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Published: September 5th 2006
Me at Lake Tekapo
Looking for a good rock to go and...Spent the morning doing more blogging and backed up my photos. Then went to the Visitor Centre (I-site) in the Square to book my coach to Wanaka. It was $50 + $10 for the board and left the next morning at 8.30am, arriving Wanaka about 4pm. I made the fatal mistake of not booking accommodation - the visitor centre offer to do it for you.
I grabbed a 'pocket pitta' from one of the Square food stalls (very nice) and people watched while I ate - highlight being a skateboarder trying a new trick over and over till he bust his wrist and went home.
I went back to the hostel (Coachman's again) to pack for the next day.
Monday 31st July 2006 I stopped for a fantastic buffet breakfast at one of the cafes in Cathedral Junction, while listening to Moby and reading the paper.
The scenery on the coach varied dramatically as we progressed. First was the Canterbury plains - flat land with lots of irrigation systems, sheep, cows, deer and lamas. We went over the longest bridge in NZ - over the Rakaia River.
We stopped at a place
Statue of a sheep dog at Lake Tekapo
In memory of the sheep dogs that enabled people to move sheep in the area... I think called Geraldine, which is very much a retirement town. So it was no surprise, with all that potential knitting power, that Geraldine was also home to the world's largest jumper - 'The Giant Jersey'...
We also stopped at Lake Tekapo or 'Take a Poo' as I call it - which was exactly what I did when I got there :-)
It is a very pretty green/blue lake - coloured that way because it is glacier-fed. It also had a good breeze coming across from the mountains - think it would make a good kite surf lake.
We also stopped, to change coach, at Lake Pukaki or Poo Kacky as I like to call it... Also a very pretty lake, fed by glaciers.
When I got to Wanaka I soon realise I should have booked accommodation when I was in Christchurch. Everywhere I went to was fully booked, including the Purple Cow - which looked really cool :-( I had to walk all the way (right out the town centre) with my snowboard bag, to get to the YHA hostel that had a bed free. It was a nice enough hostel, just a pain to walk to
with your bags!
Bumped into Lou and Dan (from Coachman's in Christchurch) as I walked around town. Dan had a nasty looking gash on his leg - apparently Lou did it with her snowboard as they got off the lift!! Owwwwch!
I spotted kiter surfers on Lake Wanaka and went to have a look and chat. I was hoping to find out about snow kiting that goes on at the 'Snow Farm' nearby. The first guy I spoke to was the guy who ran the courses there, unfortunately only at weekends and I needed to be back to Christchurch by the weekend. My Mum was to come to NZ for her birthday, so I was going to do my tour (with Strays, Magic or Kiwi) as soon as I could to make sure I was back by the time she got to Christchurch on the 6th September.
I booked my pick-up to Cardrona ski field the next day. It isn't as easy to hitch in Wanaka, as unlike Methvan, there are so many options for where people are heading out to.
Had a beer in Shooters bar and was on my out, for an early night,
when Tony grabbed me (met at Mt.Hutt). He was supposed to be off in Queenstown, but changed his mind. So persuaded me (wasn’t to hard!) to stay for a few beers with him and Kieran and Jo.
It was film night too, and Sin City (one of my favorites) was on! Got chatting to Jo about where she went to university - Southampton - the same as me and during the same years! She had just got back from Fiji too! They offered me a lift to Queenstown in a couple of days and then back to Christchurch - which worked out really well.
Got fairly drunk and had the long walk back to the YHA hostel, star gazing as I went. I was thinking how different things are right now on the other side of the world - I'm staggering to a hostel in the wintery night and at the same moment, on the other side of the planet, Skye would be sat in her room on a baking hot Summer's day, packing boxes all around her... Was also thinking how I wished I could have helped - moving is so stressful!
Tuesday 1st August 2006 Got the 8am Waterside Adventures transfer bus up to the Cardrona ski field. My first thought was that the snow was better at Mt.Hutt - a lot more ice here. My second thought was damn that snow is bright, my third thought being "Doh!". I had forgotten my sun glasses! I thought for a while about trying to go on without any, but remembered how it can feel to get eyes 'burnt' - horrible!!! So bought some crappy $20 glasses.
I had a good play, making fresh lines in the snow, with hardly anyone else on mountain and with amazing views in the background (see
here). After going all the all over the ski field I tried the Border X course. For those of you that don't know, it is a high speed course with banked corners and jumps. Usually four boarders race down it at once and get extra points for tricks while jumping. Thinking back, they also usually wear helmets...
I took the first couple of bends and jumps cautiously, but soon built up confidence.. and momentum... I was really flying, as fast as I have ever been, carving round these huge steeped bends, taking the
jumps (bigger than I had ever done) in my stride... I was loving it - I was really feeling confident... Some might say over-confident... perhaps even cocky... And as I hit the last jump of the course, I would have to agree... The last jump looked the same as all the rest, until you are airborne and realise the other side has a huge drop off... I don’t really remember too much of the landing, except I definitely hit my head and saw a white flash...
