Wanaka

Saturday November 15, 2008

So we arrived in Wanaka last night and had dinner with Nick Frame (Aussie Nick or Evil Nick for you CBers), and he is doing well.

Last night I slept poorly in the vanette, woke up from bad nightmares of betrayal and loss, the sandfly bite on my hand made my whole arm feel all swolen. Tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't, so I got out of bed with the dawn, read some in the book, wrote a postcard and planned my remaining trip. Gen is off to Stewart Island, and I am off to Milford Sound.

Gen slept in while I was doing some planning. The wind was blowing quite strongly, and while I was letting her sleep in (that was the plan), I put on my fleece to keep warm. On my way to the outhouse for a pee, I pass another one of the campers, she is wearing a bikini! So I am in my fleece and she is wearing bikini! Go Figure.

Last night at dinner, we were sitting outside, but I got cold as the sun went down and asked to go inside to eat. Nick had to give me a little shit, "Aren't you guys from Crested Butte? Its warm out here!" But he relented to my shivering and we went inside.

Gen woke up soon thereafter, and I desperately wanted a swim, so we went into Wanaka and stopped at the isite (I explained what an i-site is in yesterday's blog). Also, we have been meaning to splurge on a nice hotel to give us a break from the vanette, and since we have decided to go separate ways tomorrow, this is the night to do it. The super helpful isite consultant tells me that the public pool would only be open late in the day tomorow, and our schedule requires us to leave Wanaka early in the day. She books us a night's stay at a nice little apartment/hotel. For $150NZ (about $85US) we have a one bedroom apartment, with a garage for the vanette, and in the garage, a washer and dryer, with two pools, one heated. I took a swim in the "heated" pool. It was chilly enough to make me SWIM! These NZers and their sense of temperature is way screwed up -- it could not have been more than 75 F in that pool!

Afterwards it was work on the blog, do laundry, unpack the vanette, and re-organize ourselves for the remaining trip.

At about 3:30 PM, Nick came by, and we went on a little tour of outer Wanaka, and he showed us the very nice house that he and Nick Hayes (Kiwi Nick or Good Nick for you CBers) had built and are marketing as a high end retreat called "Release" (www.releasenz.com). It is super nice, has amazing views, and is the place you should stay if you come to Wanaka. See the views of the lake and Mt Aspiring Mountain Range soon to be posted on the picasa site.

Later that night we went to Indian Food at a take-away spot and caught the movie at Cinema Paradiso. It is a fun little theatre for a fun little town. There are a variety of seating options, including old style theatre seats, couches, even an old vw bug (yep there inside the theatre). No two rows of seating were the same. The movie was a french film called "Paris" with Juliette Binoche in an ensemble cast of fine actors. It was a story about love and living life. A fitting end to tonight, and a good start for tomorrow.

Until next time,

Newo Out.