Queenstown

SO! First off, I missed a part in Te Anau. I was sitting at the computer doing the blog, and a guy sits at the next computer, puts on the headsets and calls somebody over the internet (VOIP). I can tell he is an american by his accent. He does not have anything to write with, looks over and sees that i have a pen, and asks, "can I borrow your pen, mate." I said, "sure but you dont have to call me mate. I am an American, too." He laughs and said, "picked up some of the local phrases."

After his call, and while we were both working there on our respective computers, we exchange pleasantries. His name is Earl from SF who had been in Aussie and Indonesia for the last 3 or so months (explains the "mate"), diving and surfing. I asked how he could take so much time off work to have a long vacation. He said he quit his job, (Tero takes 11 months off and is going back to his job in Finland! Earl had to quit his job.) But he got a new job in Indonesia being the surf guide on a sailboat that took surfers from killer spot to killer spot by the sea. (Dont that sound an awful lot like Angie's dream job!) "dude, (he was from CA after all) how did you score that gig?" I ask. He was on the boat in Indo and the owner said he needed a good surfer to be the guide for his quests, and offered him the job! Thus extending his "take a couple of years off" by at least one more.

He was in NZ doing the same kind of tour I was, and coming to the same conclusions: Not enough time to do all the things we want to do, especially taking the long tramps (multi-day camping walks) thru the amazing parks. We both have the same solution, come back at a later date and spend enough time to do it right. I sent him my email and blog address, and since he was doing the circumnavigation of the South Island in the opposite direction that i was, I told him what he had to hit, and what he could miss on his way up the west coast, and through the north half. Who knows, maybe Earl will be part of my return-to-tramp thru NZ trip? He seemed like a cool guy, and a dependable fellow.

SO ANYWAY, On Wednesday 19 November, I get up early (too early, but once up i was up) had the last of the oatmeal, and was off to see Peggy Preston in Queenstown. I left the campsite with plenty of time to meet Peggy at her Yoga studio at 11:30 Am per the plan. As I drove away from Te Anau, I was treated to a morning rainbow! At home we only see rainbows in the afternoons, so this was fun! How special, a rainbow greeted me to Fiordland and a rainbow bid me farewell to Firodland. It also underscored how lucky I have been with the weather (as I have mentioned previously).

Retracing my path from Qtown to Te Anau, I pass thru the same landscape that I did coming here on Sunday. The "sage brushy" area is called Red Tussock Conservation area, so obviously the sage brushy things are "red tussocks" As I pass thru the area, Dan would be pleased as the radio picked up a station playing opera! That was fun while it lasted.

There was vertical rain (in blinding sunshine) with strong winds once again as I pass thru this area east of Washburn, and with the morning sun in my face, and as i leave the rain, in my rearview a beautiful rainbow lies low over the horizon (second one of the day -- gosh I love NZ). This one was big and bright and I stopped and took many pictures.

So driving thru New Zealand I have learned to keep both hands on the wheel at all times, because it is usually both very windy and very windy. (The roads have curves, and the wind howls like a banshee.) It is crazy, and unlike driving thru say, west texas where the wind is constant and you just put the wheel over a little all the time as if you were turning slightly, here the wind is so inclement that it buffets the vanette from side to side like Nick Hayes trying to get to Kate Seely's after a night of Ted's bartending!

So i get to Qtown after stopping often and taking pictures of the scenery (i am such a tourtist), and I see why the Nick's like Wanaka more than Queenstown. Wanaka (pop 3500) is laid back, and mellow. The town is smaller and less fancy/touristy than Queenstown (pop 17,000). Queenstown is more built up, busier, has traffic, parking is expensive, the shops are fancy and the restaurants are many and good. Queenstown is nice. It is very, very nice, and obviously very high dollar. Wanaka is the Crested Butte of NZ, and Queenstown is its Aspen (complete with international airport).

I was expecting it to be like Vail from the Nicks' descriptions, but it wasn't all loggy or super big ugly high-rise condos -- big, Big, BIG; it was all small and cute and NZ modern and glass. It was cuter, no buildings were very tall, the design conformed more to the hillside it was built on, as opposed to just being plunked down like a mid-rise apartment incongruous to the surrounding landscape (think Moutaineer Square in Mt CB). It was more like Europe than the US -- smaller buildings, smaller condos. Plus the foo foo all organic cafe we had juice (fresh, but out of wheatgrass), and lunch was awesome! And i had one of the best hamburgers ever in Qtown at the Fergburger. (I was craving beef, fed up with fish, pasta, lamb, fruit, nuts and oatmeal.)

