got up, showered, had breakfast, and in general just made sure we were ready on time. not too far along in our journey did we stop in pukekura at a wildfoods type of restaurant/museum/gift shop called bushman's centre. it was one of those crap why are we here kiwi stops. we were there for 1 hour to allow everyone to have breakfast. bullshit stop because i don't need a babysitter, nor does anyone else on the bus. you're all old enough to take care of yourself and get up and have breakfast. our breakfast stops are normally 30 minutes max so this one was ridiculous. also because it's one of those in the backwoods of michigan meat is everything and white rules sort of places. am i getting the message across? when we got there, the man who runs the place came on the bus and told a bunch of not crude, but fucking "that's racist man" jokes. shit about koreans eating dogs and crap. that just put me in a foul mood. in the restaurant is only things like possum pies. all the seats had fur and there were heads on the walls. twiddle thumbs and i opted to get some liquid and sit outside. it got too cold eventually and so we wandered around the gift shop. then we wandered around outside where they have deer, turkey, and goats fenced in.

this place is definitely not vegan

eventually we left the place and stopped by the whataroa river (sourced by glaciers) to let off some people who were going to skydive in franz josef. then we crossed the street to spend time at a place where you can either pan for gold or do some paintball. that's it. we were there for i don't know how long. 1.5 hours i think. it was a long time. the bus driver didn't do a good job at all about telling us how long we would be there, when we could expect to leave, nor how could it was outside and that there's nowhere to huddle for warmth. another i'm locking the bus and you better get out stops (this happened to me in pukekura).

whataroa river

those are glaciers far in the background

as you can tell, i'm not happy with this driver. maybe that's because he's got a fuck buddy tagging along with him. i hate these girls that sleep with the drivers. i also hate the drivers who do. if there isn't a policy against it, there should be. argh! the river was really pretty though.

finally we made it to franz josef. we are staying at a hostel called the glow worm cottages. it's pretty nice. as always, there are a few things that could stand improvement but so far i think this is one of the nicest hostels we have stayed at. it doesn't smell. the kitchen's not bad. the bathrooms and showers aren't so bad. i haven't checked out the laundry facilities. there is a tv room and you have to pay to rent videos (not dvds!) but there's free vegetarian soup every night at 6pm apparently. don't know if it's vegan. not gonna try it. there's also a book exchange. i'm really looking forward to tomorrow. i can't wait to see the glacier up close.

there are several californians in the hostel which makes it very nice. there are 3 others from the kiwi bus and we met another californian already staying in the hostel. maybe this is why the british all huddle together. nice to feel a part of home.

gorgeous franz josef sunset