A Good Alternative to Sleeping on the Side of the Road

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So far we’ve been alternating back and forth between staying at campgrounds in our tent and staying in hostels. The first campground was nice and we cooked ourselves up quite a good little feast of local produce from the farmers market and took nice warm showers. The Wellington hostel was fine but very big and busy with school groups as well as tourists. The second campground on our way south was cheap but we opted out of taking showers both because they didn’t look too appealing and it was so cold! We’re definitely getting farther south now because the temperature drop is becoming rather evident. We did meet an interesting woman as we cooked dinner in the camp kitchen area who said she’s been traveling New Zealand for four years now. There were several eccentric and whimsical traveling gypsy vans around the park so we wondered if the gypsy lifestyle was what allowed her to live this very exotic existence. She was quite aloof though and disappeared before we could enquire anymore. After dinner we were so cold we curled up in our sleeping bags and didn’t even leave to brush our teeth. We just unzipped the fly and spat. Classy, I know. When we crawled into bed it was still light out so we played word association games and told stories for an hour or two until we fell asleep.

We intended to stay at a campground again tonight but we accidently passed it and didn’t realize it until 30 kilometers farther into the Southern Alps. Conveniently enough there was a hostel just a stone’s throw from where we stopped and it ended up being cheaper to stay here anyway.

So here we are in the oldest purpose-built hostel in New Zealand, cozily nestled between the snow capped mountains. Once again we’re freezing but this time inside a mountain lodge and with a wood burning fireplace. I’m starting to be really happy I packed those wool socks now.

Inside two excitedly chattering Chinese girls had been trying to light a fire in the fireplace for a while when Fern looked at me and quietly asked if we should put our Girl Scout skills to use and help them. They looked like they were having fun though so we let them work at it a little longer until something outside the fireplace caught on fire and I, still having my boots on, jumped over to step on it. They then asked me if I knew how to get the fire going and I joined in on the effort. A few minutes later we were toasting our tootsies in the flames as the Chinese girls ooed and awed in perfect unison.

The town we’re in now is called Arthur’s Pass and is so tiny that the hostel, the café/pub, the mountaineering information center, and the convenience store pretty much make up the whole thing. The hostel is small, homey and vey inviting. The common room has a sprinkling of international travelers all of likeminded philosophies and although I’ve heard at least three or four different languages all being spoken at any given time, we’re all still laughing and discussing who wants to play Pictionary together. If we were staying here longer there would be loads of long trecks up into the mountains to go explore and lots of interesting new people to meet but we’ll be up and off early again tomorrow morning. Guess I’ll have to settle for it just being the perfect place to spend the night.

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