Moving Right Along

Time to get moving again after 3 weeks in Wanaka. It was an interesting week, with some really great moments, like our little expedition to Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain, a visit to the neat little cinema there (you get to sit on proper couches and at intermission they serve these fantastic fresh cookies which everyone races to get. Go for the double chocolate. You will not regret it), as well as a few of the usual walks and some really good dinners with the friends I’ve made here.

However this week has also seen me pick up my second dose of one of the various bugs floating around town, and then have a massive allergic reaction to the free backpackers’ dinner I went to at the local church, which proves there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or dinner for that matter. It made my last night here a bit of a mixed occasion – on the one hand I did get to enjoy one last drink with my fellow travellers, toasting among other things unexpected cows and decapitated sheep (don’t worry, it was a wood sheep, just in case you were wondering exactly what kind of church it was we went to) and all had a good laugh at a strange man with very misguided enthusiasm for dancing and also showing a sizeable amount of underpant. But I later broke out in hives over pretty much my entire body and spent a the rest of the night feeling itchy, nauseous and wondering if I was having some kind of plague visited on me because I didn’t take the free bible earlier that night. If a whole bunch of frogs and locusts start turning up, I’ll know something’s definitely up.

Anyway, thought I should share that unpleasantness with you just to point out this travelling business isn’t all snowflakes and sunsets. Although there is a fair bit of that too. Like this one.



And this one.



And very occasionally, even some full-frontal nudity.



So as you might have guessed from the bungie jumping (that was a guy off the Magic Bus who got it free for going naked. And I know it wasn’t really full frontal, I’m trying to maintain a PG rating here) I’m now actually in Queenstown. Had meant to post this in Wanaka but couldn’t, so seeing as I’ve had to change everything I’d written to the past tense I might as well bring things completely up to date. It was quite surprising how quickly Wanaka had come to feel like home, and I’d met a lot of really cool people from all over the world, so it was a bit sad to be leaving it behind. But it was good to be seeing new sights as well once I hit the road again, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with nearly all of the people I’ve met somewhere in my future travels. Queenstown never fails to catch me by surprise each time I come back here, my memories never really do it justice. Sure, it’s busier than Wanaka but it’s the traffic more than the people which is annoying, and it’s always balanced out by the incredible setting, so I’m definitely looking forward to my next few weeks here.