Queenstown and Misadventure
I had an interview on
Tuesday afternoon after I bunjee jumped (18th) for the Butterfli hostel, a tiny hostel with only
about 6 rooms, up on the hill. I've since found out that it's only a
few doors along, on the same street, as my friend from home, W. P
sunbathed by the water when I went to my interview. The job was to be
reception and other duties in a hostel, for 2 days a week – most
likely the weekend. This didn't bother me as I've been working mostly
all weekends for the past 5 years. During the interview, I got the
feeling that she wasn't warming up to me. I was being all cheery with
my answers and polite and smiling lots! She asked me if I'd applied
for other jobs and I was honest, which she didn't like. If I get the
job, I cannot have another. Working in the hostel would be for two
days a week for free accommodation, but yet I couldn't have another
job during the rest of the week. Why? Because she was setting up a
side business and even though she would still be working, she'd need
someone to rely on in case she got ill. That's right, ladies and
gentlemen, the maybe once every few months that a person might get
ill, meant that I could not try and earn money elsewhere. Let's just
say I didn't warm up to her either.
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| View from the Butterfli Hostel |
On Wednesday morning, P
and I got up early. We'd managed to book a trip on a website called
bookme, which is a NZ site for getting discounts on activities. This
was our first one through the site – but not the last! We had
booked ourselves a trip to Milford Sound, which is one of the fjords
on the south west coast of the South Island, which meets with the
Tasman Sea. It rained the ENTIRE day. We had managed to get a
coach-cruise-coach deal for $120, around £60. A bus alone to the
ferry terminal is about the same one way on Intercity, so we were
really lucky. The coach picked us up about 8.45am, and for 7 hours,
we were on this bus. Because it was a tour, our driver spoke about
the history, the geology and the views as we went. We also stopped
once in Te Anau for about 40 minutes (look at my fish picture) and
about 6 other times to take pictures and take short walks. It was
torrential most of the way, but it also meant that the waterfalls
were huge and there was a lot more of them. Milford Sound and most of
the area around it is a national park, so I felt really privileged to
know that if my grand-kids visit this place in 50 or 60 years time,
apart from things growing, everything will be in the same place. Not
even dogs are allowed in, and you have to take all of your rubbish
away with you.
When I say it rained
the entire day, I really mean it. The trees reminded me of a mixture
of home and that of a jungle, as apparently you can find the same
sort of trees in Patagonia from when we were all connected. When we
were all Pangea, although, no offence to Alfred Wegener, but they
seem to think down here that Pangea was for the northern hemisphere
and there was a completely different mega continent for the southern
hemisphere. We were also told that we were now in the southern most
quarter of the world, where less than 1% of the world's population
live. In the top 25%, there's most of Europe, Russia and North
America, so the population is more like 10%. I really liked getting
the history and geography lessons about NZ. Parts I already knew
because of my reading before and during my trip so far, and also
while being told on the cook connections bus on my way to Mt Cook.
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| P with those many waterfalls, just after the tunnel through the mountain |
P and I wholeheartedly
enjoyed the day. We got wet – but then again, we're Scottish so
were used to it. We were on the Jucy boat cruise for 1h45, where we
went all the way down the south side of the fjord, and then all the
way up the north side. The waterfalls were massive and the mountains
were fairly impressive – of what we could see of them. Lots of
sheer cliffs covered in trees and waterfalls, and some cool u-shaped
and v-shaped valleys above sea level, left there by the glacier. Our
entire trip took about 13 hours. I really wanted it to be a sunny,
blue sky day but I guess we can't have it all.
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| Me getting very wet when our boat reversed into the waterfall! |
On our return to town,
we met up with my friend W, who has lived in NZ for about 3 years now
but will be returning back to old Caledonia in May. He's a friend of
mine from high school, and apart from a mutual friends' wedding about
18 months ago, I hadn't really seen him since then. It was really
nice to catch up though. We went out for another Fergburger (my
second, still a southern swine and still amazing!) and then for a
drink closer to our hostel before he drove our lazy bums back up the
hill. We were tired and he offered, of course I'm going to say yes!
