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Published: February 20th 2011
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Not Zappa's Strictly from Commercial Wednesday 16th
If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane…
from Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
Just another day in the sun…jss
Today is a designated do nothing day. I get up around 7:30, check my e-mails and go across the street to do some laundry. This takes about an hour and a half so I while away the time reading and eating breakfast at a local café. My work done, I pack up, say farewell to my hosts and begin to backtrack down the road to Tekaka and then Motueka. I stop in each to do some window-shopping and buy a few meds. After managing to loose my sunglasses I buy some cheap ones and then head out for Murchison, in a valley about half way to the west coast.
As I had guessed, no free Wi-Fi in Murchison. Speaking of Murchison, for a change of pace I have booked into the Commercial Hotel. I’m thinking this would be comparable to a Motel 6... in 1937. There are 4 rooms down a hallway out the back of the bar/restaurant/game room that is the entry to the “hotel”. I have included a couple of pics.
The CH
deluxe hallway The room was no more than 10’ square with a bed 3 ft. wide. It did have a TV, mounted at an extreme angle about 8’ off of the floor. For dinner I had the basic bangers & mash pictured. Usually the “bangers” are about twice this diameter and you get some kind of small side salad. The Tui beer was good.
Thursday 17th
I’m on a roll…basically a day of driving with stops for coffee, photos and people watching. For those who didn’t read this two years ago, a brief explanation on coffee. Cafes abound here and they serve it only the way we find it at Starbucks, espresso, by the cup. Black coffee is either a short or long black or Americano and the most popular is the flat white, which is a latte, unwhipped. Unfortunately the prices are on a par with Starbucks, $3.50 to $5.00 and we’re not talking a Mucho Grande.
So I drive down from Murchison to the west coast at Graymouth. Graymouth gets a rap for being ho hum because it is a working town. It’ not really that bad and the west coast home of Speight’s Brewery. Feeling the need
for a little civilization I hung around there for a while until moving on down the road to Arthur’s Pass. What a wonderful drive! On arrival I checked in at a Backpackers, however I have to say what I booked was far from a bunk in a room full of ragity 20 something’s. I am in a newly renovated cabin with three sleeping rooms, a large common area with two couches, dining tables, a full kitchen and community bath.
I asked if there was a short walk I could do this afternoon and was directed to Punchbowl Falls. Arriving at the parking lot you could see it in the distance and it was noted as being approx. 1.5K. Piece of cake! Well the cake got rather chewy, as the 1.5k was straight up the side of a steep hill. I’m guessing I climbed up (very nice wooden steps) the equivalent of 25 floors before reaching the falls. With my chest cold lingering, there was a lot of hacking and coughing. (Sorry, this wasn’t supposed to be sick old man’s blog) Finished the day back down at the Arthur’s Pass store sipping on a Speight’s OLD DARK 5 malt ale. Iksulent!
bar food
Bangers and mashed in it's most basic form Friday 18th
This morning I intended to do my first actual alpine walk. Temple Basin, it is described as “a nature photographer’s dream, the track zig zags up the hill to an open tussock basin and the Temple Basin Ski Club Buildings. On a clear day you get magnificent views of Mt. Rolleston across the valley”. Well, zig zag it did!! I’ve included some photos including the fool who tried to drive up the lower section. The middle section was on about a 45-degree zig. Labeled as a 3 hour hike it was 2 plus hours up and 45 min down. I inquired at the DOC info site and was told that I had just gone up 2000 ft. No wonder I could see Mt. Rolleston “across the valley”. After lunch I have a relatively short drive back to the coast to the town of Hotitika. I’m staying at the Shining Star, a great park with real log cabins. Very nice. With plenty of time before dinner I go shop browsing. This is the unofficial home of NZ jade or green stone and a lot of it is harvested only a few miles up the coast. Because it
is so closely tied to Maori heritage the “mining” is closely monitored. I made a couple of purchases.
Saturday February 19th Hotikika to Wanaka
I love a clear day, an open highway, a lonesome fiddle tune
I love a party, with friends and family, napping in the afternoon
I might be lazy, I ain't crazy, I love my baby, she loves me too
I kind of like, just doin’ nothing, It’s something that I do Robert Earl Keen
And so it went. A couple of hours down the coast is Glacier Country, home of Frans Josef and Fox Glaciers. I spent a couple of days hiking here two years ago so I kind of gave it a pass except to walk up to the face of the Fox Glacier, the smaller of the two. This stretch of highway down the west coast to Haast and through the Haast Pass is some of the most scenic in the country. The weather today is sort of on the crappy side making it less conducive for stopping however there are two really must stops, Thunder Falls and the bridge that crosses the Haast River shortly there after.
Arriving in
Wanaka around 5:30 I found the B&B that I had booked but could not find anyone home. As I was leaving I saw a couple that were already there and learned that the owners were out so I called my friend Jo and went over to her place. After chatting with her guests (she has a B&B) we called my B&B. no answer, but I decided to go back to see if I could raise them. With no luck and it getting late and dark I went back to Jo’s. She had an extra room so we quickly decided that I should stay here. We watched American Idol and then I turned in.
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Avner
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avnerstern@gmail.com
Next time I'm joining you!!