Last Days with Lae!

April 4-8.

I had found my favorite hostel ever. Bob and Maxine’s in Te Anau felt like home. With so much natural light, open spaces, a fireplace, and warm, friendly guests, it was easy to relax and feel at ease.

Lae, Miranda, and I had driven from Queenstown to Te Anau. The weather was cloudy and rainy so Lae and I decided to pass on doing a daytrip on the Milford Track. Miranda booked a tour of sorts and had her own friend to stay with so we barely saw her.

Lae and I had already been to Milford Sound so we were content with doing nothing at the hostel. It featured unlimited Internet, a rare luxury in New Zealand, and we spent a bit of time trying to plan our post-NZ adventures. Let’s climb Mount Rinjani!

There was a soft-spoken German named Piet and a Briton named Ben that I spent a lot of time with. Piet was screening a Quentin Tarantino DVD marathon and we watched Inglourious Basterds and a few other appalling movies. Ben, who had trained as a tailor, taught me how to knit, which was an exercise in dexterity and patience haha. It was so laid back. There was one other guest that loved to bake so the house smelled wonderfully sweet.

The rest of the time was in the car. From Te Anau, we drove north to Wanaka and then later Mount Cook, one of Lae’s favorite areas in New Zealand. The weather was still shitty and we laughed about how it was NZ’s own “FU” to us. We were both ready to leave the country ASAP, after having been here for 3-4 months. Since we weren’t keen on hiking in the rain, we continued past Mount Cook and spent the night at a hostel in Lake Tekapo area. It was full of “Kiwi Experience” bus travellers, which I was glad to have avoided all this time.

The next day, the weather was slightly promising so we drove back to Mount Cook. As we were leaving Lake Tekapo, I saw a hitchhiker on the road and turned around to pick him up. It’s funny because I’m not very discerning about picking up hitchhikers, whereas Ashley back in January and even Lae now were picky. He was a friendly looking young German by the name of Simon and pleasant company.

We did part of the hike to “the” glacial lake before I turned back because it was lunch time. I hadn’t eaten much in days, we’d passed by a glacial lake already, and I didn’t want to attempt to do a three hour return walk to “the” glacial lake. Simon was obviously disappointed about us leaving. As solo travellers ourselves, we sympathized. Quick lunch, then drove to Christchurch. Our flights out were at 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. out of Christchurch Airport so it didn’t make sense to get hostels, which cost about $25-30/night. We were going to camp out at a 24-hour McDonald’s when Sherry, a Kiwi I had caught a ride to leave Wanganui, met us and offered to let us stay at her wonderfully cozy place. She was very kind and accommodating. We were grateful for her stories and hospitality.

Around 2 or 3 a.m., we woke up, dropped off our rental car and hung out at the airport until Lae’s flight. DON’T LEAVE MEEEEE! I was undecided whether to fly to Bangkok or Bali next. I wanted someplace WARM! and cheap. I could meet Lae in Indonesia but I had already spent two months there, including one in Bali… But I didn’t want to be alone anymore… Lae was great company… But she’d only be there two weeks and then I’d be on my own again, which I was now very uncomfortable with after some recent events… I caught my flight to Auckland, the country’s primary exit point (particularly for Star Alliance award flights), not knowing where I would be going thereafter but determined to leave the country immediately. GTFO!

Luging and Life in Queenstown!

March 29-April 3.

I didn’t know what luging was, but I went seven times with my friend Chris, who I had the luck of meeting on the flight from Wellington to Queenstown. It was a really fun day! We took the touristic Skyline Gondola up to the viewpoint overlooking Lake Wakatipu and then the lifts up to the luging track. The “scenic” ride was mandatory for the first ride, so you could acclimate to the controls. We went on the “advanced” track the other six times, woohoo! There was only one instance where I crashed coming into a sharp curve too quickly but fortunately not caught on Chris’ GoPro camera haha. There were two mountain bikers that witnessed my embarassment and self repositioning the luge back onto the track. Ice cream treat afterwards! Chris had never tried hokey pokey before! He put together a video (see above!) On his last night in Queenstown, we went out for a drink at an amusingly Americana-themed bar called Cowboys and played shuffleboard for the first time. Two new firsts to add to the list! :)

The rest of the days were easygoing. Lae had two friends in Queenstown – Monica and Miranda – and we spent a lot of time at their place close to the city center. We had Thai night our first evening back from Glenorchy. Lae and Miranda cooked, I cleaned because cooking is not one of my fortes haha. Cleaning isn’t either, but I can handle dishwashing. :P

Lae and I had the same “After three months, I’m bored! Let’s leave the country! Where’s next?” mentality and spent a lot of time researching flights to leave ASAP.  She decided on Oz > KL > Indo > Nepal itinerary. I looked up Star Alliance award flights for most cities in the Mediterranean, select cities in Southeast Asia, and a variety of South Pacific islands from four different potential NZ airports. The alternative was to live and sail on a yacht in the Bay of Islands on the North Island until my flight to Spain in early May. I decided I would just see what I felt doing next week, when Lae departed. There wasn’t really a bad option and there were still Kiwi corners unexplored…

My favorite place in Queenstown was (surprise!) the beach. Note: I drink relatively infrequently in NZ despite what the pictures show haha. It was basically because it was Queenstown. :P

Jakub, an awesomely positive and like-minded Czech Couchsurfer, and I hung out often. He invited me to do slacklining one afternoon by the beach but I said I was still recovering from climbing Mount Alfred haha. (It took about a week to walk normally again.) He hosted me for two nights, which was really nice! I was his first Couchsurfer yay! :) The first night I was there, one of the roommates in the morning had apparently not been informed because she said she had wondered why there was a body in the living room haha. :) The second evening after Jakub finished work, we were stargazing and chatting about travel and worldviews till about 1 a.m. Love Jakub!

