i was in the bathroom, washing up for the night, when i heard a burst of continuous laughter coming from across the hall. and after a few seconds it was pretty obvious it was indeed theresa & stephanie. so i walked in to find stephanie barely hanging onto her bunkbed, which was tilted a bit more than comfortable. turns out, when she went to climb into her top bunk the bed actually came apart. it was missing a very vital screw and when i inspected it more closely, i found i could actually pull the main support rails and therefore entire bed apart, and the bottom began to fall towards the bed underneath. had she slept there and moved ever so slightly, she could have squashed the girl under her. danger! so we pulled the mattress off the bed, and rearranged the room slightly to make room for her mattress on the floor. and posted a sign warning the other roommates of the predicament. and of course, caught it all on video - which i cannot wait to upload. maybe you had to be there, but we hadn't laughed that hard in a while.
the following morning, the girl who slept under the broken bed quietly asked me what, exactly, happened to the bed. i demonstrated the issue, and needless to say she was very happy that steph decided not sleep on top. and the guy working reception's only comment? "great. that's just what we want to hear". there's also a slight possibility i got bitten by bed bugs here, since it was the only place i didn't use my sleep sheet. however, given the sandfly encounter, i really can't distinguish. though i know it's making me lose tons of sleep as i've been up for hours itching my legs and rapidly swooshing them around in the bed.
made our way to franz josef glacier, which was much more impressive than fox. had to feel the water streaming from the glacier - and as expected, it was ice cold. didn't need a photo of my feet standing in that water!
back in the car, steph decided she had had enough of driving for 10 days, so it was theresa's turn to try the wheel. after a close call with a car (need to readjust your sense of position as the driver now has a lot more room to account for on the left side), and a few uses of the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal, we were on our way. stopped at okarito beach, and could have stayed there all day listening to the waves. well - at least until the sandflies started to attack. took a nature walk through a kiwi habitat. no kiwi's though.
next up was hokitika, a small town (as is every town here), where we ate our picnic lunch and watched an overly territorial sea gull claim his post - and all the land surrounding it. god they can be nasty birds! the beach had just had a contest involving making sculptures out of driftwood. some were very clever and creative; others we couldn't really grasp the concept. finally finished up with fudge at sweet alice's! thank goodness they weren't closed like every other store.
back in the car, steph's turn to drive again as we were going thru arthur's pass. stopped at a few view points, which included "death's corner". lovely name, eh? got to see our first kea in action - beginning to investigate another car. the owners of the car were laughing, but i'm sure that would soon end when he began to tear away the rubber stripping. accidentally drove by the town we were
supposed to stay in for the night, so kept our fingers crossed that the YHA had 3 open beds - and they did! the last ones, phew. so spent the night in arthur's pass town, taking a walk up to punchbowl devil waterfall and then hitting up the local pub (the wobbly kea) for a pint after dinner where we tried and failed to decipher the game of cricket.
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