Day 9 & 10 - Rain, rain, and more rain...

So we woke up on Wednesday to some really crappy weather.  We had planned to drive to Abel Tasman park for some sea kayaking, but because of the weather we decided that might not be the best thing to do, so instead we went to the Aviation Heritage Museum which Sharon had read was supposed to be pretty cool.  Peter Jackson was involved in setting it up, so how could it not be awesome?

The museum focused on the role that aviation played in World War I.  It was very interesting.  It contained many original planes and full-sized replicas of planes from the war.  Here are a few pics:

There was also a really cool exhibit on the Red Baron who was the top ace in the war.  Here's a reproduction of a scene shortly after he was shot down near the end of the war where the allies are stripping his plane and his person for anything they could get their hands on:

"Dibs on his sweet leather boots!"

Thanks to my great wife for finding and taking me to this awesome museum and giving the aerospace engineer in me a big treat.

Me and my awesome wife in front of an old school fighter jet.

After the museum, we took to the car and drove about 4 hours through the rain to Greymouth, a town on the west coast of the south island.  In good weather, there are supposedly some great views from the pier here as well as a fantastic sunset, but unfortunately for us the bad weather continued.  On the bright side, the hostel we stayed at, Global Village was really nice.  It had an African theme, as you can see from the picture below.  All the rooms were really nice, the facilities were great, and they had a great movie watching room with hundreds of DVDs to choose from.  Due to the crappy weather, we decided to hit the movie room and watch a movie.  Sharon made some delicious guacamole and along with some chips, we sat down to watch Deer Hunter for the first time.  Unfortunately we could only watch the first two hours (it is a three hour movie) but we both can't wait to finish it (whenever that may be).  I must say that Meryl Streep was pretty hot back in the day...and Sharon was surprised about how good looking Christopher Walken was then too.

"Swan love towels!!!  This is the best hostel ever!!!!!!!!!

We woke up Thursday morning to some more crappy weather so although we wanted to stay at the hostel one more night, we thought it would be best to get some driving done in the crappy weather so we wouldn't have to waste time driving when the weather turned.  So we packed up and started to make our way further down the west coast.  On the way we made a slight detour to the north to view the pancake rock formations.  Anything with pancake in the name is a must-see attraction for me.  The rocks were pretty cool, but the drive along the coast was even better I think.  The surf was pretty nuts.

"Seriously...where are the pancakes???  I'm hungry"

After the pancake rocks we went to Montieth's Brewery in Greymouth for a tour and some beer tasting.  Is there anything else better to do on a rainy day?  Brian, you'll be happy to know I mentioned by you, "my beer geek friend back in the U.S." on multiple occasions while I was there.  Unfortunately the brew house was closed to tours as it was being upgraded, so we could only watch a video, but let's be honest, we were there to taste the beer, which was delicious and plentiful.

I think this is the happiest I've seen Sharon so far on the trip;)

After we were dragged out of Montieth's we sobered up, and then continued our way down the coast to get ready to see some glaciers tomorrow.  Stay tuned...