offered us ride to the same destination, he also kept us well-entertained throughout the journey with his silly riddles, dirty jokes and even dirtier rhymes :) Some of the silly riddles include:

Q: What do you call a dinosaur with one eye?

A: Do-u-think-it-saw-us

Q: What do you call a deer with no eye?

A: no idea

silly eh? The dirty jokes and rhymes? Well it's so dirty i decided to censor 'em because this blog is rated family safe. :p

a happy smigel: My precious!!!
incredible turquoise streams along the way

We made many impromptu stops when:

• we passed by rivers and there were no traffic behind us so George would want to check out if there were any fish in the river (because he loves fishing and nothing else);
• George wanted to check out yet another river and I wanted to scare the shit out of some sheep beside the road;
• we passed by some scenic look outs or lakesides where we could have a wee picnic
• so we could have stone skimming competition
• etc etc
  

we stopped by this beautiful 'blue-lagoon' look-alike for a 'wee' picnic

a wee picnic by an amazing lake with nice beer+nice wine+nice homemade biscuits+nice travel companions..what more could one ask for?

the alcohol made us hyper and turned into monkeys

By the time we arrived at Franz Josef town, it was already getting dark. We checked in the Chateau Franz Backpackers. It was the coziest backpackers we had stayed. The rate was standard ($23 pppn) and yd and i got a triple room all by ourselves with the dorm rate. There were also free soup every evening at the kitchen. But we did enjoy the free hot spa pool, esp yd and george as a bunch of hot chicks joinned them after I left! They've stayed so long I wondered why they didn't get dehydrated or hyperthermia...tsk tsk tsk..boys! *rolling eyes*

After a nice hot bath and shower later, we invited george to have dinner and drinks at a local bar where the guests staying at Chateau Franz could get a free shooter. It was awful though, tasted like cherry-flavoured cough syrup, yiak!! However we had such a great time hanging out with our new pal.

Together we planned to visit Franz Josef Glacier early next morning, then we would follow George to Queenstown where he would meet up with his friends, while yd and i would stay for a night or two and head towards Christchurch to meet Koo.