Rain rain go away

Thursday, December 4th

Our hike was supposed to start at 9:30am, so at 8:15am I got up and started to get ready. It was pouring rain, but the voucher said rain or shine the hike continues. It was going to suck. Oh wells, I paid for it, so best to stop complaining about it. After I washed my face, I went back to the room to hear Steph said the hike is cancelled due to rain. Ugh! But no matter, I would of gotten up anyway. Everyone else just went back to snoozing, so I went downstairs to use the internet and try to figure out my insurance.

This insurance thing is a pain. If anyone has any suggestions, please shoot it over this way. At around 10pm, the crew started waking up. Alfio called to see what's the deal with the accident and it worked out ok. The rental company agreed to pay for the damages. We suspect it's because the damage was minimal. Clive said it took him 10mins to fix it.

It was pouring outside. No better way to spend it than food and drink. We all geared up to tackle the rain. The walk to blue ice restaurant was only 10mins, but we still got pretty wet. We shared a pizza and pinot noir. A great meal, but I'm going to get fat eating pizza and junk all day, especially chocolate. We went to Franz Josef glacier hike to reschedule the hike for the next day. The full day hike was full, so we were stuck doing the half day. I guess that's better than nothing.

We split up after that. Alfio and Steph went to get the car from Clive, while Nilesh, Bernice, and I went to find a raincoat for Steph and to buy some beers for our day in. Back at the hostel we all just chilled for a few hours. There was nothing indoors to do at Franz Josef. They don't even have a movie theater. I was mainly on my blackberry talking to people. Steph was reading. So was Bernice and Alfio until they took a 3 hour nap. Nilesh went to the global gossip cafe. It was basically a wasted day because of the rain, but I did do laundry.

Nilesh came back around 6pm. He gave me a pep talk that finding a job may be tough, but not impossible. I just need one good opportunity. He had good insights about how this will work out from his own experience. Pretty cool guy.

At around 7pm, everyone woke up again and we busted out our snacks for dinner. We had tuna fish, plain and spiced ones (like tomato basil, spicy thai chili), crackers, bread, salami, and vegemite. It was a much healthier option than pizza. I felt better. We played a few games of jenga while enjoying our beers. When it got dark and the rain stopped, we went to check out the glow worms through a night hike.

We each had either a headlamp or a flash light. After we headed out, we realized we forgot the map. We didn't exactly know where the glow worm hike was, but good thing we bumped into a lady that pointed us in the right direction. When we got to the start of the hike, the sign was wrapped up with danger tape because of a collapsed bridge.

Shall we turn back or keep moving forward? Nilesh said let's go for it, I'll lead. So we all followed him. No joke, it was pitch black. Reminded us of the Blair Witch project or when you watch a scary movie and you scream - those stupid people...yea that was us. We were adventurous. We walked and walked. It was a 20min walk and we still didn't see any glow worms. Eventually we heard the river getting louder and louder, meaning we were approaching it. Woooaaahh....stop. The river was inches from our feet. Another step and we would of fallen off. It was pretty awesome though. Looked like the river was moving really fast, 60 mph? That was a clear signal to start heading back.

But we didn't go back to the hostel. We decided to cross the street and check out the river up close and personal. It was pretty neat. Unreal to do that during the evening. We found our own mini hike along the river. Bernice tried to get close to it. She was intrigued by the fast flowing river.

When we walked back we just showered and got ready for bed. I'm shocked the nappers fell asleep after napping for 3 hours.