My last day in Abel Tasman started out pretty sweet – with hang gliding! Yup, I’ve done that now, too. We had the option of doing that the evening that we first arrived as well, but I was sort of tired from the long drive, and the cloud cover wasn’t the greatest at the time. The morning that we left was much better. I managed to drag myself out of bed and climb off the top bunk without waking Elwin, which was quite a feat considering that there were no ladders or ledge of any kind to ease down onto, and hauled all of my stuff down to the bus. Since the handful of us doing the hang gliding were getting picked up along the way, we needed to make sure that we hadn’t left anything at camp. Barney came out to curiously sniff our things and help out in his own way, but I guess we weren’t exciting enough because he returned to bed immediately afterwards.
We didn’t have to wait long because the van came to pick us up sometime between 7 and 7:30am. The gang included me, Alec, and an Irish married couple who mainly kept to themselves and didn’t say a whole lot. Alec made up for them, though. He’s deathly afraid of heights, and yet he’s done both sky diving and hang gliding in the short time that I’ve known him. While I was quizzing our driver about the varieties of grapes and hops that are produced in the area, he was just staring out the window like a condemned man, occasionally muttering unflattering things about our sanity under his breath. Poor Alec. It’s hard being a middle-aged bald guy with common sense on a bus full of post-college kids. He fit in quite well, though.
We reached the airstrip just after sunrise and were greeted by some truly friendly folks and their dog. They offered us free coffee and toast, which I helped myself to without protest, and did a great job of welcoming us. Apparently, they’ve only been running the business for a few years, but they’ve managed to attract attention because of their reasonable deals and cool attitudes. To put it in perspective, they do a gradual ascent by pulling you from a motorized glider and go higher than most companies for a lot less money. In places like Queenstown, they just toss you off a mountain, so you don’t have much time to appreciate the scenery, and they charge you more for it. Plus the view over Abel Tasman in the morning is just beyond belief. Almost biblical. Stray heard about them and decided to check them out since they’re the only one of the three bus companies that goes out to Abel Tasman, and ever since then, they’ve made sure to send customers out their way.
It was quickly established that I would be the first one in the air, which was nice because I was able to get the most out of the post-dawn lighting. By the time the others got up, it was already a different kind of view, so I feel like I lucked out with that. They made sure to get me all bundled up in a heavy-duty jacket and thermal gloves and gave me a pair of sunglasses to protect my eyes against the wind. Then they zipped me up into this sleeping bag thing that made me look more like a caterpillar than anything else. I think I still pulled that look off. The guy that I ended up flying with was a Canadian who had only been working there for a few weeks, but he was an old pro and very nice about indulging my questions. Just like anything I do, I end up chatting the guide’s ear off by the end of it. When you watch the video of me later on, my lips are just constantly moving as I pester him about various landmarks. At least I wasn’t a boring customer.
There wasn’t much hesitation between getting strapped in and taking to the air. They wanted to move us along so that the bus could pick us up on schedule. I was more than happy to get right to it, and before I knew it, we were hooked up to the back of the plane and being pulled down the runway. I think there’s something really idiotic about that whole principle – think of some kid tying a rope around someone’s bumper and then riding a skateboard behind it and you’ll get the general picture – but they had it down to a science at that point. The whole takeoff was very smooth, and there was no point during the flight where I felt like we weren’t in complete control of the situation.
I think I’ve said this before about sky diving, but hang gliding is pretty much tied when it comes to the feeling of flying. With sky diving, there’s more of the illusion because you’re not attached to any metal and can move around more, but with hang gliding, you can actually soar and take in the view below you at your own leisure. It’s hard to say which one is better because they’re both awesome. I loved the whole experience and would do it again in a heartbeat. You can watch the actual video for the view because I don’t think any description will do it justice. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to go with any of this, so video will have to do.
Go here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2G9oafo7
Go here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2G9oafo7
One of the really cool parts of the experience was being able to steer the thing myself. Once we had detached from the plane and were gliding on our own downward spiral, he allowed me to take over the bars and do a few spins, which was amazingly fun. Apparently we did nothing but fly around in circles, as people told me on the ground later. As we got nearer to the ground, however, I relinquished control back to the professional because I had lost sight of airport and wasn’t too keen on landing in the forest just because I’d gotten carried away with the acrobatics. It was a good thing that he, at least, knew where he was going and hadn’t lost track of our position because he guided us right to the landing strip. Once we came in to land, it occurred to me that the only things keeping us from going face-first into the tarmac were a couple of wheels at the bottom of the glider. So we were nearly eye-level with the ground when we landed, which was a little extra rush.
