barrytown (pop.40)
for the sake of ease, and cost, i've bought a ticket on one of the point to point backpacker buses that crisscross nz, and i joined up with it in a small place called barrytown. this place has a two line entry in the lonely planet, and i was intrigued as to why it was our first west coast port of call. when i arrived, i was even more puzzled: the place is literally a pub/ hostel, and about thirty houses. no shop, no nothing.as the evening progressed, things became clearer. the owner of my bus company is best mates with the red necks who run the pub, and he sends all his busloads of hapless travellers there to boost, or rather create, the chap's business. it's all a bit of a machievellian ploy, and annoys the hell out of everyone that is stuck there for a night. still it was actually quite funny to be in this tiny hillbilly settlement, and the locals were hilarious: inbred loons, great stuff. certainly off the beaten track, though not in the up an isolated mountain way that i'm used to.
i'm currently in franz josef, a little town underneath a massive glacier which i'm going to hike up tomorrow. it looks beautiful, but it also seems like a lot of effort.
posted by bicrom @ 7:32 am
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