Alright, we'll start off with fire alarms. Since I've been in New Zealand, the grand total of unnecessary fire alarms set off where I'm staying is THREE. That's crazy; I don't think I have ever experienced this high of a fire alarm frequency, ever. The first one, as aforementioned in another post, was while I was staying at the YHA Wellington with my parents and Brad. That sucked; it was super early, and I was tired. The second one happened just about a week ago at the X Base Queenstown, at around 1 or 2a; luckily I had just gotten back from a bar or something and was hanging out with everyone in the room, so I wasn't quite asleep yet (though on the verge, I will say). This was probably the most funny one, just because Robert the security guard was INCREDIBLY pissed that someone had pulled it, and was walking up the stairs yelling, "WHOEVER DID THIS IS GOING TO GET IT, I SWEAR. WE'LL GET YOU." Then, when they told us we could go back inside (30-45 minutes later, lame), they yelled that they needed to speak to whoever was in 303. Apparently after that they arrested some guy that had pulled it, which is hilarious, and totally deserving. My theory is that he was affiliated with Ferg Burger and the only reason it was pulled was for Ferg to get more business that night, seeing as how a ridiculous amount of people that were woken up and shoved out of Base immediately went over there (hilarious). And now (and definitely the most random/ridiculous) was two days ago at the Rainforest Retreat. I had just gotten into Franz Josef, checked into my room and gone to the bathroom, when, lo and behold, the fire alarm goes off? I was like, really? Reeeeeeeally? It was only something like 3p, so it was totally random and out of left field. Everyone was just like, what's going on? and were completely not taking it seriously, it was actually pretty funny. I walked outside onto the balcony (I was on the second floor) and the owner is out there going from room to room, in a hunt to find out where the off-switch was. So, I went downstairs, walked over to the kitchen while he went upstairs to turn it off, and after about a minute, it was all over. It was hilarious, just because everyone knew it wasn't real, no fire trucks showed up anyway, and the owner was just great. So yeah. Maybe I'll get one last one before I leave on Friday. That'd be great.
Oh, and I remembered one thing about my glacier hike at Franz Josef; right as we were coming up to the actual glacier from the valley and sitting down to strap on our crampons, a HUGE chunk of ice decided to just fall of the front of the glacier. It was nuts. It made such a loud craaaaack prghhhhhhh! sound, I literally jumped back and yelled, haha. Then AJ was like, yeah that probably weighs a couple of tons, easily, which is why you'll be following me today and not just running about on the glacier on your own. It was NUTS. Seriously. But totally awesome and one of the best parts about the hike, I just wish I had it on video.
So today I arrived in Greymouth at around 1230p, where the bus driver told me that this "good guy" that owns Neptune's Hostel has a shuttle and should be here in a few minutes. So I waited for the Neptune guy, whose name is Steve (and his girlfriend? wife? sister? business associate? Charlie), who took me to his hostel. This hostel is seriously THE BEST HOSTEL I've stayed in so far. For starters, there's no bunk beds, just regular beds, which seems like something small, but when you're a backpacker for an extended period of time, is so nice. The next thing on the list is the fact that Steve is AWESOME, totally hilarious and a really likable guy. Thirdly, it's only $23, which is great, especially seeing as how I'm DEFINITELY running out of money, and fast (I blame you, Queenstown). There's also a free hot tub, a VAST amount of movies, a FREE SHUTTLE TO THE TRAIN STATION (awesome, if you couldn't tell already), a beautiful view out the window, and free towels! Oh, and the best part? At 4p, Steve brings back bakery items from some connection, haha, every weekday. And it's FREE. So yeah, there's also free food here. Which is awesome. I haven't paid for any food for something like the past 3 days. Which is great (well, I paid for it at the grocery store.... I just haven't gone out to eat).
Oh and by the way, how did the Ice Queen or whatever from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe lure that kid into her with Turkish Delight? Because they sell it over here, and I finally bought a bar today, and I can tell you right now, it's HORRIBLE. What a dumb kid.
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