Here I Be

My plan from Franz Josef (and oh, what an ever-changing plan that is) was to carry on the Stray Bus, down to Queenstown, up to Milford Sound for a kayaking day trip, back down to Tuatepere and further south to Invercargill, before heading up the East coast to Dunedin for penguin and albatross sightings and hopefully some wages as well.

But then, oh then, my plans changed.

Wanaka was beautiful, I can definitely see myself staying there over Winter holidays (Summer in the Northern Hemisphere) to work at the ski-fields, as they call them. I had an interview with a lovely lady at a Montessori preschool there, and we had a frank discussion about my current lack of qualifications to teach in NZ and the unlikelihood of me being qualified to teach Kindergarten here due to the differences in training requirements between Canada and here. In the end, I met a nice lady with a nice school and we had a nice chat. Nice. Wanaka is pretty chill although there is still lots to do. Like take photos of me sitting on buildings and standing at awkward angles at Puzzle World. Would have liked to have stayed longer in Wanaka, but onwards.

Photos of Wanaka and PuzzleWorld

To Queenstown, adrenaline capital of the world or something. Things I didn't do in Queenstown:
-jump off a bridge with a bungee attached to my ankles
-jump off a cliff with a rope attached to my hips
-jump out of a plane with a parachute attached
As you can see, very little jumping happened in Queenstown. I did, however, encourage a group of fellow backpackers to join me on a hike up Ben Lomond mountain because my guide book said it wouuld be good and very rewarding. Little did we know that it was going to be a steady ascent with actually NO flat bits for catching your breath. It was a BEAUTIFUL hike but very strenuous and I certainly got my exercise that day.


Photos of crazy lady bungee jumping and me hiking in Queenstown.

Then I got to Milford Sound and I couldn’t bring myself to leave.

It’s the first time I’ve really felt like I needed to stay somewhere here in New Zealand. The first time I’ve seen somewhere and thought “we don’t have THIS in Canada” (but we probably actually do in Northern BC somewhere) and wanted to explore it more fully. There are mountains, forests, streams, ocean, waterfalls all in one place. You really have to come out of your way to get here, too, so it means that it doesn’t quite have that same feeling as a stop-on-the-way-to-? because it really is a destination in itself. And it’s a world heritage area.

My kayaking day was gorgeous, sunny and warm. There’s not too much to say about it, but you can look at some photos of me wearing a dorky sunhat and a fluorescent paddle jacket here. I’m told that the sounds (fjords, actually) are more impressive during or right after a rainfall, because the rain causes millions of little waterfalls streaming down the sides of the mountains for hours after any rain.

Photos of Milford Sound and Kayaking.

Which is what I woke up to last night. See, on my kayaking trip I learned that if you see whispy little clouds it means a storm is coming, and we DID see whispy little clouds. Our guide Adrian told is that it’s like a race, if you can imagine the light ones running really fast, the medium sized clouds coming up close behind followed by the big heavy clouds coming last. So if you’re out trekking about, when you see those light whispy clouds you know it’s going to be your last night pitching a tent before you head back for shelter. Sure enough, I woke up to the sound of rain crashing down on the roof last night (I LOVE that sound) and when I pulled back the curtains this morning there were millions of waterfalls outside (yes! Just outside my window!)

I’ve decided I am going to take some time here to work and rest and explore and hike and swim and and and and and. So for now, I am working for my accommodation and food. I changed about 60 bedsheets today and in exchange, I ate like a queen. What a luxury to cook meals with more than 5 ingredients!!! I have access to an entire well-stocked restaurant-type kitchen, which is INCREDIBLE. I made corn and potato pancakes with shallots and parmesan cheese and garlic, with sour cream (!), bacon and a salad. AND THEN I had dessert, Movenpick’s vanilla ice cream with chocolate bits sprinkled on top. I could get used to this. I could also get very very round.

When the manager comes back from his days off, I will apply for work so I can make some money too, instead of just living here for free. It seems likely that I will either get work here, or if not here, on the cruise ships that run day-trips on the fjord. I’m hopeful, and comfortable.

I have no cell phone coverage, so if you want me to call you, I can do that (send money, because it’s big bucks from the payphones!!! ;) but you can’t call me. You can e-mail me though still as I have access to free Internet (yay!) on a regular basis. So even though I am in the middle of nowhere, I would still like to hear from you!

In the meantime, I will be reading, drinking tea, hiking, exploring, looking, listening, writing, swimming, playing in a lodge in the middle of nowhere. If you'd like to see some of what it looks like, I took some photos.

xo V