Had a fairly decent sleep, but not as great as I might have hoped, considering I had my own room. Got up early to investigate my credit card issues while things were still open in Canada. After convincing the reception girl to let me use the phone (it wouldn’t let me call the mastercard number with a pay phone), I called and found out that it had been a glitch with their system. Good to know.
Had breakfast, pawned the rest of my milk on a British girl who was staying a few days longer, then got on the road to Wanaka. Just outside of Te Anua, I picked up two American hitchhikers. Tim, from Iowa, and Nicole from Alaska. They were marine researchers, who met while working at a research colony in Antarctica. Sounds like quite an interesting lifestyle – stuck with the same 40 people (ranging from cooks to plumbers to scientists and electricians) for 6 months. Tim had lived in New Zealand before, and they were spending a couple more months travel
ling, and hoping to eventually do a bit of a cycling tour of the country (which seems like the thing to do – I’ve seen quite a few cyclists touring about).
Tim and Nicole were heading to Queenstown, and offered to buy me a Fergburger in Queenstown if I wanted to join them for lunch. Fergburger is apparently famous, but I hadnt heard of it until I reached Lake Tekapo. I had lunch with them, then headed to Wanaka.
Tim showed me an alternate route to Wanaka, which I figured I’d take, since I’d seen the other route when I originally headed to Queenstown. Whenever an area is called a “pass” you’re bound for some windy roads, and this was no exception. Some nice views, and not so bad after the first ten harrowing minutes up the narrow steep roads. I can’t imagine trying to drive here if you weren’t 100% comfortable with driving standard.
In Wanaka I was too early to check in, so I headed to the town and walked around. Checked my email and uploaded some photos, then headed back to the hostel and checked in. Walked down to the lake and wandered around, but the day was waning. Ella had described the lake in Wanaka as so clear – like a lake you can drink”, but on this day it was cloudy and windy, so the lake didn’t look any more drinkable than the others I’d seen. One of the things to do in Wanaka is go to the Paradiso cinema, where you can watch a movie in a mini car, or on a bed, or couches. I was tempted, but wasn’t too interested in the movie playing, so I stayed in the hostel and read. I read ten books in Australia (and the flight over), but I’ve only read one in New Zealand. The challenge of relying on yourself for transportation, I suppose.
Chatted with a girl from Holland about possibly hitting a trail in the morning, depending on the weather.