Farewell...

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I climbed a mountain today. It's the most awful thing I've ever done in my life. Also the most rewarding. It was called Mount Roy, and is 1,578 meters of rocky, grass growing, ice and snow infested hell. I hate it. The path up it is 8km, and according to the Lonely Planet guide Casey and I bought (an essential part of any excursion into the unknown) it is a 3 hour hike up "for the fit". So I expected a good 4 hour or more climb with plenty of breaks and sit downs. Nick the hitcher is still with us, and turns out he and Casey are both pretty well fit. I didn't discover this until the seeming 20 thousand times I stopped to contemplate if I wanted to say "f**k these guys, I'm going back", or continue on to the peak. I dunno how to describe it, but this thing was a monster. The peak got further away every step you took. It's probably the most challenging thing I've ever done both mentally and physically. Just to give indication of how fast-paced Casey and Nick were trying to go, we passed up a group that were at least 30 minutes ahead of us in entering the hike. They too were Americans, interestingly enough.
About halfway up I had to throw my jacket on. It started to get really windy, and the air started to thin just a little...nothing dramatic. Also, we all noticed that our ears were aching and our fingers started to swell. Apparently, when you're high up in an airplane long enough, similar effects happen with your toes. Check it out next time you fly.
We stopped about 3 times for 5 minute breaks maybe 3 times, eating and drinking loads of nuts and water during each. We had packed a full lunch for the top. I told the guys that I just kept imagining a steaming plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes on the top, with plenty of macaroni and cheese on the side. They substituted their own fantasies for inspiration: topless women they'd seen from our hostel and a massive stack of money. I dunno which would be better. Maybe make a good reality tv show to find out.
The last bit of the mountain turned into ice and snow. About 30 minutes before reaching the peak, there was a nice stopping point where we could all walk along the "saddle" of the lower part of the mountain, which is the part where both sides of the mount reach their peak. It's so thin, you can drape a leg on either side of the mountain and sit on top like you're on a horse...thus the term "saddle." I did so, to empower myself and in a way show the mountain who was who ;-) But again...I had 30 minutes to go.
At the top, I was laid out like Cool Hand Luke with his plate of beans after a hard days work on the chain-gang. I had my sandwich and was about to pass out. The views were just astounding. 360 degrees of just pure astonishment. We were eye to eye with so many mountains, just covered with snow and dwarfing everything they sat in...but not us. We'd made it. We'd earned our right to dwarf whatever we wanted. Alive I was. Again, not to be monotonous, but one of the best things I've ever done.

Here in Queenstown, we all payed $140 (NZ currency) to bungee jump off the first ever bungy site in existence. Bungee was originated in New Zealand by a man named AJ Hackett, now a multi-multi-millionaire. The first ever set up was off a bridge called Kawarua (or something like that). It's you're classic metal bridge, with arching cables for support over a rocky valley bottoming out over an ice-green river. I was the first of our trio (Me Casey and Nick) to go. I've been scared shitless thinking about it ever since I got here, so for me it was a big deal. I've bungee jumped twice before, in Gattlenberg Tennessee. The reason for the second jump there was because I didn't go headfirst on the first attempt. Unfortunately, I failed on the second attempt as well.
This time...not only was I to go head first, but also take a dunk in the water below. And I did. It was all that I had expected, and about twice as scary.

I'm leaving New Zealand tomorrow. I'll wake up in the morning, hungover and slightly dazed. I'll figure out exactly how the hell I'm going to bring 10 bottles of wine on an airplane in addition to all my other luggage, and I'll drive our rental car to the dropoff. After a shuttle to the airport, I'll check in and be on my way.
I don't really know how to say goodbye to this place. I'm alright with coming home. I think I'm ready for that. But all I've done and experienced, the people I've met and hopefully impacted, and the impacts thay've made on me...it hasn't quite set in. The entire country seems fake, from the postcard, film-eating scenery everywhere you look, to the friendly, welcoming people it inhabits. Maybe it is fake. Maybe there is nowhere in the world that exists like "that". But I think I'd like to return here one day...and recommend a visit to anyone who can finance it. You don't have to jump off bridges, you don't have to nearly freeze in a cave. It's worth the trip, even just for a drive through.

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Comments

[Pat O'Daniel]

Thanks
Thanks for sharing your experiences, I really enjoed reading about all of your adventures!!

[Mom]

Thanks for taking me on your journey.
Son, you have recorded a really special trip in a beautifully written form that I have so enjoyed. Thank you for taking me and others on your journey. Come home safely. There may just be some meatloaf and sides waiting. Can't provide the girls and the money. Love mom.

[Di Thompson]

great reading
SJ.... I have LOVED your escapades and reading about them... your writing put me 'right there', and thanks to your mom for sharing them with me.

[Donna]

Thank you for sharing your adventures in NZ! I stumbled upon this website while looking for a Blog that I could use in an upcoming trip to Vietnam, and got curious about other travellers impressions of my own country! You have reminded me to appreciate all the things that I have right at my door step, so thank you for that too! Safe travels!