Alpless in the Southern Mountains

I slept till 8:00 this morning, the latest yet. We were the road at 9:15, having wrested the car wheel into my own powerful hands. Light rain turned to hard rain as we wound south, but driving was easy and pleasant.

Guidebooks say New Zealand elicits at least one “wow!” a day. The only true “wow” it’s gotten from me is, “Wow, I’ll bet there are mountains under those clouds. Wow, I’m really disappointed I can’t see what New Zealand really looks like.” Strange to be driving through the towering, snow-blanketed Southern Alps and see nothing but the tootsies of low hills.

We drove through forest and along the base of sheer rock faces at road’s edge, from which water sprouted through crevices seen and unseen, at some places into broad and veil-like falls.

Though visibility was poor, we made some vista stops along the way. First was the 28-meter-high Thunder Creek Falls, which did in fact thunder as it plunged into the swollen, maddened creek.

We made a stop or two along the Haast River, with frustrating views of mountains eclipsed by cloud, mist, fog and rain.

We took a half-hour walk to Blue Pools, which were green, which didn’t surprise me in this land of upside-down and backwards from my world, but it did disappoint a bit because I like blue better. On the river’s shore were a million trillion smooth pebbles which a million trillion visitors had stacked into cairns. It was a rather surreal work of art.

Little waterfalls trickled through the forest, which was prettier and more open than the woods of days past, with less jungle ground cover. I didn’t notate the names of the trees on the interpretive signs this time because who really cares about such things anyway. Heh heh.

We stopped for pictures of Wanaka (WAH-neh-kuh) Lake.

A biting, icing wind blew my pants blew into skinny black sails and started to propel me down the driftwoody beach.

We arrived at Wanaka, a little ski town north of Queenstown that’s a Kiwi favorite. We went to check into our really nice hostel which bore a “no vacancy” sign, only to find there was no vacancy for us. I spent some time disputing this assertion, until the young attendant figured out I’d booked at a different place. We made our way to the other hostel. It turned out to be a moldy hole-in-the-wall where Syd and I have to share a double bed. We’re not happy. We stayed at the place long enough to dump our luggage and haven’t been back since. We’ll stay on the town as late as possible, to postpone the inevitable.

We passed a cute little cottage that is something straight out of my dreams, with a little stream right outside its front door.

We got tea and a brownie at one shop until they kicked us out because they’d closed. I went in search of a yarn shop to find a present for my high school acquaintance, Mabbie, who is flying over from Australia tomorrow to see me for the weekend. It’s the strangest thing. I can’t believe she’s doing it. We weren’t friends in high school; she was cool and I wasn’t. But I always liked her, because she was creative and wasn’t unkind to me. I’m dying to find out why she would travel over the waters to see me. And I’m curious to see what her life has held for her. She’s been an expat in Australia for most of her life, and I don’t even know what landed her there. I found her a present that was pricier than I wanted it to be, but that I hope she’ll like: a skein of high-quality New Zealand bouclé wool yarn in variegated colors. I wonder if she’ll talk with an Aussie accent. I’ll bet so.

Here’s another New Zealandism: “Good as gold!” to mean “Great! Goodbye!” Like if you’ve had a conversation with someone and it’s over and time to move on, it’s good as gold.

Now we’re having dinner at an overpriced restaurant where I ordered a cream soup that’s got broccoli, pear and blue cheese, a combo I’ve never heard of but that is, I learned, an English classic. We’ve finished eating and they’re eager for us to move on, but I’m not ready to leave yet. When we can forestall it no longer, we’ll hit the streets, looking for ways to pass the time and for places that might have heat and Internet. I look forward to tomorrow.