I know it’s been quite a while, but it has been a non-stop adventure ever since we’ve left our house in Nelson. This may end up being a 3 part blog entry because there’s a lot to tell, and I want to start from where I left off last time. So where did I leave off last time? Jeff finished up at the orchard, and I worked 2 shifts at the council. I brought my lunch friends Tim Tams so they could try the Tim Tam slam, but they all insisted I do it for them. I tried to be as eloquent as possible while shoving a melting cookie into my mouth, and I’m pretty sure they were delighted. This time working at the café I worked with James (the manager/chef) rather than Lorraine (who left early for Christmas), and he was really fun to work with and even taught me how to make coffee! It was an invaluable experience because it looks really good on my CV (resume). Speaking of resume, I was reading a weekly bulletin put online that lists Queenstown jobs and apartments while we were still in Nelson to get an idea of how difficult it could be to obtain employment and housing once we get there. It was clear we would have no trouble finding a place to live, and I saw an ad for waitstaff at the Hilton in QT, so I applied, and within a day the manager had called me for a phone interview and asked me to come in to meet her as soon as I got to QT!! More on this later.
So Thursday night I took Jeff to basketball because I needed to go to the grocery store out that way anyway, and I came and watched the end of his games, and he was playing with a Giants player! The Giants are equivalent to the Sixers in that they are the big team for that city in the country, but unlike the Sixers, they are not super rich and famous, but apparently he was a pretty decent player, and super tall.
Friday, Jeff finished up at noon, and I at 2, and we went to Coverstaff to say our goodbyes and collect our holiday pay. Then we went on a mission to find a speaker that could play music while we were on the Heaphy track. We came across this awesome speaker called the “Bassburger” (seen below), which has a rechargeable battery that charges by USB and lasts for 8 hours on a 3 hour charge. The sound is terrific, and it is way too loud if you turn the ipod up all the way. It was perfect for the hike, and a really great reflection of what modern technology can accomplish in a combination of size and quality.
That night we went out to the Nelson Hotel, which is a bar we found that had $3 Tui, Heineken, and Speight’s bottles (which is really cheap by NZ standards) and an amazing Ginger Lime cider that I am in love with. We met up with Jeff’s basketball buddy Jake who is from Germany (the same town as Dirk Nowitzki, which is kind sweet). We spent a few hours talking to Jake about Germany and basketball and life, and we hope to meet up with him when he comes to visit Queenstown soon.
Saturday was Christmas Eve and we headed to Golden Bay to find a backpackers to spend a warm night in before our big hike. The Shambhala backpackers and yoga retreat was recommended to us by James at the council. It looked and sounded beautiful on the website, and the price was right so we headed there, and it was beautiful in real life but we were disappointed that they didn’t have internet because we wanted to skype with family before Christmas. Needless to say we had a free yoga session and a wonderful Christmas eve dinner because everyone there that night made a dish and we all shared. Jeff and I made a vegetable scampi of sorts. We got a really good sleep in and were off to the Heaphy track on Christmas morning.
We picked up Petia, who was hitchhiking to the track and walked with her for the first couple hours of the track. She was a nice 46 year old forest ranger turned music teacher who was very eccentric and fun to talk to, and loved to take pictures. Our first day was about 24 km (& 7 hours) to Gouland Downs Hut, and once we arrived there we were hungry and I was beyond exhausted. We made some dinner and put some decorations on a tree to get in the Christmas spirit. We were the only ones there from 7-9pm then a young group of trampers showed up (from France, Switzerland, Germany, and Mexico). Jeff and I attempted to go look for kiwis as the sun went down, but the sandflies were really bad so we went to bed.
Side note: Because the track is 49 miles (76 km) long we didn’t really expect to meet too many people on the track, but we didn’t realize that we would get to the huts and the break shelters and there would be about 20 others who had booked hut beds or camp sites. It ended up that we would see the same people every morning and night for 4 days, and we made a lot of friends who appear very often later in our adventures. It was actually really great to be able to hike alone during the day, but share your experiences on the track with the others at the end of the day.
It’s getting late and I’m getting hungry, but I will blog about the rest of the Heaphy track and our adventure to Queenstown tomorrow. Hope everyone had a happy and safe Christmas and New Years and I want to hear about everyone’s Christmas so please skype/e-mail!
Cheers!!
Ps. I have uploaded all of our most recent pictures to our Flickr/Photo page!
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