I did get a belated scare while watching the news on the
hotel TV last week. A blurb on a New Zealand helicopter crash caught
my eye. After doing some researching, I found out it was a group of tourists
headed up to fox Glacier, the same place I’d been two weeks before. The outfit
was a different one than I’d used, but I remember seeing their helicopters. It
was very jolting to me; all seven people aboard died. So sad.
And yet another reason to be thankful, for sure. There but
by the amazing grace of God go I.
And go I do. Next week is the 10k. It’s in Siem Reap, a
direct flight from here, at Angkor Wat. I’m not taking any time off or doing
much touristy because I’ve been there. My flight leaves Saturday morning and
arrives around 11 and the race is at 6:30 Sunday morning. The flight out is at
6:30, so there’s an afternoon.
About 20 of us are going, several on the same flight. I’m
rooming with someone who’s doing the half marathon, but I’m only in for 10k.
This weekend is the last chance to really practice and
yesterday I did 14k and today I did 13k. I would have made it to 14 but I had
to cut it short to get to the Gator game on my Slingbox. I’m exhausted and
sore. I have no idea what I was thinking when I registered for this thing.
Usually on weekends after the gym I come back, shower and
take a nap but yesterday I got back and Skyped and today I turned on the game.
While watching it, I’ve gone ahead and done laundry and cooked for not just one
but two weeks since I’ll be out of town next weekend. I’m looking forward to a
nap.
After next weekend, I’m in town til Christmas for sure; I
have a birthday party and then a Christmas party. I’m considering Hong Kong over Christmas weekend just to see Mockingjay
and Star Wars, but we’ll see. Right now I’m not into it.
But New
Zealand … amazing. I’m posting a few more
photos.
I went with a tour group, Flying Kiwis, which I’d totally
recommend. I never intended to do a camping trip, but I had specific dates I
could work with and wanted to stay X number of nights or so. Once I found out I
had to be back at work on 11/12, that narrowed my options. It was camping or
nothing.
And for me, New
Zealand was one of those places I needed a
set itinerary. There are just way too many options to choose from. Like Greece and its
“mainland or islands?”question, you have
to decide which island you want to do first, at least unless you’re staying for
weeks and weeks.
The north island is more cultural (and Hobbiton) and the
south is more adventure-oriented. It’s where bungee began. I have no interest
in that, but the hikes and stuff were more interesting to me. Someone told me
Queenstown was where you needed to go, so I put that in my tour requirements.
I wound up with the “Wild West” tour from Flying Kiwis, and
it was perfect. I met the group in Queenstown and we worked our way up through
to Nelson, Picton and then over to Wellington.
Basically, it’s sort of the equivalent of U.S. 1 in Florida – up the coast, except there are
mountains on the other side.
We camped, which, really, was a first for me. Yes, I camped
twice at Disney, but that’s hard to count. This time, it was legit – in some
places, we didn’t even have showers, although we always had flushing toilets.
(Which, as mentioned before, ALWAYS had TP.)
All the tents – mine was named Evil Knieval (yes, that was
the spelling they used), our tables, stools and cooking equipment got pulled in
a trailer behind our bus up the highways and byways. The bus was pretty good,
too, with a sound system that was decent although I got tired of the kiddie
music. (By that I mean 20something, not Sesame Street.)
When I signed up, the brochure indicated I would be sharing
a tent but it ended out not being the case, so between that and the fact I
spent WAY more money than I intended, I did not bother upgrading to a bunk when
I could.
Honestly, the tent wasn’t bad. I’m not up to the point where
I’m ready to strike out on my own, “Wild”-like, but I got pretty darn good at
putting it up and taking it down.
The first night was brutal, though, because it was super
windy and started to rain. Someone showed me how to do it, which was good, and
I took two sleeping bags because it was going to be really cold that night. I
was glad because I really was cold, and I could hear the wind just whipping. It
took me back to the RV at Hope
Village, just wondering
if the wind would flip me over. In this case, it didn’t, although some of the
tent pegs got bent during the night. But it didn’t cave in like one person’s
did, so that was a win.
I got smarter as the trip went on, picking locations that
were closer to the bathrooms or next to a distinguishing feature, like a bush,
so I could find it easily in the dark. We had about 15 tents and they were all
exactly alike, so at dusk or whatever you didn’t want to crawl into the wrong
one and freak someone out.
Our days started fairly early, with breakfast around 7 or
7:30. We’d, pack out and hit the road, stopping in an hour or two for our first
break or hike of the day. Sometimes, we’d spend a few hours in a city or
something, where our guides loaded up at the grocery store for the night’s meal.
That’s what this one town, Hokitika, was – just a stop on
the road. I bought a pair of gloves there, and then a meat pie, which I took
with me down to the beach to eat. The chair, made of concrete, was just sitting
there, a la Kenny Chesney. It was fantastic.
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