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.
Mair was heading to Mt. Cook, so I offered to drive him part of the way. We stopped at Lake Pukaki where there was a pretty nice view of Mt. Cook. I dropped him off after less than an hour, then headed on towards Queenstown. Saw someone hitchiking about half an hour down the road and a few thoughts popped into my head. “Do I want to be someone who picks up hitchhikers.”, “Will this be a good substitute for a lack of a radio station?”, “How will they eventually identify my body?” Mair had said he had a lot of success hitchhiking (although mostly from locals), so I figured it probably couldn’t hurt.
I signaled and pulled over a little further down the road. The hitchee (not sure on the terminology yet), was Oaru (again, no clue on the spelling). He said he’d been waiting for half an hour or so. Older, 50ish or so, and a widow from Tokyo, who was hitching across the country. He’d hitched across Canada 20 years or so ago, he said. Lead to some good conversation, and an invitation to one of his two Greek restaurants in Tokyo, should I ever come to visit. Greek food in Tokyo? It’ll be hard to resist that invitation. Only had him in the car for 45 minutes or so, as he was headed to Oamaru, on the East coast, so once again I was on my own.
Passed lots of beautiful scenery on the way, stopping a few times to take some pictures and stretch my legs. In Cromwell, about 50kms outside of Queenstown, I picked up another hitchhiker, Alison, from Hong Kong. She was travelling very light, so I figured she must live in the area, and she told me she lived and worked right where I’d picked her up. She’d had only had her thumb out for a minute before I picked her up. She was heading to Queenstown to check her email and visit some friends. She’s working in New Zealand for a bit before travelling the country and heading to Australia. She offered me a place to stay if I’m ever in Hong Kong, but she won’t be back there until August. She also told me that hitchhiking leads to lots of murders, but assured me it’s only the hitchees that get killed, not the drivers, and even then they’re mostly girls.
I dropped her off downtown, then headed a little further along to the esplanade, and parked the car at the hostel. Again, too early to check in, so I wandered around town. Beautiful town, but very busy. It’s the adventure capital of New Zealand, and therefore probably the world. Beautiful lake in town, and a couple of nice beaches.
Managed to get a couple of cds burned downtown, although the computer is giving me some hassles. I’ll try again in the morning to get the rest. Even the ones that are apparently failed to burn seem to be working in the car, which is all that matters.
Wandered around, then headed back to the hostel. Met an American girl named Kari, who was also driving around. She’s heading north along the coast, whereas I’m heading south. She was off to buy a camera, as she had her bag stolen in Wellington. Tragic. She was more distraught over the loss of her photos, then the equipment, as I would be.
Had the remains of yesterdays dinner in the evening, then did a bit of reading, before getting some sleep. I’ll probably spend a couple of hours in the city tomorrow before venturing further south to Te Anau.