So I met Peggy and was so thankful that her Yoga studio had showers (she does that hot room yoga, so naturally you are supposed to sweat, and then shower afterwards). I was able to get myself somewhat civilized before lunch with a nice, long anticipated shower. (I had been camping and hiking, etc for 3 days without shower as the blog will attest, and I stank!)

After lunch, I got a brief downtown tour as I followed Peggy around on some of her day to day errands, and then we went to her house about 14 (?) KM outside Qtown proper towards Glenarchy. What a beautiful house and setting. Up high, she had great views from the house, and the neighbor on one side was a sheep farm, the neighbor below was out of sight, and the house backed to the bush. It is typical New Zealand modern house, and it is really nice. I was so grateful to be able to stay there in a nice place before the drive cross country to Christchurch to catch the plane home.

Peggy and I chatted, hung some laundry, and did some yoga stretching while we caught up over the afternoon. She showed me some good nice new stretches for the back, neck and hamstrings as we discovered that we both attended Cheley Colorado Camps at the same time (howbout that Reagan and Grey)! -- The foot one, put your feet together and roll thru your toes -- called broken toe, also called thai goddess pose; a belt with the hamstring does the stretch more and no impact on the back; --

It is interesting that we lived in CB for such a long time together. We knew each other, but were not super close. She knows people who have lived in CB at least as long as I have, but that I do not even know, even people that live like 8 houses down from my house. It seems when I am in CB that i know EVERYONE (as Grey seems to think) since I cant run a 5 minute errand without spending 40 minutes talking to three or four dozen people along the way. But we did know a fair number of the same folks. She asked about Bernhotz (now mayor of CB and testified in front of Congress for mining reform), William Buck (now mayor of Mt CB), the Boslers, Cheese Mike (sorry, Mike, you will just never loose that knickname), the Villanuevas, Steph, and a bunch of other people I cant remember. (I am writing this in Houston trying to get it all in before I loose it all, so hey forgive an old man his failing memory, eh?) Peggy says "Hi" to all her friends in CB and will be out next August to visit everyone. She was also properly shocked with changes around town and in Mt CB (eg no more Swiss) and awed with all the people having babies!

After I unpacked my stuff from the car (to organize and pack for the airplane), Peggy and I went back to town. She had to teach yoga classes for the rest of the day, and I was off to find a pool to swim in. I follow the swimming pool signs and it takes me to Wakatipu High School which Jody told me has a great pool and is open for public use. When I got there tho, there were a zillion kids (under 12?) preparing for what is obviously a swimming competition. Typical NZers right? Here we are in ski country and they have all this rugby, soccer, cricket, tennis, mountain climbing, kayaking, surfing, biking, hikinig, bungy jumping, heli-skiing, heli-fly fishing (yep that's right Fisher people, you take a hekicopter to fly fish streams filled with enormous fish that no one else can get to!) AND here are two hundred 10 - 12 year olds about to have a swimming competition in a town of 17,000! (Did I mention that every little town in this country with a population over 500 has a skatepark?) Yep, sport fanatics the New Zealanders are! And you can tell, because everyone under 40 is fit and thin and buff -- and it sure aint their diet of beer, eggs, sausage, hash browns, fish and chips, etc that keeps them that way!!

Anyway, as I asked some of the moms if I loooked lost (they said yes), they gave me directions to the big public facility out in Frankton on (get this Joe) Joe O'Connell Drive! Out I go to a super nice swimming facility in this enormous park with fields for cricket, soccer, rugby and golf -- hmm, British influence anyone? And spend too long swimming in the huge nice pool, and soaking in the very large hot tub -- very irregularly shaped so that there were like 4 or so fairly private areas, and big enough that I could actually swim several strokes under water in it, the hot tub this is.

After the swim, I get some blogging done at Peggy's studio while I wait for her to finish her last class, but I am frustrated with picasa, as it wont work on her office computer! Everything is going to have to wait until I get back to houston to get caught up (and here i am in houston at Elise's computer writing this entry into the wee hours right now.) Note to self: get those 14 commandments of Buddha (as if Buddha would issue "comandments") from Peggy's wall hanging at the studio.

