NZ Hike Day 10: Queenstown!
Almost there.....
We arrived late in Queenstown on the evening of the 10th and final day of the hike. We dropped Jan and Alan off in the suburbs, in the hopes of meeting them later for dinner.
The Remarkables.....from Wiki :-(
And then...a mass of people. Queenstown is utterly beatiful and also utterly touristic. The sidewalks are jampacked with backpackers, Kiwi-bus riders and the ultra-wealthy. Being back in the city, even one as small as Queenstown (official population of around 8,000) was an odd feeling. One gets used to having space and not really having to share it with a lot of other people. As you drive towards and through Queenstown, your jaw drops and you marvel at the Remarkables and the shore of Lake Wakatipu (did you know that the lake has a rhythmic rise and fall in water level - about 4 inches every 5 minutes? Crazy I tell ya).
I thought about this as I made my way to my dormroom. I opened the door and felt like I was back in college (that's university for non-Stateside readers). The entire, and I really mean the entire, floor was covered with clothes. 3 Canadian college chicks taking a break from the harsh semester of college in Australia. I yearned to be, well, younger....
posted by The Wandering Turk @ 7:34 PM
9 Comments:
Thank you ... !
But 'sick for a week' ... 'buried in work', now I'm confused? Are you in NZ, or back home and writing retrospectively?
If I think about it, there was a point or two that confused me back at the beginning ... which I came to quite late obviously.
It could be that I am too simple to visit your blog now ... or too ashamed of seeming so simple.
Sigh . . .
Not at all Di - it is quite confusing...I am actually back in the States now (have been for a couple of weeks), trying to finish this blog which chronicles a 6 week journey. Who knows, maybe I'll continue writing... Anyhow, the initial portion of my journey (if you go back alllllll the way back to January), started in South Africa and featured plenty of easy and cheap Internet access. Once I started the hike , that was over and I just kept a daily journal as well as a photo journal of sorts...So what you see, interspersed with my hiking experience, are other things I'm doing back home, which probably makes the whole thing confusing.... I am in love with your country though - there I've said it and there's no denying it.
I should have asked about this sooner because I read of lost luggage and there were other indicators way back near the start (see, I read most if not all of it) but it was lovely to believe you were there now ... hence the harassment over the Queenstown report.
Anyway, being a writer-type with a massive imagination, I can forget we had this 'comment conversation' and go back to believing you're there still.
Of course you love New Zealand, it's so completely lovable, which is why I'm outraged when the Europeans suspect my motives for moving to Belgium. Add my two years of Istanbul living and really, they should be honoured to have a Kiwi wanting in ;)
P.S. One of my links is a good friend of mine back in NZ. You might enjoy a wander in his photo library ... it's all free viewing and he's captured so much of NZ.
I searched West Coast for you with this link: ;)
http://www.davidwallphoto.com/searchresults.asp?g=54
What a great link - and beautiful photos. Thanks so much - you've just taken away another hour out of my day :-).
I smiled an evil smile at the thought you might have lost an hour .... you see, I'm still recovering from moving you out of Queenstown and back to Texas in a cyber-nanosecond.
So ... are you healthy now, concentrating, putting your work and social life on the backburner so that I continue to vicariously revisit New Zealand via your blog entries.
I'm teasing ... I'll just check every day and seek counselling on the days your blog is idle ;)
Oh - you are evil! And yes - I am healthy and trying to finish up the travel recounting. This sickness has not been a good thing (not that it's ever a good thing) - there's so much going on here in terms of trying to finish up the blog (to keep you happy Di!), the SXSW music festival and work...But I'll get it done - with that demanding audience of one - I have to.
I'm sure the audience is bigger than 1, I'm just the noisy demanding one.
Hey WW - if it's not too private what private (no pun intended) school did you teach at in Istanbul? Was it for a "hazirlik" year, pre high-school? When I graduated, 5 years was the mandatory amount of schooling which has since been raised to 8, but I think most of the private schools which have lanugage training still have that additional year to teach students a foreign language.
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