Squashing Cute Animals & Panning For Gold
Lake Mahinapua -> Franz Josef, 30th November 2001
Unfortunately, we needed to rise early yet again to continue our
journey onward. Luckily, none of felt too bad, so we packed all our
gear away quickly and easily, making sure to return Em & Nat's
clothes. But I'm pretty sure that Stinge kept 'a little
something'....he he
After 15 minutes of driving, we stopped at a small museum. A tall,
tubby, middle aged man entered the bus and began telling us about
the museum and about the big New Zealand pest, the Possum.
Unfortunately for him, Stu (our coach driver) had told us to baa
like sheep whenever the guy said "Possum". On the first mention of
"possum" and the subsequent "baaing", the man looked sideways at Stu
– who had obviously done this before. He then managed to avoid
saying possum for the rest of his quick introductory talk, before
leading us into the museum.
The museum was quite interesting. There was a lot of information
about recent environmental & natural history and our guide showed us
a real Possum. The cute, furry, tubby animal ravenously ate the
leaves it was given. The possums were introduced many years ago but,
unfortunately, due to there being no natural predators, the
population exploded. They are now so numerous & their eating habits
so destructive they are seen as pests. But they're so cute!
Apparently, drivers make an definite effort to run them over...
He next showed us a huge, hairy, black, wild pig with massive tusks.
It was very clever, "sitting" on command and seemed well tempered
for such an animal. He also pulled a huge, black, slimy eel out of
the water in order to show us another native New Zealand animal.
In New Zealand, the deer population is very high, and due to the
venison market being very popular, the New Zealanders invented many
ways to catch deer alive so they could be farmed. He showed us a few
such net-firing guns. He said it beats the old way of jumping from
helicopters & wrestling them to the ground. Was he joking?
We learned that in New Zealand, the animal population is huge due to
the large amounts of green land and a lack of predators. Therefore,
their numbers need to be controlled to avoid environmental damage.
This means that hunting is seen as a much more acceptable activity
than in places like the UK where wild animals are much more scarce.
After a short tour, we grabbed a quick bite to eat. Nat & Stinge had
the 'spicy' potato wedges. SPICY was definitely the word. They were
hotter than a lot of the curries we've had! Halfway through, Nat &
Stinge's eyes & noses were running like fountains and they were
guzzling cold drinks by the bucket full! I think they went a bit
over the top with the chillies. Looking around the room and noticing
the other crying people showed the general agreement on the level of
spiciness.
Our next stop on our journey was at an old gold-panning site. Time
for a bit of real New Zealand culture. After being greeted by a
HUGE, bald man, huge both in height & width, we left the coach to do
our activities. Stinge felt the call of war games, and went to play
paint ball in the sub-tropic trees. Nat, Em & I decided to do some
gold panning.
They took us on a quick tour through the forest, telling us a bit
about both the Maori culture & how the old gold-panners lived (the
last gold-panner, a guy called George, lived in a little metal hut
in the trees for 38 years!). After we emerged by the riverside, we
were shown the technique of panning for gold. Although this
technique is generally performed using a 'sluice' machine, it used
to be done manually using a big pan.
The technique of panning for gold basically consists of; filling a
pan with dirt & rocks on the river bed, standing in/near the water;
adding water to the pan, shaking the pan vigorously from side to
side for ages, followed by more shaking, washing & tipping until
only some fine soil is left, pour in more dirt & stones and repeat!
Following some hard efforts, the guys working there finish the
process to get the flecks of gold out for us (probably also to claim
any unexpected big gold nuggets or red garnets, that might appear?).
The hours of work by the group eventually produced about 5 tiny
flecks of gold each, which they put in small tubes for us.
After some delicious venison sausage sandwiches, and when the paint
ballers return covered in bruises, we headed off on the last leg of
today's journey. We spent most of this stop brushing sand flies away
-huge, annoying insects that bite like crazy. When they bite, they
leave a big, red bleeding spot that itches really badly. The big
problem is trying to use the toilet. The toilets are outdoors & full
of these flies, so you need to use one hand to keep swatting them
away!
It was still raining by the time we reached "The Black Sheep" (our
hostel) so we rushed off to check-in. After a bit of queuing &
rushing around, we got to our room & threw our stuff on our beds. We
decided to head down to the Baa-Bar for a quick drink & a game of
pool (or 2, or 3, or....). Even better, as it was happy hour, a pint
was only NZ$3.50 (about 1 pound). We completed a few games of pool,
then played cards with Gary & Jo (two people we met on the bus).
I should probably introduce Gary and Jo. A week or so ago, when we
all introduced ourselves on the bus, over the microphone, Gary had
said he was from near Portsmouth, England. We live in Gosport, a
small town near Portsmouth, so we excitedly started talking to him.
After some further conversation it turned out that he was from
Gosport as well, in fact he lived just round the corner! So Gary,
and his girlfriend Jo, occasionally joined us for drinks and chats.
At about 9 o'clock, the pool competition started. We decided to
enter, because the prize was a free jet boat ride on the big
Shotover river & it only costed NZ$1 to enter. We played some good
shots & gave a valiant effort, but in the end, we we're knocked out
and an older guy won the competition. After a few more drinks, we
decided to head back to our rooms. We needed to avoid spending any
more money on drinks as we have an 8-hour ice glacier climb to
complete tomorrow - so sleep is required! We left behind the raucous
cries of the pub to go to our room and prepare for tomorrow’s
adventure...
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