After that, I just got to relax, have some more coffee, and watch the rest of them have their turns. Alec was particularly amusing because his video pretty much consisted of him staring straight ahead and keeping his mouth in a thin line, absolutely not talking or relinquishing his death grip on the handle. After everyone had landed and gotten everything taken care of, we just shot the breeze with the nice folks there for a while longer, and then we got a call from Caas. After a somewhat late start, they were finally on the road and parked outside a Warehouse store, loading up on supplies. The hang gliding people offered to give us a ride out there, so we hopped back in the van and drove out there.
Once we arrived at the Warehouse, we were informed that we had just over 20 minutes to find a costume in the theme of “lame superheroes.” Let me explain: our next stop for the night was in Barrytown, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The only thing there is a bar that Stray has partial ownership of, so it’s a tradition for the Stray bus to stay there and do pretty much whatever they want. It’s kind of a “What happens in Barrytown stays in Barrytown” kind of place with everyone partying until late and dressing up in strange outfits, depending on the theme. Apparently the vote had been for “lame superheroes” while we were out hang-gliding. I’ll admit that I wasn’t too psyched about this particular stop. I’m not much of a party person, and when I do go out, I tend to just enjoy myself for a few hours and then go home at a decent hour. I don’t like getting wasted and staying out until the early hours of the morning, so I wasn’t crazy about going to Barrytown.
Nevertheless, I didn’t want to be a buzz kill and not participate at all, so I went into Warehouse to throw some sort of outfit together. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on something like that, so I just bought a pack of glow sticks and a rather colorful mask for the bare minimum. I would figure out some sort of name later. Some people really got into it, though. There was The World’s Worst Traffic Controller with a guy decked out in the outfit and a six pack in the other hand, there was a group of girls who did some sort of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle thing, complete with war paint and fake shells, a guy dressed up like a woman, and so many other ideas. Natalie went as Flower Power Girl, decked out in ‘70s style, Alec dressed up as G.I. Gay, wearing commando pants and a white wife-beater but also wearing blush and mascara. There was a One-Winged Bat Girl, Captain Underpants, and Caas put an elaborate costume together that culminated in him walking around in a giant, home-made beer can. Just insanity.
Left to Right: Flower Power Girl, G.I. Gay, Captain Underpants, and...I have no idea
Also: World's Worst Traffic Controller, Bat Girl, and Caas, the Trash Can Man
Before all of that, though, we had to actually get to Barrytown from Abel Tasman. That was quite a long, boring day. It consisted of being on the road from about 10:30 until around dinner time, just staring out at the winding road and cloudy weather. We went way up into the mountains and twisted through the forests there, occasionally stopping to take pictures. We took a break at a riverbed around lunch time, and then we checked out some seals in the afternoon. One place that was kind of interesting, though, was a place not far from Barrytown called the Pancake Rocks. I guess the way that the wind and water hits this particular beach has caused the rocks to erode away into these distinct shapes. I’m not sure if they really looked like pancakes, but they still provided good photos.
The river we stopped at for photos
Seal watching and a little reminder of how far we are from home
The Pancake Rocks
We finally pulled into Barrytown and signed into our cabins. Since Stray owns the place, it was just us in the entire camp, so we didn’t have to worry about rooming with other people. We didn’t even get keys or anything to lock the doors because it was just us. Then we were treated to some very nice dinner – I ordered a chicken burger that was absolutely amazing after that long drive – while other people made their own dinners in the kitchen. At around that point, I thought it might be a good idea to raid the costume shed while everyone else was busy, and I happened to find this truly rockin' neon purple wig, and inspiration hit. You guys ever see the movie Kickass? Well, with the wig, the weird mask, a matching top, and glow sticks for effect, I was Hit Girl on LCD. Problem solved.
It's like a car accident. Just...can't...look...away...
