It was drizzling outside the window. The whole Lake Wakatipu was covered with fog and the Remarkable Peaks was hardly visible. My first thought was how cold would it be to be outdoor today?
After having breakfast, we checked out from Mercure Resorts at 10.30am. We have decided to put up a night in a backpacker's lodge named Pinewoods Hostel after wanting to stay an extra night in this irresistably beautiful Queenstown. The reason for shifting was because we could not get a good price from Mercure at their walk-in rate. So, bye bye to the roomy space, comfy king bed and excellent heater. I know I should not compare a hostel with a hotel looking at the price we pay. But sometimes if you are lucky, you can get good hotels at a cheaper rate than what you pay for hostels. It all depends on how diligently you browse the Internet (most of the time your eyes will be seeing 2 shadows already when you finally get the good deals) before you depart from your home country.
We took out only the necessities for the night from our luggage into a backpack so we did not need to move all our baggage into the hostel room. The rest of the luggage would just be stored in the car boot. See, we have become smarter after experiencing the inconvenience of moving everything into a tiny room. Of course, you have to make sure you are travelling in a country where most of the people have high level of self-respect, which means they don't steal. New Zealand is a good example of such a country.
Driving to Glenorchy was next in our itinerary. It was drizzling but it did not affect the beautiful scenery along the way. Glenorchy was a very small town. I could say that I did not see more than 10 people in this town when we were there. Everything looked back-dated to the 70's. However, this town somehow gave me a good feeling. It is situated by the end of Lake Wakatipu (imagine, it is still quite a distance from Queenstown, since Lake Wakatipu is the 2nd largest lake in NZ) where Lord of The Ring was said to be shot here.
There was a very charming wharf and I even managed to climb up a low but gigantic tree. A little
Chinese girl, Qiao Jun ( 巧君 ) from Auckland was playing there. We ended up playing together on the tree. Maybe, happiness was just about letting go in the unpolished wilderness.
It was soon lunch time and we were quite reluctant to have our meals in this isolated town where the only 2 cafes looked like they had gone to sleep and never woke up since 1977. But, since it was nearly 2pm and we were feeling very hungry, we finally stepped into Foxy's Cafe. It was a very old-fashioned cafe with a rather pricy menu, NZ$13 for just a burger. I got myself a chicken pie while Bernard went for the beef burger. Surprisingly, the food turned out to be very tasty. We grinned, knowing that this was another good example of not judging a book by its cover! Also, it meant that we have consistently been eating delicious food since we arrived in Queenstown.
With a full stomach, we drove to Routeburn, which is not too far away from Glenorchy. Again, great mountain scenery was seen along the way. Your heart just open when you are surrounded by nothing else but unpolluted air and silent nature.
The timid sheeps always run away when I go near,sigh!
We checked-in at Pinewoods in the evening. We were given a chalet with 3 rooms, of which 2 were already occupied, respectively by a German girl and a British couple. There was a bunk bed in our super tiny room. Despite the tiny size, the room was overall clean and equipped with a good heater. One of the windows in the room open directly to the wood, the forest was just merely 2 metres away. Anyway, there was nothing to be scared of as NZ is a country with no agressive reptiles since the land contains a very high level of sulphur. Isn't this another good point that make this country a paradise?
We went to Kawarau Bridge to watch people do the famous Bungy jump. We managed to see 3 people performing the scary feat. I too had a very strong urge to do it but I knew my average physical health would not be able to take this extreme activity. Also, the wind by the river was too chilly in late Autumn. Bernard was relieved that he had done this at the same spot 10 years ago, so he did not need to prove his courage to me anymore:)
Then, we went to New World hypermarket at Remarkable Shopping District to stock up groceries for the next few days. This was a more comfortable and popular supermarket compared to First Choice that we visited in Christchurch. Half a trolley of food costed NZ$55. Hopefully these food could last us for the next 4, 5 days.
Back in Pinewoods, I cooked instant noodle with eggs for dinner. Yes, this was my first instant noodle meal in the past 8 months. I was not too happy about it, but since this was a holiday, I guessed I could afford to put the preservative and chemical seasoning issues aside for just one night.
We purchased an IDD phone card and I called my mum. She was excited to hear my voice. Her laughters never stop when I shared with her all the silly things that we have encountered during our trip. Unfortunately Bernard's parents was not at home. We will call them again tomorrow.
At the point of this writing, we are still waiting for our laundry in the dryer. This is already the 2nd round since the 1st drying didn't manage to fully dry the clothes. Could it be because we pushed too much clothes into the machine?
We are heading to Te Anau tomorrow. Hope the weather will be good.
Written at Pinewoods Backpaker Lodge, TV Room.
Queenstown
P/S: After a few unsuccessful drying experience, we finally realized that it was totally normal for the clothes to be cold after the drying process due to the chilly weather in Autumn and Winter. They weren't wet, just cold. Can you imagine how much extra money we have donated to the dryer? You can get another beef burger from Glenorchy!
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