On Thursday, we were
meant to go and find an adventure elsewhere, but after we got back
from Milford Sound, and started looking at things, it was far too
late to start looking at buses. They were either all full up, really
expensive or timed awfully. Instead we made a joint decision to stay
on until Saturday, when the next bus back up to Christchurch was. I
used by bus pass, and booked P on the bus, $50. Our hostel
unfortunately didn't have space for us any longer, so we had to move.
I was actually quite thankful because our room was tiny and since the
wifi didn't stretch all over the hostel and the best reception was
right outside our room, I was glad we'd get a good sleep elsewhere.
Listening to someone else's skype conversation at 2am is not fun! We
managed to bag ourselves a twin room at the Alpine Lodge, just 5
minutes walk from the centre and 5 minutes from the supermarket. No
hills there. We stayed there for two nights. It was nice enough there
and both nights we had spaghetti bolognese. No more burgers – at
least for dinner or any other late night snacks. On Thursday itself
we had a lazy morning packing up our things in the hostel and
watching most of an old video with some of the hostel crowd in the
Bunji hostel – and then went hiking (or tramping as it's known over
here) up Queenstown Hill. It is uphill all the way, obviously, but
walking through the houses was nice and P and I found some houses
that we would buy if we could, all with amazing views over the town
and lake. I've found that the lake and main mountain facing the town,
looks a lot like my home village of Glenfinnan.
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| The hill in the middle foreground, Queenstown |
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| The hill to the left of my sister, H's head |
The view from the hill
is magnificent, and I'm sure I took the same picture – only from a
different angle – several times! On coming down, we treated
ourselves to a Starbucks. Yup, they've got one in this town too. But
– here's the difference, folks! Instead of having my normal hot
chocolate, I tried coffee... for the very first time! I had a soy
caramel macchiato, and although some have said since that this is
not a real coffee... give me time! But I liked it enough, it didn't
give me jitters, and like I suspected, the caffeine gave me no boost.
So much for me wanting to get coffee in the morning at some point in
the near future, hoping it'll wake me up!
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| Me! Don't I look excited? |
On Friday, we had
planned to go and see Wanaka's glacier. Then we found out it was an
hour's drive from Wanaka itself plus a 3 hour return walk. The walk
we didn't mind, but the drive... well, neither of us drive! Plus we
doubted anybody would let us hitch a ride with them. P wasn't very
fond, or rather, didn't want to hitch anyway. I didn't want to
either, so instead, we took the fun way out! We skyped with our
families in the morning – she to her mum and me to my sister A –
and then went out to do our bits and bobs about the town. I wrote out
a cover letter and printed my CV for a job in town working in the
tourist information centre for 6 months. A steady job and a finding a
place to live for a long period of time seems to be a dream of mine
now. I like travelling, but I'm tired of only staying some places for
only 4 nights maximum. It gets old!
We went and played a
round of mini golf. Crazy golf to the rest of the world! It was
really rather sunny, thankfully, so we played our 18 holes in hot
blazing sunshine! I won, surprisingly! By like 25 shots, I was very
impressed with myself! At 5pm, we had booked ourselves (via that
website again) a trip to the Below Zero Ice Bar. It was $12 (instead
of $32) for entry and an alcoholic cocktail. We were given coats and
gloves (with holes in might I add!), and warm ugg boots.
Unfortunately, our tour included being with a bunch of 10 year old
girls all dressed in onesies. It must have been a birthday party of
some sort. They all got cocktails as well... only without the extra
punch obviously. Our drinks were served in ice glasses, the
sculptures were all ice, there was a photo booth made of ice, even
the drinks containers for the juice and the alcohol were all made of
ice. Pretty darn clever. And after, we got to smash our glasses into
a bucket. The vodka in my drink made me quite ill. Sometimes I think
my body hates me but I avoid vodka for a certain reason. It gives me
a sore upper back. I know, I'm weird. But wow... I definitely got
that sore back and an almost immediate sick feeling. We lasted in the
bar about 20 minutes before we got too cold and had to leave. The
toilets for the bar were the same for the bar next door, so after
changing back into our warm weather gear, we headed into Cowboys, the
same crowded bar we'd gone to on St Patrick's Day. Only there were
now only 6 guys in the entire place. It was dead, but nice and quiet
with country music on in the background. After watching these four
guys playing some sort of wooden game, I asked if we could join in.