More shots from the party
After that, the night was fairly predictable. Most of the people there were in the party spirit, so everyone stayed up really late and consumed quite a bit of alcohol. I had fun for a little while, but then, like I said before, I got a bit bored with the whole thing and went back to my room early. Right in the middle of this, though, I had gone online to briefly check my email, and I had seen a breaking news update on Yahoo about a big earthquake in Japan. That made really worried, especially since no one seemed to know any details, just that it was really bad and involved Tokyo. You guys know that I have a lot of friends in Japan, so my first response was to try and find out more about what was happening there. Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t have been worse, because there was only one computer in the place, and it charged $2 for 15 minutes. I didn’t have enough change to go on long enough to check with my friends, so I just had to log off and resolve to check first thing in the morning, after the media had had time to find out more information. That was what really killed the party atmosphere for me. I just couldn’t get into the spirit with that going on, so I went to bed.
Unfortunately, it got even worse in the morning. News had spread by word of mouth that it had been an 8.9 quake and that a tsunami had hit Tokyo. No one could say how many were confirmed dead yet, but it really, really didn’t look good. Plus, there was a warning in effect for the west coast of New Zealand. All of that combined really put me in a bad mood all day. We were stuck in Barrytown until 11:30 because everyone had to sleep off the night before, so there was nothing for me to do all morning except sit around and worry. The one computer was locked up in the bar, so there was no way to check online, and no place in town sold newspapers. It was literally the worst place to be for outside information. When we finally loaded onto the bus to head towards Franz Josef, I was in a completely different mindset than the day before, and I didn’t really talk to anyone all day. Natalie, of course, noticed and made sure that I was alright, and I was quick to assure her that it was nothing to do with her or anyone else on the bus. I just needed some space because I wasn’t in the road trip mood that day. Luckily, people seemed to get it and left me alone until I was over the worst of it. I was eventually able to get in touch with my friends when we arrived in Franz Josef, and I was very relieved to learn that they were all okay. The footage on TV was really hard to watch, especially since I had been to some of the areas that they were showing, but I felt slightly better knowing that my personal contacts were out of harm’s way. Still, it’s so horrible what’s going on there now.
Okay, changing subjects now. I’d say that Barrytown was, personally, the lowest point of the trip, so everything got better after that. A lot of people enjoyed themselves there for obvious reasons, but it was my favorite stop on the West Coast. The day after that was another long travel day. We stopped in a place called Hokitika for a couple of hours because there was supposed to be a big World’s Food Festival going on there, but it ended up being a bit of a bust. I had really wanted to go to that the day before because Caas sold it as an event where you could eat really strange things like fried crickets and various animal testicles after paying a small entry fee. I shied away from the testicle part, but I thought that it would fun to try some weird food and be able to brag about it later. When we got there, Caas asked if anyone was interested in stopping for it, and I got off the bus with about four or five other people. The rest of the bus decided to skip it and go hang at the beach for the afternoon. We were supposed to meet up with them in about two or three hours. But then we got to the entrance and discovered that the entry fee had gone up to over $40 per person, which didn’t even include the food, just the entry. There was no way I was going to pay that much money for a small curiosity, so I decided to skip it after all. Since the bus had already driven away, however, there was nothing to do except tour around Hokitika and take some pictures. The one bright spot of that town was the fact that everyone was dressed up in bizarre outfits with no distinguishable theme. After being in Barrytown the night before, it was a kind of déjà-vu experience, and snapped lots of pictures of various groups. I guess the food festival used to be a big excuse for people to get drunk all day and party all over town, and it’s gradually fading out to become more respectable, but that culture is still there and people take advantage of it to dress in odd costumes. Like a really twisted Halloween party.
Downtown Hokitika
The beach
Ninjas, school girls, pigs, bumble bees...and a sumo wrestler looking at me like I'M the weird one
I explored the town with another girl from the bus, but we eventually got bored and went straight to the beach, where we found everyone crashed in the sand. I walked around by the surf, hoping to find pieces of greenstone (jade) in the sand – apparently Hokitika is famous for it – but I didn’t have any luck. That was pretty much it. Not especially exciting, but not everyday can be amazing. The important thing was that we made it to Franz Josef glacier that evening and that I was able to finally access a computer. Once I was feeling a bit better, I was able to enjoy myself a bit more and look forward to the next day – walking on a glacier! I’ll save that for the next post because it’s a bit long for this one. Sorry for the slightly depressing entry for this day. It kind of went downhill after the hang gliding, but I promise I’ll make up for it with the glacier hike. Here’s a taste of it to curb your appetite until then. See ya then!
Zooming in on the glacier from afar
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