Day 21- November 23rd

One month until my birthday! Woke up this morning and it was looking pretty grey out.  Everyone else was still asleep so I went down to the kitchen to make breakfast. Most mornings I have been eating oats soaked overnight in water, sometimes with some chopped fruit on top. It sounds bad. It's not that bad. It's like cold porridge.
I was minding my own business, eating my breakfast when someone came to talk to me. It was fairly early and I wasn't really in the mood for talking, but one thing I've learned from travelling is everyone is always at their friendliest, and it would do you good to be friendly as well. People always have tips they can give you about places they've been, or just general interesting things to say. It was the boy from Westport again. Turns out we're going to be in Australia at the same time, so may possibly see him again at a later date.

Rainforest terrain

Yesterday, Emma had booked herself onto a quad biking tour, so Lily and I decided to head up to the glaciers for a hike. It was cold and wet and disgusting. We walked through rainforest terrain which really confused me- we have a climate just like this in England, so why don't we have rainforest there? We got to the viewing point where we were supposed to be able to see the glacier from, but it was way too cloudy and we couldn't see a thing. It was still pretty scenic though, and the valley looked all mysterious in the fog.

Don't fall

We headed back to the hostel and by the time we were got there, we were absolutely drenched. It was mid afternoon so we didn't do much for the rest of the day; FaceTimed some friends, tried to do some laundry but had no money and the only ATM was out of order, cooked dinner, chatted with some people.
Meanwhile, Ems was having an amazing time out on the quad bikes. Unlike hiking, where rain ruins everything, rain and mud makes everything even better on bikes apparently! I will end this post with a guest entry from Emma Davenport herself, about her quadbiking experience...

It'd been raining non stop for the past 2 days so quadbiking was an awesome way to spend the afternoon. We all had to complete a test circuit to learn how to counterbalance and go over steep terrain. Our guides were kitted out with a fire extinguisher and a shovel so we knew it was going to be fairly intense but heaps of fun. We went in a line and had to keep to a max speed of 30mph. Me being confident and probably a bit dumb revved it up to just under 50mph. The quads were proper 4 wheel drive, off roading toys and looked pretty mean! The scenery was stunning, sadly as it was raining we couldn't see the glacier but we weaved between the old river bed at the foot of the glacier and the rainforest. According to the guides this was the site were the directors of Avatar got their inspiration for the movie set. So all in all, it was pretty spectacular and proved a great landscape to ride on with deep mud trenches, rocky beds and a fast flowing river. Fortunately we were kitted out with wellies and full waterproofs so we were prepared to get drenched! Definitely recommend this trip, had an awesome time and it's perfect for everyone even if you don't wanna drive and just be a passenger! 

Don't snap and drive, they said.