I pulled myself out of the path of others and sat with my head ringing. I decided I should board carefully down to the cafe and sit and have a tea break... As I got down I bumped in to Jo. She wanted me to take some photos of her and Kieran learning to board. I started to take photos and noticed some strange effects on the camera screen... Oh no hang on, they are on my 'screen'. I had thin lines coming in from the corners to the centre of my vision and they seemed to disrupt the focus where ever they crossed (they were moving too - a bit like a
Winamp/Media Player visual). It was pretty cool.. for a while. Then my vision started closing down completely - I couldn't see the person next to me - which luckily was Tony (he is a nurse), who took me to the medical centre...
On checking me out I realise I have pain in my neck too. Next thing I know I am in a complete back and neck brace and unable to move. I had to wait for an ambulance to get up there as it looked like I might have to go for x-rays and CAT scan... The ambulance finally arrived and I got taken down to the Wanaka medical centre, where it was established I needed to go to the nearest CAT scan facility.. in Dunedin! Now I had planned to go visit Dunedin at some point, but... And for some reason I forget, someone removed one of my socks - just on one foot...
After another wait for another ambulance, the journey seemed to go on and on. And worryingly I started to develop really bad abdominal pains, that were like nothing I had ever had before (so much worse than the 'morning after hot curry n' beer' belly!) and I was in real agony. They stopped at a doctors on the way to administrate some morphine - which not only didn't give me the 'high' I was hoping for, it didn't stop the pain either! I was way past being bothered about having a drip in my arm (funny about needles).
Something else that had really started to bother me was the one naked foot, one with a sock still on. So I had one hot and one cold foot - which was really frustrating me!
When I finally got to the hospital I was in really bad pain and felt so frustrated not being able to move - it was driving me mad! I had been in the back and neck brace for over six hours! I was given some more morphine and another drip. I wasn't allowed any water either in case I had to have surgery. I then had loads of cold KY Jelly smothered over my belly while I was given a hand-held scan (looked like an ultrasound!). I thought for a second the doctor was a trainee and been sent into the wrong patient (probably poor pregnant Mrs. Smith was getting my treatment next door!).
When that was finished I was wheeled off to have seven x-rays of my head, neck and back...
Then I was given another drip (so now one in each arm) to have iodine put in (so it would show up in the scan) and put in to a CAT scanner.
Finally after all this I told it seemed all was OK and I was released from the back and neck brace and was given more morphine. I laid trying to get comfy - it was 2.30am - twelve hours after the accident. I was exhausted and still in lots of pain, despite being very drugged up. As I rolled from one side to the other I would put my hand in cold KY Jelly, or pull my drip out - at one point there was blood slowly pumping out all over the place... I was a right mess. I was still in the emergency ward too - so I could here all sorts of shit going on around me all night. I was feeling the lowest I had for a long time and just wanted it all to stop.
Wednesday 2nd August 2006 About 9.30am I got to use the phone to call the YHA hostel (I hadn't been able to tell them if I was staying the next day) - they had wondered what had happened and had packed up all my stuff from the room and put it in storage...
I was given a breakfast - which I was so glad of! And finally discharged. And to my relief at no cost - New Zealand has something called ACC which covers accidents. I was told not to do anything that could knock my head (snowboarding, etc) for four weeks :-(
I wandered through Dunedin in my snowboard gear (trousers, jacket, boarding boots, pissy gloves, etc) looking a right muppet (no ski fields nearby). I booked my transport back to Wanaka and gave Skye a call to tell her what happened and NOT to tell my parents! Seemed silly worrying them if I was fine.
When I finally got back I had a note from Jo - they had no idea what had happened to me and so got off already to Queenstown. Not that I could have snowboarded, or done any of the exciting stuff at Queenstown anyway. So I packed and planned to head back to Christchurch and start my Stray's tour early.
Thursday 3rd August 2006 Dragged my stuff from YHA to Wanaka town centre and picked up my snowboard from the medical centre. Had a breakfast of tea and blueberry and custard (hot custard centre) muffin at a really nice cafe called 'Reflections' or something similar. Seemed like the sort of place Em and Tam would run - everything looked really nice and slightly 'alternative'.
I then got a mini bus to Tarras, where we had to wait for a coach to Christchurch. I sat in the nice little cafe there, on a low leather sofa in front of a big fire.
When I finally got back to Christchurch I had a quiet night, chilling out.
Friday 4th August 2006 Did more emails and blogging, had a few 'Friday beers', had nice venison diner and watched Pirates 2. I start my Strays tour tomorrow...
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