It's like curling, but on wood and only about 3 metres long. There's
no central ball either, you get two shots and you have to get them in
between the lines on the board to achieve points, and they can't drop
off the end of the board, either. On first glance, it looked like
they were playing some sort of poker game – like with dice – same
shape of game area anyway. The guys split P and I up, and she won
2-1. Nobody knows what it's called. I'm sure we could look it up!!
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| Sitting on the toadstools at Crazy/Mini Golf |
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| Me and P in the Ice Bar |
On Friday night, we
headed back to the hostel to pack our bags. We made a picnic for the
next day. Then my friend W text me and asked if we wanted to come
around for a film at his, instead of going out for drinks and
spending money. We got Thor at the video store (Blockbuster may have
gone bust, but this one hasn't) and watched it with some of his
flatmates and a few G&Ts. Turns out W lives in a fantastic 5
bedroom house with a massive sitting room overlooking the bay. I
asked him, since he's leaving in May/June time, if I did get a job in
Queenstown, could I perhaps have his room after he's gone? He said
maybe.
Next day – Saturday –
P and I got up at 7ish for our bus at 8.30am, leaving from Queenstown
back up to Christchurch. We would get there at 5.30pm, head to our
hostel (we'd managed to get a cheap twin room at Rucksackers, my
favourite hostel so far) and then change and get a taxi to this
youtube gig that P wanted to go to. We managed to persuade Fergburger
to let us have one of their breakfast rolls (roll? Feast is more like
it) early, even though it was 8am and they didn't open til 8.30am. We
waited at the bus stop for the Naked Bus to arrive. On our
confirmation email it said The Station, which is an information
centre, and it also gave the intersecting streets. Sometimes NB can
be early, but we thought we were fine because there were 3 others
waiting with us. To make things more complicated, Intercity also have
a bus leaving at 8.30am for Christchurch, but is obviously a bit more
expensive. They're more like Citylink in this case, whereas NB would
be Megabus. Intercity buses leave at Atholl street, around the
corner. I even checked which bus was there, a white bus I assumed to
be Intercity, when ours started to be a bit late.
We waited there for
over an hour. We asked tourist centres in the area where the naked
bus bus stop was, if they could look it up for us. And it all came
down to one place: Atholl street and the sure sign that we had missed
the bus. One of the other people waiting got them on the phone, and
after a lot of talking to each of us, they reasoned with us and gave
us a ticket on the bus the next day, on Sunday. But of course, this
was no use to P and I – we had a early bus from Christchurch going
to Kaikoura. And if that was all postponed, we would miss our kayak
booking on Monday morning. Our non-transferable booking. So there
really wasn't any other option. We would hitch. Two of the others, a
couple, were only going to Wanaka, and after yelling expletives down
the phone to customer service, they left before a deal was struck.
The German girl, who was also travelling to Christchurch, and then on
to Dunedin (silly, when you can just get an Intercity bus straight to
Dunedin instead of going miles in the wrong direction only to come
back again). She took the ticket for the next day, as did we, but we
thought we'd try hitching first.
Hitching. 480km. The
one thing that everybody tells you not to do, and then someone else
tells you it's not so bad. There are mixed reviews, but for the most
part, I'd heard good things from other travellers. But they were
backpackers on their own, with one bag. P and I refused to leave each
other. We also had three suitcases, two small backpacks and some bags
of food between us. Not a lot of people would pick us up. And we were
right.
We started around 10am
at the top of the hill going out of the centre, beside the Bungi
hostel. We'd gone to Subway where we made a sign and had a cookie.
After around an hour of looking at other people getting picked up –
Milford Sound, Te Anau, Dunedin – we were picked up by the owner of
the Bunji hostel himself. He had two poodles with him and managed to
drop us off at the turning for Wanaka. We were now in the middle of
nowhere, trying to hitch along side a farm and in a place where cars
see the 100km limit sign and just whizz past us. We were picked up
after an hour again by a guy and another hitcher. They took us as far
as Cromwell, home of the giant peach bum (see pic).
