Friday February 5th was a very busy day for us-in a relaxing kind of way!
We started by driving to Jackson Bay, all they way at the end of the road. There was one main reason for driving to the end of the road: The Cray Pot-which is supposed to have some of the best fish & chips in all of New Zealand. While Keith got the fish & chips-me, being lame (or so I thought)-got the burger.
I did not take any pictures of the burger, but it has inspired me to really try to take pictures of delicious food-to quote Keith "this burger is the shit!" Who would have thought this tiny little place right on the ocean at the end of the road (universe?) would make the best burgers of all time? So what is on the best burger? The basics: beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes-and then some surprisingly delicious things: beet relish, coleslaw, stone ground mustard, fried egg, and caramelized onions-I really wish I had taken a picture!
We needed to walk off some of the fantastically delicious fried food we'd just eaten, so we followed a little trail to a secluded beach. On our way, we say a couple who were stopped on the trail looking at something-that something was a Fiordland Crested Penguin!!There he was just hanging out in this little creek. There were a number of 'Penguin crossing' signs in the area, but we didn't expect to actually see one!
After taking tons of pictures of the penguin, we got back on the trail and got to beach-perfection!
We got back on the road with no destination in mind, we just knew we had to go north. We drove by Fox Glacier and even though Lonely Planet made it sound like stopping there was kind of over-rated, we decided to stop. I think it was worth it!
So would amazing food, penguins, beaches and glaciers be enough for one day? Almost! We made it to the town of Ross at about 7:30 pm and we were ready to stop for the day. We chose the Empire Hotel for the evening and to be honest I thought it was a little sketchy-but Keith loved it. The hotel was actually just a few rooms above a bar that looked like no one had been in the rooms for a while!
We went down the the bar for a little dinner and some drinks and we didn't really expect what happened next. As Keith tried to pay for our dinner, we got enveloped by the locals at the bar. It stared with singing along to the Hollies
Air that I Breathe and then there were more beers and all of the sudden someone pulls out a guitar and everyone is half singing songs and telling stories-it was a great night! And just the first day of a long weekend!
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