Though I was a little disappointed to have missed out on the cross-dressing tom-foolery of the night before, I was thankful not to be feeling the effects as we set out for the bone carver's at 9am the next day.
7 of us had opted to make lovely bone necklaces first thing in the morning, while the am activity meant a long lie-in for the over-imbibed as the bus would not depart until after midday.
Walking just over the road to the carver's, we found ourselves in an open-air garage-style structure with power sanders on all sides. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the small space looked and smelled of a dentist's office.
Once I got beyond the initial startling, I picked out a design and set to carving.
The process involved drawing out the design on a piece of bone, then shaving the rough outline with a power sander. Some spot-polishes with sandpaper, and then the detail work began with a combination of man power and machine power. Sand, examine, sand, examine, and so forth until about three hours later I was standing in line by the polisher to have my work sealed and threaded for wearing. The final design is a combination of the fish hook (for strength, determination, and safe passage over water) and the twist (the entwining of two souls), I thought a fitting emblem for gifting to my sweetie.
The lady at the carver's recommended that I wear the necklace for the rest of my journey in order to imbue it with my lifeforce before gifting it to my significant other, which I have been doing happily ever since.
Following the carving (the lads working the bar came out to watch and have a breakfast brew with some of the Stray personnel while we were working), we set off for the glacier town of Fran Josef. We first made a stop in Greymouth, Curry's old haunt, for an hour-long lunch break and to exchange some people who had mistakenly only booked their bus until Greymouth for some people just starting a week-long pass from Christchurch who had shuttled over while we inhaled bone fragments.
My intelligence had informed me that I could find a stuffed toy Kakapo at a sanctuary here in Greymouth (this was a coveted souvenier for Cat and I), and between getting my glasses adjusted and finding some chow I set off in search of the elusive bird.
Alas, my efforts came up short and the search continued.
I had a tasty quiche and ice cream in a meal that was themed a radioactive orange colour at the local hotel before meeting up with the others to continue the journey.
There was a big rugby match in town that day, but we were unable to spectate as it was too late in the day. Shucks.
Sadly one of the people departing in Greymouth was a Dutch lad named Rene who I had stunt planed and bone carved with, but these departures were a part of the journey and had become a more optomistic occasion as the trip progressed. He did leave me with the newfound desire to bungy jump, though, something I followed through on in Queenstown (more on that later).
Off to rainy Franz Josef, a quaint little town sandwiched between a glacier and a mountain, with little in the way of exciting architecture but lots of excitement in the way of glacier hikes and cheap pub food.
As my ankle was still a little sore and the hike was expensive, I decided to pass on the icy climb scheduled for the next day, and put off my exploration of the township until then.
The cheap pizza meal was welcomed gladly in the nice hostel pub, and the remainder of the night was spent there getting to know some of the new travellers, namely a couple of wee North Irish lasses called Fionnuala (Finn-uw-lah) and Emma (Emm-ah) who I would travel with for the next few days.
It was a reasonably early night for most as the next day would be an early start, and I followed suit, looking forward to a day of taking it easy.
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