A Day in the Life…

Most of the posts we write are about the big events that make up the majority of our travels – treks, volcanoes, adventure sports, enlarged spleens...  But occasionally, we do have the rare relaxed day, with little on our agenda other than to get from ‘point A’ to ‘point B’, plenty of time to get there and just trying to enjoy ourselves along the way.  So, we thought we’d give you a taste of one of those rare mellow days between…

March 16^th, 2011

8:30am – Seven Minutes of Heaven:  No, not the junior high dating game, and no, nothing r-rated.  Get your minds out of the gutter (Q!)!  This is a family-oriented, PG-rated blog!  We’re talking about the hot showers at the motor park we stayed in last night.  We try to camp as often as possible in the free Department of Conservation campsites, so hot showers are a welcome treat when we splurge for the paid campsites.  We had big plans to wake up early, go for a run, and do our laundry… but our bodies were clearly tired from three tough days of hiking in Welcome Flats.  So we slept in a bit, and then enjoyed the hot showers (50 cents buys you 7 minutes of hot water) and did some much-needed laundry (our clothes don’t smell so good after multi-day hikes… and neither do we).

10:30am – In Search of the Best Fish and Chips in NZ:  Our only plan for the day is to drive to the town of Wanaka, about a 3-hour drive through some beautiful mountain passes (we’re getting into the part of the country where they filmed ‘Lord of the Rings’… so it’s pretty stunning all around).  But with the whole day to get there, we opted for a brief detour to the isolated fishing village of Jackson Bay, for lunch at the Cray Pot restaurant – which, according to our Lonely Planet, is well-worth the detour. 



A brief timeout during the rugby lesson



11:30am – Rugby 101:  Jackson Bay is as quaint and cute as can be.  With a little extra time before the restaurant opened, we took a stroll along the beach, and Dave gave Amy a basic primer on the game of rugby – in anticipation for the upcoming Super XV Rugby match we’ll be going to in Dunedin (Otago Highlanders vs. Canterbury Crusaders).  We don’t know whether we’ll be sitting in the Otago section or the Canterbury section, so it will be a game-time decision as to which team we’re supporting.  But we’re told it should be a great match, between the two NZ teams on the south island who have a good rivalry and are both having good seasons thus far.  

Best fish 'n chips in New Zealand!

12:45pm – Mission Accomplished!:  Amy’s basket of fish and chips have arrived… and within a matter of seconds, have been thoroughly and enjoyably reduced to stray crumbs.  Once again, Lonely Planet has come through for us.  Best fish and chips ever.  We’re probably going to have to detour here on our return trip north to get another basket of fried goodness.  Dave opted for the local specialty – a whitebait sandwich (on gluten-free bread).  Everybody in this part of the country is crazy for whitebait… we can safely say it’s fish… we think it’s smelt… which we think might be baby salmon?  But we’ll let Amy’s dad and the other anglers among you correct us on that one.  The gluten-free bread is just a bonus – Dave can get gluten-free products everywhere in this country – at restaurants, bakeries, and supermarkets.  Love it here!



Maybe more artistic... but this van has nothing on Dougie

3:00pm – ‘Quick, Stop for a Photo!’:  It’s a rainy day on the west coast of the south island… a good day for driving, with REM and Tracy Chapman cd’s to keep us company.  We brought about 10 cd’s with us for the drives, but for some reason, only about half of them work.  So our choices are a bit limited.  We think Dougie must have a bias against Jack Johnson… because he refuses to play any of those CDs.  We’re discussing whether we should cycle-camp through Croatia as the last leg of our full-moon… seems like good training for triathlon season, and we’ll save money on transportation costs that way.  (Anyone know anything about cycle-camping?).  Anyway, as we’re driving through all of this gorgeous mountain scenery, we come to a one-lane bridge with lots of pedestrians walking back and forth, snapping photos and causing major traffic hazards.  There’s a beautiful rushing river below with big falls.  Amy says, ‘Can you pull over?  I want to take a photo.’  No, not of the beautiful river, but of the ‘escape’ van (one of the rental companies, which paints each of it’s vans as unique works of art).  We just found that funny… all these people stopping to admire this amazing natural beauty, and we want to take a picture of a van.  With all of our hiking in the NZ backcountry, we can admire -- but just can’t get too excited about -- all the beautiful roadside attractions.  Somehow it’s much more rewarding if you have to hike some serious kilometers to view the natural beauty.

Kicking back after a long and strenuous day...

6:00pm:  Toughest Decisions of the Day: Where to camp and what’s for dinner?   We cruised into Wanaka around 5pm and took care of a few errands – stopped by the local Dept of Conservation information center to get the low-down on a tramp we plan to do in a few days (the Cascade Saddle Pass) and to buy the topo maps we’ll need.  Then on to the local iSite tourist information center to figure out where we might camp for the night.  We found a beautiful municipal campsite next to a rushing river and a small nature preserve.  Dinner, dishes, and we tucked into Dougie for the night… just as the rain started to fall. Another one of those nights we’re so glad to have a camper-van!