Dairy farm and hokitika

Sunday may 23- we woke up at 6:45 made breakfast and packed up our bags and headed out of fox glacier on the bus! Went to a dairy farm for a few hours ad watched the cows go on the moving conveyer belt basically to get milked! Then they let people try the fresh milk but I didn't. There's something about watching a cow poop at the same time the mill is coming out of it's utters that just isn't appealing to me. Then when everyone tried the milk and said it was salty I decided it was definitely a no. We took a stroll through the farm and got our shoes filthy with mud (and other stuff) there were hundreds of cows.... They all were far away and turned away from us but when we walked up to the fence they got closer and just stood facing us mooing, basically telling us to leave! So we did haha... Headed to franz Josef for lunch and had pretty good burgers and for once at a reasonable price! The bathrooms were insanely cool! You press a touch button for the bathroom sliding door to open then you sit down and it says you have 10 minutes and then the door will automatically open, so your max time is 10 min haha. Then you put your hand at the toilet paper which is automatic and gives you a rationed amount. Then you get soap and automatic water and an air dryer and once you've washed your hands the toilet automatically flushes and the door opens. Quite the technology! Sustainable? Possibly! You can't waste paper or water or air from the hand dryer. But I can't imagine how much goes into the system to make it all work.

After lunch we passed over the Alpine plate which was huge and if there would have Been an earthquake while we were there we would have fallen down the mountain.... Scary. Got to hokitika and went to a jade factory and learned how they mine for jade and then polish and cut it. It was very pricey and nothing I'd particularly wear. Had some small group sessions tonight to work on our papers, cooked an amazing dinner and went to the coldddd beach for a few minutes to see what it was like (in the dark though) so we didn't really see much. The place we are staying at is awesome! Looks really dumpy from the outside and probably a month ago we would have thought the inside was dumpy too but our perspectives have changed. Not having to use a sleeping bag, central showers and bathroom, and a travel size towel and shower shoes is a great change. There's even a tv! First tv in 2 weeks! Crazy! So we've enjoyed the one night we have here. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for dolomite point and pancake rocks, hiking (shocking right?) we have hikes everyday til we leave new zealand. And one of the days is a sea kayaking trip and another is swimming with dolphins. Pretty much a great next few weeks ahead of us! Getting on and off the bus every day and heading to new towns every day or 2 is so worth it!

Caitlin