We were able to sleep in (8 am) and leisurely pack. Our cabin was really nice and quiet (except for the extremely noisy cicadas, which are everywhere in the rainforest). We wandered down to the main group cabin for breakfast (peanut butter and nutella toast and milk tea. yum). The kitchens in these cabins are gorgeous - wood counters, clean, and lots of utensils, pots and pans, and dinnerware. I had an interesting conversation with Sarah W (younger), and Ronnie, Norrie, and Ed (older) about recent immigrants and the rise of non-Christian religions (especially Islam) in the UK and it's impact on the status quo. It seems like the UK is 10-15 years behind North America in integrating and accepting minority religions (at least compared to big cities in North America).
We piled into the van and headed out to the Pancake Rocks, which are large rocks jutting out on the coastline that are layered and looks like pancake stacks from the side. We took the scenic path to see them, taking lots of photos along the way - it was so beautiful.
I got back to the van first and sat with Steve chatting about the tour , our expectations, and how we were enjoying in. Fran said it best a few days ago when she described the tour as a road trip. We travel along stopping at interesting places as Steve (or any of the rest of us) think of interesting things to do. It took me a few days to get into the laid-back tone of the trip, but I'm really enjoying it now. Unfortunately I don't think the German lady, Andrea, is enjoying it that much - I think she was expecting something much more organized and regimented and focusing more on cities and culture. Anyway, we all piled into the van and headed out to where Ronnie, Norrie, Steve, and Jess were going to go heli-rafting in Whataroa. We were going to stop for possum pie for lunch, but were running late (big surprise) and spent too long at the Pancake Rocks. We got to Whataroa at 2, when we were supposed to be there at 1, and the rafters took off without lunch. We found out later that since they were so late getting started that they had about a kilometre cut off their journey to make it back down in time.
The rest of us headed into Franz Josef (population of the whole area - 360) to check into our motel and get lunch. Franz Josef is all of two streets big - all of it geared towards trekking to the Franz Josef glacier. We ended up at cafe and I had satay chicken pizza slice. Pizza here is odd - the dough is more like a thick dense bread than the pizza crust that I'm used to, so it feels like eating an open face sandwich. Then off to the internet place to upload pictures and update the blog, as I've been really slow about it - at least I'm being pretty good about keeping a travel journal, so I can catch up later on. The motel, Chateau Franz, offers free soup every night, so dinner was soup and some bread that we picked up in Nelson and some Tim Tams - I feel that I'm becoming quite addicted to them :)
After dinner we headed out to a few bars. Jess is very down today because she found out that one of the little girls in her Vietnamese orphanage that she works in died the other day. Home at midnight (late by my standards, early by the standards of most of the group, who were still at the bar when we left - Ronnie and Norrie didn't make it back until 3:30)
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