Turned into Tourists! – Making Up For Lost Time

Apologies for not realizing I failed to mention what we’d be doing when we finally LEFT WANAKA!! We’ve officially turned into tourists. We started small, hitting up events and trips in the local area. Today, after we get all our “jobs” done and get our things “sorted,” we’re officially beginning our NZ country-wide adventure!

Highlights of our segue into our permanent vacation mode included an amazing, lazy-Sunday drive up the valley into the mountains to enjoy the fall “colours.” Then I wrapped up my last four days at Kai, and Pat did the “Gauntlet” – a drinking performance required upon abandoning employment at the Ale House. It’s seven ounces of every beer on tap, followed by three heinous shot-concoctions chosen by co-workers as fast as possible. He says it was painful! Afterward we ended up at a co-worker’s house attempting to play Balderdash, but mostly drinking wine. I retired early and found upon waking that the boys had started bare-knuckle boxing late at night. All were nursing injuries and were quite pleased with themselves.

After a visit to a gypsy fair where all the “gypsies” shocked me with their advanced age, we attended the local soccer game and then collected ourselves for our second NZ backpacking trip. As the entire area fills out in

fall colors, we’ve been getting more and more anxious to start our adventure. For this reason, we decided we were going hiking rain or shine, even though the forecast was the former. The Raspberry Creek carpark greeted us with gusting wind and freezing precip. Our side-trip out of the valley to the Rob Roy Glacier was surprisingly pleasant, although much of the glacier was fogged in. The remaining three hours up the valley was some of the most violent, epic hiking weather ever. Gale force winds, stinging rain… if it was snow, we’d have been in a full-on blizzard. I felt like a cave-woman traipsing across Siberia. We arrived soaked to the bone and a bit brutalized.

A long night of poker and eating by the fire slowly rebuilt our confidence. My alarm clock in the morning were the Kea (like “Kia”). What I had thought was a photoshop joke turned out to be true — there really are alpine parrots in New Zealand, and they really are insanely curious about you and all of your things. By noon, we’d collected our spirits and managed a rewarding trip up Cascade Saddle in full sunshine. The view from the top was worth every step — glaciers, soaring snow capped peaks, verdant river valleys — amazing! That evening we arrived back to the carpark under glowing pink skies.

Our social life blossomed in the absence of grueling work commitments. On the way back to town, we stopped in to volunteer at the nursery. Then we joined in the local poker night — free to enter and my prize for 3^rd place was a $50 bar tab! The next night was a wild karaoke evening with the very-British, very-composed Martin putting on a fabulous “Prince” performance and Pat and I testing our talent on “Love Shack.” We also managed to visit “Puzzling World” – a quirky tourist attraction complete with outdoor maze, and three astounding visual illusion displays from Holograms to Following Faces to water flowing uphill… it was great! They even had fascinating toilets!

Our coup de grace was a Thursday filled with a fun AGM ending in wine and hors d’oeuvres and then attending Peter’s “Shave for a Cure” at the Albi (Albert Town Tavern) where he gave up his eight-year dreadlocks in the name of cancer research. Afterward, we danced and sang karaoke all night until it was time for the requisite night cap at the Mint Bar. It was an amazing “last night” in Wanaka, and an excellent prelude to our week-long foray into the New Zealand bush!

Click for more photos of our Wanaka Finale.

Click for more photos of our Mt. Aspiring trip.