Note: I was delaying publishing these last two entries because I wanted to post pictures as well, but I’m having a devil of a time finding a decent connection – and that’ll most likely be the case for the next little while, so here you go, sans pictures. Pictures added.
Lousy sleep. Had a 9am pickup to get my car near the airport. The car is a Sirion Daihatsu and, unlike my cars in Australia, a manual. A little different driving with the stick on the left, but I’ve managed okay. All the gears are in the same position, thankfully. I have a rough idea of where I’d like to go (always book ahead), and Lake Tekapo is the first on my list, so I headed towards there. Lots of beautiful scenery on the 3+ hour drive. Lake Tekapo itself is really nice, much bluer than my camera gives it credit for. I had a couple of hours before check in, so I took the car up to the Mount John Observatory. Nice 360 degree views from up there. The drive up was on a narrow road, but thankfully there was no one descending.
Not so lucky on the drive down, but managed to squeeze by a couple of the cars making the climb. Headed back to the hostel, parked the car, and walked to get some lunch and check out the Church of the Good Shepherd. Not much else to do in Lake Tekapo, so I checked in, took a bit of a nap, and had a shower. Grabbed some groceries for dinner after the shower, and picked up some blank cds – the radio station signal is horrible in New Zealand (too many mountains I guess), and I’m getting tired of hearing myself sing. Just kidding, I could never get tired of that – but a little accompaniment never hurt.
Was about to have dinner, but stopped in the room for a moment, and Mair (spelling?! Sounded like Mayer), an Israeli guy who had checked in that morning as well, asked if I wanted to hike up Mount John with him. Having not eaten, it probably wasn’t wise of me to agree, but agree I did. I threw some muesli in a bag, grabbed some water, put on my shoes, and joined him. We walked along the main road before deciding we were way off. Headed back towards the hostel, grabbed the car and drove to the parking lot near where we were pretty sure the actual entrance was. Mair was ex-Israeli army, and had been hitching across New Zealand for the past month. He’d also been doing a bunch of hiking in New Zealand, so I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but I managed just fine. Spent some time at the top – much more rewarding after walking up, as opposed to the drive earlier.
Headed back to the hostel and cooked dinner while two Brazilian girls played table tennis. The hostel was mostly filled with Asians, who looked on their playing with what I am sure was more than a small measure of disdain at their lack of skill. Tried to burn some music cds, but the hostel computers aren’t rigged for it. Chatted for a bit then hit the sack.
