Bonjour!
Where did you leave me last time? Oh yes, in Franz Josef, about to go and immerse myself in the Glacier Hot Pools! Well these were fantastic. There are three pools, at 36, 38 and 40 degrees, in a sort of rainforesty setting. It was a v. elemental experience because my visit coincided with another huge thunderstorm, and they cover the pools with canopies but alas, not the walkways in between! So there was much running around in rain and lightning in a bikini, and much wallowing for approx 2 hrs.
Beautifully relaxed and rather sleepy, I headed back to the hostel and settled down for a lovely kip before getting up nice and early on Monday morning to go to Queenstown. The bus journey was quite a lot longer than the drive would have been because they stopped a fair bit, but it was nice to stretch one's legs every couple of hours. We also went through Wanaka which is quite popular, and quieter than Queenstown I think. Nothing in the journey is of note, apart from a rest stop at a farm shop where they were selling the loveliest icecream ever – I had a cup of banana and hokey-pokey, excellent stuff!
I also took the usual crap photos from the coach of gorgeous scenery - photos completely fail to do it justice!
I arrived in Q'town at about 4.30pm, (wo)manfully swung my bag onto my crumply shoulders, and staggered round the corner to Nomads Hostel where I am staying for a week. They were very nice and welcoming, and very, very big. I went and got settled in my dorm room and explored the hostel a little. It appears to mainly be full of gap yahs, and alas there is no oven (HORROR) but I bumped into Becky (Sladden) a friend from med school who is in NZ visiting family and travelling before going home for graduation! YAY! (Hope you all have a fantastic day my graduating buddies, big love to you all! <3) I then sorted my food and put a few more layers on before heading out to book my ski lessons!
We will draw a kindly curtain over my painful realisation of how expensive skiing is – suffice to say I returned planning a much tighter food budget. Paula arrived for dinner – she left Wellington for Queenstown about 2 weeks ago, for a graphics design job down here which is going well! We had some chilli (no surprises there) and Paula proclaimed it one of the tastiest she'd ever eaten. By this point my chilli tastebuds have been well and truly deadened, but it was good to know she liked it :) I tell you, it's all about the dark chocolate. And 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery and 2 onions. Yes Wayne ;)
We also managed to slurp down a bottle of red wine between us, and after a good catch-up it was time for me to go to bed to excitedly dream of skiing!!!
Alas. It was not to be. Today I got myself up and heartily breakfasted, and joyfully noticed how much snow there had been in the night..... and upon getting to the NZ Ski Centre, found, ironically, that both mountains were closed because of too much snow. Yes. The visibility is too poor apparently, and the buses would find it too difficult to get there. Bah. Also it turns out that my boots are not waterproof (they are only leather ankle boots from Office, after all) and I rapidly became reacquainted with the terrible grumpy mood that comes from having icicles for toes. In an effort to negate this, I slipped, slid and wobbled my way to Patagonia Chocolates
on the harbourfront, ordered a coffee and a truffle, and availed myself of their free wifi to talk to David who cheered me up as usual. Parents refused to come online and talk to their 12000-miles-away firstborn. Huh.
(To be fair it was pretty late...)
2 ginger hot chocolates and a lot of slooooooooooooww internet later, I gingerly stepped outside again, realised that I had lost all feeling in my feet and that my plan of walking up to the gondola at Bob's Peak was not going to happen, and I wouldn't see anything even if I did get there. Instead, I headed home via the supermarket where I got plastic bags for waterproofing my boots (inside not outside, that would be MEGA-slippy), and ingredients for banana muffins to make at Paula's :D
Once back at the hostel, I reheated a parma-ham-wrapped-and-mozzarella-stuffed chicken breast – only joking, it was chilli once more … sigh... and had a cup of tea, before settling down to read Tristam Shandy on the comfy leather sofa. Tristam Shandy had his usual soporific effect and I fell asleep for about 2 hours. Since waking up I have had more tea and observed the bizarre courtship rituals of the gap yahs (I believe that the males, when in high spirits, pick up the females and twirl them round, turn them upside down, then sit on them....? All the other males crowd round and take photographs. There is much congratulation of the courting male, and the female giggles a lot.)
Really hoping that I get to ski tomorrow!!! Not sure what else there is to do in Queenstown. It's a nice enough place – bearing in mind how much the weather taints my experience of anywhere – but it's very commercialised and all the activities are pricey, as is the food. I do not want to part with $240 to go and jump off a bridge, but I can see how you might end up doing that... according to the Rough Guide, even if I DID want to bungy-jump, Qtown is not the place because it's just so much more expensive than everywhere else, and it's mainly the peer pressure that gets to people.
It seems to have stopped snowing now so I may try out my ingeniously waterproofed shoes and head to Paula's... or to a bar for free wifi again. I refuse to give Nomads any more money, and it's 9.95 NZD for 1 day unlimited access or 24.95 NZD for 3 days unlimited access, which I guess isn't that much but I'm at that stage in the travelling budget where I'm starting to fiercely resent all attempts to fleece me. HUMPHZIG.
aha! in McDonalds - they do free wifi.... had to buy a cup of jasmine green tea to bring this post to you, but I'm sure it's worth it ;) also the nice man who fixed the wifi for me has just given me 2 vouchers for 60 mins of free internet! yay for nice people! there are lots in NZ...
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