Today was another intense day of riding. We started out at Franz Joseph Glacier (both a town and a geological formation) and took our time with breakfast and getting out to a trail that gave a good look at the glacier. From there it was 500km along the Western Coast of the South Island to end up in Queenstown.Queenstown is a resort town - mostly snow sports and summer resort and vacations. It's the slow season here between winter (summer months in the US) and summer which starts around December or January. Great food options here and abundance of great coffee shops to check out tomorrow.
We've met people today from Argentina, Ireland, Mexico, Japan, Canada, London, Australia and a few locals. It does feel a like an island - to drive in one day past the Southern Alps, the ocean, rainforest, and miles of road twisting between canyons has been a little surreal. Amazing landscapes around every bend in the road - from a riding terrain perspective this is everything we could have hoped for and more. Still wishing I had a faster/ better cornering bike, but having fun on the BMW.
Bungee jumping was started here in
Queenstown by a guy AJ Hacket who's company currently provides all the commercial bungee jumping for this market. Hope to jump tomorrow of the bridge which was the first bungee jump in the world.We finally met the local law enforcement this afternoon. I suppose it's overdue, but this wasn't how I anticipated it happening. At one point this afternoon after an admittedly *ahem* dubious passing of a car - the car driver decided he didn't like being passed. He proceeded to bump his car into my bike as he passed me back up to regain a position in front of me. By some stroke of luck I
did not lose control of the bike and escaped with only a swipe of plastic missing from the bike's luggage bag. I chased him through the streets of Queenstown for a while trying to point out to him how dangerous it is to run your car into a bike, but lost him in town through traffic lights and crosswalks. Fifteen minutes later as we pulled into our hostel he pulls up behind us with a friend in his car yelling expliciatives. HE actually called the police which was probably a great idea to lend calamity to the situation. This guy runs a little hot and continued yelling explicatives while on the phone with the police - probably not a great idea. Anyway when the police showed up 
we overheard the police radio saying this guy had a couple flags on his record for family violence - that plus his overall demeanor diminished his credibility pretty quickly with the police. In the end I had no proof or collaborating witness against him - and the cop didn't feel like writing me a ticket for illegal passing - so we parted ways shaking hands with the police officer.All in all it was probably enough police for the trip and while they are friendly and kind (and a little hard to take serious not carrying firearms and driving an orange and blue Subaru patrol car) I hope to not spend any more time this week talking with them.
The hostels we're staying in are nice enough and amazing for the price. This $25 place we're in tonight in Queenstown has a $5M view out the back yard over a garden. When I climb into bed each night I try to little success to imagine the last person who had my bed was a sexy European coed - but in all reality it was most likely either a dirty hippy backpacker dripping hemp oil and sweating granola all over the pillow, or a heavy set Lord of the Rings fan who left some of his ponytail in the bed for me to snuggle up with at night. Oh well.
Anyway, Queenstown is pretty Internet connected and we should have no trouble tomorrow getting back online so I'll post again about bungee jumping and we're also going to ride out to where some of the Lord of the Rings was actually filmed nearby.