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| Cromwell's peach bum |
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| Inside Dunedin Railway Station |
She dropped P and I off
at the train station, pretty central. We decided to keep going, so
after a toilet stop and a few photos, we headed off towards the
supermarkets, toward the Timaru road. We were picked up by a guy who
only took us as far as the Timaru junction, but he was very nice. He
told us that if we weren't picked up, and that we were stuck without
accommodation for the night, we were to call him and he'd arrange
something for us. A complete stranger. He said he'd hitched all over
NZ and Europe and he knew how hard it was. I still need to email him
and tell him we got there okay.
At Dunedin, I called
the hostel in Christchuch. I realised it was too late to cancel and
they'd charge us anyway, as we were supposed to arrive about that
time. It was 5.30pm. They called me back and said, since they knew me
(I had stayed three times before), they'd been able to work something
out. Our room was private, so it meant we had a room in one of the
out buildings. They said they'd leave the key in the room with an
envelope for the money we owed. $56 for a twin room, that's better
than some dorm rooms in other hostels. It was really very nice of
them, and I was very grateful, as we might not have arrived at all.
We were picked up after
about 40 minutes by two guys. Not sure of the drivers' name but the
loud one was Devon, whose Dad apparently came from Devon originally.
So, I remember him as Devon from Devon. They dropped us off in
Blueskin, a tiny village about 20km along the Timaru road. They said
that they had to pick up something, but if we were still there and
not picked up by the time they got back, they'd be able to take us
another 20km. Just as I thought I saw their car coming out of the
junction 20 minutes later, we were picked up by a man in a land-rover
with a terrier. A very inquisitive long-wired fox terrier. The dog
soon warmed up to P and sat on her lap all the way to Palmerston.
En-route, we found out about the Knight Bus, a bus that ran in the
evening between Dunedin and Christchurch. We're saved! I looked them
up online, $45 from Palmerston. We would take it! I called them up to
see if they had any seats available. Crap. They don't run at
weekends. Monday-Friday only. Useless!!
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| View from the Palmerston chippy |
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| I ordered two haka fish (no chips). Last time I had it, they were tiny, hence the two. I couldn't even finish one! But they're cheap! |
At Palmerston, we said
goodbye to our 6th lift and went to the only thing open:
the chippy. We had fish n chips while we spoke of our rotten luck.
But at least we'd gotten this far, further than we'd thought. There
was a pub with rooms next door, if we failed here, we would be able
to find somewhere to stay. We'd only been hitching for 15 minutes,
and it was starting to get dark, when amazingly, we were picked up.
Number 7 – never caught his name – took us all the way from
Palmerston to Christchurch. Just over 4 hours driving. He had a pick
up truck and only one wide front seat, but we squished ourselves in
and chucked all of our bags in the back. It was 8pm.
Just along the road,
we'd maybe been driving for 25 minutes or so, we came across an
accident on the road. A lady had backed her car into a ditch and was
stuck on the rock. Many people stopped to help, even two men with
1950s cars on trailers. She'd been trying to back down a road into a
car park, no explanation as to why, and had accidentally gone into
the ditch instead. It wasn't exactly a thin road. She said she was
from New Zealand but had been driving around in Europe for the past
few years and wasn't used to the roads here. As I come from Europe, I
think that was a stupid excuse. We weren't on the motorway, a duel
carriageway or a single track road. It shouldn't have been that
difficult and it wasn't even dark yet.
We stopped again at
Timaru for a stretch-the-legs and petrol stop. He wouldn't take any
petrol money and kept repeating that he'd been coming this way
anyway. He'd gone from Christchurch in the afternoon to drop a friend
off in Dunedin (we suspected a female friend) and was now driving
home again. We arrived in Christchurch at midnight and he dropped us
off right outside our hostel. He was very good to us and we were very
thankful. We fell asleep around 12.30, but had to get back up again
at 5.45am for the bus to Kaikoura!
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