We don't know about the rest of you,
but our idea of a dream trip to New Zealand entails working split
shifts 7 days a week, and these last 3 weeks have not disappointed!
Sure, magnificent scenery, thrilling activities and endless miles of
backcountry exist in abundance (if you're into that sort of thing),
but the best way to see this country is to get a job in a restaurant
or hotel that has great views, so you can occasionally steal longing
glances out the window....
Of course all of that is, as they would
say over here, “rubbish”, and some may even accuse us of being
“cheeky” (if they were looking for a fight), but hey, we're
allowed to whine every once in a while, right? No? Okay, we'll stop.
We promise we're not feeling sorry for ourselves. We know too well
how fortunate we are to be able to live in such an amazing place, and
to have the work to fund the next leg of our journey. However, the
dearth of free time can be draining, so we always welcome the
opportunity to recreate. Today, we're happy to share joyous tales of
our rare and precious time off!
Due to an unseasonal drop off in business one weekend, we were notified the night before that we could take the whole day off! So we decided that we should seize the opportunity and take a little mini-roadtrip. After much deliberation, we decided just to get in the car and drive to one of two places. We'd either go to Wanaka to indulge in all the modern trappings of the big city (like grocery stores and movie theaters), or we'd drive to Jackson Bay, a tiny coastal village that is the southern most point you can reach by vehicle on the West Coast.
The closest township to us is Haast, about an hour and a half south, which sits at the intersection of the highway east to Wanaka and the road south to the bottom of the West Coast. We hadn't been in the car for an hour and a half in weeks, so by the time we reached Haast, we were hungry, exhausted and ready to throw in the towel. It's a real workout, driving. We needed to break and discuss our options, and obviously the best way to mull an important decision is over gas station fish & chips. After consuming our unsavory brain food, along with a $3.50 can of Coca Cola, we decided that despite the looming clouds over the coast, we would resist the allure of the big city and the road east, and continue our journey south.
The drive from Haast to Jackson Bay is as nice a country drive as you can find, as it winds along the coast alternating between quiet narrow lanes canopied by dense rows of trees and open road with one-way bridges (a south island staple) over bright blue rivers and open views into the mountains further south.
When we arrived in Jackson Bay, the
clouds had nearly retreated to the east, but not before one last
spurt of rain. As the showers commenced, we decided we'd camp out in
the car and have some story time while the storm passed. The downpour
didn't last long, and pretty soon the sun was shining bright and
transforming our Smaug from a station wagon into a baking dragon.
And from the evaporating mists of the
passing clouds arose a terrible menace, a threat that we did not
anticipate and were ill-prepared for: the New Zealand Sandfly. As we
had been peacefully enjoying the afternoon drizzle, they had been
scheming, planning an all-out surprise ambush. As soon as we got out
of the car, ready to greet the newly arrived sunshine, the flies saw
their opportunity and struck with merciless brutality. They were wily
enough to not come straight after us, but to swarm into the car and
occupy every nook, from whence they would launch multiple volleys of
torturous assaults on our arms, legs, necks, knuckles, eyeballs,
eardrums and teeth. If we had delayed our defense a moment longer,
they would have penetrated to our very brains, where they would have
grasped the power to bend us to their will. The Kelcy and Matt you
all know would be gone forever, replaced by soulless servants of the
Dark Flies.
Fortunately, despite our increasing
torment, we were able to gather our wits to devise the best possible
plan for foiling our enemies: we rolled down all the windows, opened
the sunroof and drove as fast as we could down the coastal highway.
Well, this worked, sort of. We couldn't actually drive that fast
because, like all South Island roads, this highway was made before
the days of surveyors, and long before the straight line had been
invented and brought to New Zealand by Captain Roscoe von Helstraight
(that's a story for another time). Plus, we were doing a lot of
swerving as we swung wildly at our enemies. So we pulled over, and
what remained of our mostly vanquished foes we were able to banish
from Smaug with some vigorous war cries and fist shaking. And thus
ended the Battle of Jackson Bay.
Well, as you can imagine, all of this
reading, driving and battling flies really took it out of us again,
so we needed some more nourishment. We decided that our lunch from
earlier didn't do proper justice to fried seafood, so we headed for
the Cray Pot, the most popular mobile seafood restaurant in all of
Jackson Bay, for some more fish & chips and fried green lip
mussels. This fried dining experience did not disappoint, and we both
agreed that this was the best fried food we'd had all day. We'd never
felt worse.
After a little more exploring, we set
out for home. Along the way, we were really feeling weighed down by
our day's sustenance, and we desperately needed to get the sludge out
of our veins. Well, the perfect opportunity was just around the
corner, as before we had even made it back to Haast, we came across a
field of groovy ponies, boogiein' down and having a funky pony party.
We pulled over and shouted, “Hey ponies, what's this all about?”
And they said, “What's happening, you jive turkeys? Just 'cause we
ponies don't mean we can't get down, ya dig?” We nervously assured
them that we did dig. (It turns out these ponies were really into
Dolemite movies). Then they said, “You gonna stand there like a
couple'a square honkeys, or you gonna hop that fence and get down
with us donkeys?”
We were a little surprised and uncomfortable with how hip and tough these ponies were, so we decided not to tell them that they weren't donkeys, and since we thought it would be rude and potentially dangerous to decline their invitation, we decided to join their pony party for a while. It turned out to be a great way to get the grease out, and we even ran into some well known celebrity ponies.
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| Pony Danza Jon Bon Pony Jovi PonyLou Harris |
While we were
enjoying the company of the hippest ponies in New Zealand, we noticed
that they had some neighbors who weren't quite as funky as they were,
and watched on with disapproval from the adjoining paddocks.
Well, that was a
pretty full and active day for us, so we headed home, grateful to
have had a nice break from work and to have been able to get out and
have a mini-adventure. But we've also kept up our motivation to take
advantage of the free time we have on our working days. Now that
summer is in full swing over here, we spend a lot of our free time
exploring the fantastic beaches and swimming holes that are within a
half-hours drive. Recently, we were both fortunate enough to be
treated to helicopter flights over the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers,
and around the two highest peaks in New Zealand, Mt Cook and Mt
Tasman. AND, we got a juicer! But perhaps these are stories that
would best be told in pictures. Until next time!
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