Monday morning I spent in front of a computer in one of the hostels, live streaming the last few acts of Ultra Music Festival in Miami. I was so amped and ready to dance! :D It made me really excited for Croatia. :D

After too many days and three hostels in Queenstown, Lae and I rented a car (forget hitchhiking! too slow! :P) and drove to Te Anau/Milford Sound area for a change of scenery. FREEDOM! :D

 

The Fifteenth Month!

It’s become a lifestyle, traveling. When I meet new people, I speak prospectively about my travels and try to deflect that I’ve been abroad for over a year. It just sounds absurd.

For my 15th month, I finished up working at the hostel in Wanganui. The first three weeks comprised of the “living and working abroad” experience I had wanted. When the day finally came, I caught the first ride out of town, as I normally did this time of year at the end of an accounting busy season.

 

In my first week of freedom after working seven days a week for two months, I hung out in Wellington, flew to Queenstown, hitch-hiked to Glenorchy, climbed Mount Alfred, and have been recovering in Queenstown ever since. I certainly appreciate being able to walk normally now that I temporarily can’t haha.

 

If anything’s been notable this month, it’s been the affliction of indecision. In the final weeks at the hostel, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my 2014. I agonized about it. Where do I go when I can go anywhere? How can I not know what I want?! It took about three weeks to figure out what I wanted for 2014: Spain (practice Spanish!), Croatia (Ultra Music Festival!), Montenegro/Albania/Greece (summer in the Mediterranean!) Summer would be warming up in Southern Spain in May so what did I want to do for April?

 

I decided to stay in New Zealand for an additional six weeks, after starting to blog about my initial journey around the country and feeling inspired by the compact availability of glaciers, rainforests, rugged coastlines and alpine vistas. But now that I’m back on the picturesque South Island, I am feeling bored (and cold). The original sense of awe and novelty has worn off since January. Autumn is setting in. I don’t really want to be here anymore but I don’t know where I want instead.

We’ll see what happens!

To the Top of Mount Alfred!

March 28.

The plan had originally been to do an 8-hour daytrip trek of the famous Routeburn Trail. We realized in the morning however that a 40-minute hitch was required to the trailhead and decided, based on the hostel’s recommendation and the local Kiwi that eventually picked us up, that the closer Mount Alfred was a better option for the day.

It was 1,375 meters to the peak. The Kiwi, who guided tours in the area, told us about shooting locations for Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies as we drove. He said Mount Alfred was not oft visited enough. It was high, but once you got to the top, you would be surrounded by a 360 vista of beautiful mountains. It would be about three hours steep up, and two down, he advised. Make sure to have enough water once above the treeline because there would not be any water sources in the last 45 minutes that we could fill up our water bottles.

Okeydokey. Here goes.

In the first half hour or so, we chatted a little bit as we climbed the steep pathways. Lae was quicker than I was and I didn’t mind at all when she kept her own pace. She did pause and wait for me to catch up at times, which was nice. For the most part, we had our own music players on and were in our own little worlds. The thoughts in my head varied:

• YAY! Spain in May! Espana! Spanish! Riojas and music and food! 
• YAY! Croatia! Three whole days of EDM at Ultra Music Festival and dancing! DANCEDANCEDANCE!
• Why am I climbing a mountain again?
• Was Mount Kinabalu harder than this?
• Didn’t I say I was never going to do this again? I need to stop thinking of mountain climbing as a personal challenge. 
• Where is Lae? She’s such a trooper!
• At the next orange marker, I can take a 10 second break…
• Why is it so steep?! Because it’s a mountain.
• GOOD FOR THE SOUL!!!

Two hours in, as we were breaking the treeline, I was contemplating whether I really cared about reaching the summit. The views were great here already! Nope. Not allowed. All the way to the top! I thought about some of my mountain climbing friends and a bunch of the travellers I admired that were so much more “hardcore” than I was, trekking with heavy packs for weeks. Surely I could handle one measly mountain! So close!

The top third was a scary mess of slippery loose, sharp rocks. It reminded me of the last few hundred meters of Mount Kinabalu. The last bit just seemed the hardest! BUT I WAS SO CLOSEEEEEE!

 

At the top! WoohooooooO!

We continued along along the top. There had been someone behind us who caught up to us and kept going while we were taking photos.

So beautiful up here!

At the furthest end of the peak, the other guy had disappeared.

We sat for lunch, which comprised of hummus and cheddar cheese sandwiches. Soon after we ate, a Dutch guy appeared. He looked a lot like an American named Grant that I had met in northern Thailand.

A Canadian couple also joined briefly thereafter. Lae, Grant lookalike, and the Canadian couple made it down the mountain before I did. The mysterious guy that we had seen reappeared when I was struggling. He was a Brit by the name of Greg and travelling around New Zealand solo. I pretty much considered him my savior and gave him a big hug when we eventually (FINALLY!!) reached the bottom.

Yep, the 360 degrees of epic alpine vistas was worth it. :D