South Island travels coming to an end

Fox glacier experience
3-2-10
So driving on the wrong side of the road is quiet strange. You can feel yourself drifting to the left a lot. Basically I learned to hug the middle line. Now the plan is to get to Fox glacier by sunrise, but we left Wanaka late around 10pm and I drove through the night. We stopped at a rest stop off the road about an hour and a half away to take a 3 hour nap, in the car. It was crammed and some of us didn't have the best sleep. But I woke everyone up at 4am to drive to Lake Matheson just in time for the sun to rise. It was well worth the little sleep.
Lake Matheson is pretty small, but when there is no wind and the sun is just coming over the mountains surrounding, it is beautiful. Reminds me so much of the mornings when I would wake up in Alaska to start my day. Wish I was going for a float plane ride or at least hanging around people that were. The mountains were reflected into the water, the only mountain that I can remember the name of is Mt. Cook, snow covered and all.
We then drive to Fox glacier to look off the outlook and drive to an access point. Kevon and I walked up as far as we were allowed to go to see the glacier. We walked over rivers and by the raging river that was coming from the receding glacier. Again reminded me of the glaciers I would fly over in Alaska, this one was a bit smaller than some of the ones I saw on my way to Lake Clark, but still impressive to see on the ground.
We were so tired after that, Steve slept in the car while Kevon and I hiked and he pretty much slept the rest of the day. We took odd naps, made some tuna and crackers for lunch, watched a movie (Independence day) made some pop corn some more food and headed off to Hokitika beach. This beach is said to have jade wash up, I'm not really sure what it looks like unpolished so I may have found some but then again maybe not. We watched the sun set and drove to Arthur's pass. Slept near a road and a train...

Avalanche Peak
4-2-10
We hiked Avalanche peak via Avalanche trail and Scott's track. Took us around 7 or more hours. The track is really ruff, and pretty steep. We basically climbed up rocks for a good hour and a half then it was open land the sun was hitting us and we finished the rest of the hike. I was having some troubles, but the guys were doing great. The tree line ended and I thought I could be in the Sierra if there a was bit less vegetation and thinner air. It was amazing at the top. We saw the valley and the tall mountains surrounding it, a small glacier across the way. It felt great to get to the top, but on the way down I was ready to sit for a while. The down hill lasted a while too. I'll get up pictures I promise. Really did feel like I was hiking around Tahoe though. We got a shower cooked some dinner (beans and rice) and drove to Greymouth. Camped again at a rest stop and there was a false kiwi sighting with the bird that is "commonly mistaken as a kiwi" a Weka bird.

Monteith's brewery tour
5-2-10
Alright we got some sleep. We needed to stall for some time, because we wanted to do this brewery tour, but it wasn't until 2pm. We went to the beach... lots of rocks not so comfortable. The tour was really interesting. I was enjoying comparing it to what we do with the wine (or what little information I know about the wine making process). The brewery is part of DB and it makes it the traditional way with open barrels. The malts go through a crushing process, it sits in a wort boiler and the different tastes are added then it flows into a whirlpool, where I believe it is mixed. It is cooled, and brought to the fermentation barrels. Sits for 8 days and then goes through another heat exchange process and conditioned and filtered through screens and becomes "bright beer." The end of the tour we got tastings of 8 of their beers and after that you were allowed to pour your own pint.
When we were at the i-sight we saw there is a screening of Avatar. After we cooked dinner we went to the movies and the guys were introduced to Avatar. If you still haven't seen it I strongly recommend going. We slept at the same rest stop to wait until morning.

Nelson
6-2-10
Driving to Nelson wasn't so bad. Kinda a long drive, but when we got there we saw a beach a very pretty sandy beach. We stopped. The guys found someone that they had met in Christchurch around a week ago. He is pretty cool guy from France traveling around we spent the rest of the night with him. We buried Kevon in the sand and swam a bit and warmed up. We made room, not really sure how, and put Arnould in the car with us and we cooked dinner (beans and rice with corn beef) and went to find a buskers festival. Oh just if you are wondering you can't eat a teaspoon of cinnamon... Buskers festival was a $5 entry fee, but we could hear the music from the steps of the church. We were hanging out with some very friendly high school kids, until they went home. I witnessed a hen party (bride with all of her friends, the point is to make fun of the bride a bit and make her do silly things). They were having guys write their names on her shirt and she was screaming at the top of the stairs of the church things that she loves about her future husband. Looked like a good time. We drove Arnould to where he was staying in Mapua and were thankfully able to sleep in his backyard. Lots of wood and not really flat ground, but wonderful view of the stars. In the morning I was able to see where he was living it reminded me of Skiathos. There were rows of apple trees for their front view and also a view of the estuary a bit further. We were sleeping on a newly developed wine area.

Picton
7-2-10
We made Arnould his first pb&j and made our way to Picton (leaving Arknot in Nelson). We found a flee market first and got some good books. We drove to Picton because Andrew the guy I was traveling with at first was working at the Atlantis backpackers. I did not continue to Christchurch with Steve and Kevon, I am still in Picton, but I will be taking a ferry tomorrow to Wellington and hopefully making it to Auckland in good time on the hospitality of those that pull over to the side of the road to give strangers a ride. It was sad to leave Kevon and Steve they were a lot of fun to travel with and made me laugh so often. The Atlantis hostel is filled with lots of young kids so I'm bound to have some good adventures here too. We made a fort in one of the empty rooms before going to bed. I plan on going to talk to the sea plan guy that is down the road about his experiences in Alaska, Fiji and Canada. Anyways that should tie you over for a while until something exciting happens again.

Peace
Jamee