We drive back to her house and the twilight on the Lake (Qtown is also on one of these giagantic mountain lakes -- Lake Wakatipu) is simply gorgeous. I am psyched that the forcast is for sunny all over NZ for my drive to Christchurch. All in all it was a good day relaxing in the swankiness of Qtown and repacking for the airplane which I catch Friday night -- only two more days in NZ =(!!

But Queenstown doesnt end there.... That night is when the best things happened in Qtown: we chatted and talked the night away. Peggy had these good, all organic cookies that she shared with me, Jody was there, and bits of Highlander and Pulp Fiction were on the tube. Later in the night, her roomate (sorry flat mate -- Peggy has picked up some of the local lingo just as Earl had. "Its just easier, you know," they both said. "And," Peggy mentions, "they don't make fun of you. Bathroom is toilet or loo (sp?). 'What you going to take a bath in the toilet, are you?' or my roomate "what you share the same room as her do you?' etc.) Liz returns home. In typical NZ class and style, Liz welcomes me into her house (Peggy said she didnt give her any notice that a big hippie freak was going to spend the night in her house). Liz even handles with typical courtesy and non-chalance the news as Peggy relates that I hung up her knickers (underwear) on the line. "Jeez, Peggy," i say, "you didnt have to tell her that!" How embarasssing; (and in a country that is rather British proper -- the swim place had changing rooms inside the locker rooms; a mother breast feeding in public very properly kept herself fully concealed with a blanket; even Nick hayes recounted how uncomfortable he was having to be naked at Orvis hot springs, "you yanks are used to that kind of public nudity, but we NZers are not that way." I tried to explain that in parts of the US public nudity is still quite shocking, but whatever.)

Peggy gives me a letter to take to Andy Bamberg back home (SOMEONE REMIND ME WHEN I GET BACK TO CO, OK?), and calls it a night. Liz tells me that I absolutely have to stop and detour up to Mt Cook National Park to see it, since I am driving right past it. She says there is a little 20 minute boardwalk that takes you really close to the mountain, and that it is easy and i can do it in my sandles, and recomends a restaurant there to eat, and she calls it a night. I re-pack myself for the final night in NZ and the airplane, and load the van.

The clouds had broken and the sky was clear. It was one of only three clear nights in NZ. One at Franz Josef, where I took the full moon picture, one in Wanaka when I was too tired to pull out the southern night sky constellations map (plus there was too much light pollution), and this one. SO, i unpack the constellation map and spend from about 1 to 1:30 AM finding stars. How frackin cool is this? (and it was CB cold, too)

For the first time in my life, I see both the large and small magellanic clouds, they were high in the sky and clear (kew! add binoculars to the list of must take back to NZ trip items) Then starting with the easy constellations: orion, southern cross, pleides (7 sisters), to get an orientation, and identified hydrus, phoenix, eridanus, lepis, canis major and minor, taurus, pholens, but i couldn't pick out pupis, or pixus or vela. Leo should have been in the east, but it had already set, or the moon was to bright (it was about to rise), and the pleides had reached the setting horizon by the time i was done.

Plus, as I was stumbling around her back yard looking at stars I heard this strange and scary noise coming from the back bush. Now I know that NZ doesnt have any large predators, since it didnt have any native mamals either (there are not even any snakes in NZ). But this noise sounds like a growling noise or snoring, or some kind of nostril blowing noise (almost like a elk bugle in character but not tone) followed by a series of humphs or hocks, that almost sounded like a chicken clucking in a very deep voice. Had to be some kind of bird, but what is was i have no idea. Later in Christchurch I saw a short doc film about the Kiwi, and that noise from the bush outside Qtown did sound a little bit like some of the mating calls of the Kiwi. Did i actually hear the sound of a Kiwi in Queenstown? One of Gen's main reasons to go to Stewart Island was to try and see an actual wild kiwi, they are that rare and unusual of a native bird, and here I hear one in Peggy Preston's back yard? Lance (the gold miner from Hope Saddle) said that they were all over the place and not as rare as everyone says they are; "I guarantee there are at least 50 of them in this bit of bush right here. Just that no one ever sees them because they are out at night and no one is lookin."

Anyway, tomorrow comes early as Peggy has to teach at 7 AM and she is waking me before then to say goodbye and so that i can start my long drive day, and see Mt Cook and the main Southern Alps!

Until next time,

Newo Out.