And oh yes... relearning how to drive on the wrong side of the street. (It's positively sinister!)
Buying a cooler at the local Walmart equivalent was a bit of a shock.
The first one I liked had a price sticker reading $99!
OK, that's only $81 US but still... FOR A COOLER?
(Or an "Eski" or "Chilly Bin" as it's known in these parts.)
And nothing special at that!
Finally found a smaller one for $50 with a discount that brought it down to $35 US.
I can live with that but it's slowly sinking in how expensive NZ is.
$6.50 US per gallon of gas is just the tip of the iceberg.
But... WTF... I'm on holiday (as it's known in these parts).
Finally got out of town at 11:30 AM and headed along the east shore of Lake Wakatipu, enroute to Glenorchy, situated at the northern tip of the lake.
My objective was some wild country even further north, which stood in as Isengard for LOTR.
Alas, I was not to reach Saruman's fortress realm for, behold, a great and terrible storm was descending and threatened to sweep me aside with merciless vengeance!
In other words, the long predicted rains were coming in from the north.
And dat shit was fierce!
I got about halfway up the lake before I realized I was dealing with gale force winds. Tried to get out of the car to take a photo and the wind was so strong, I could barely push the door open! When I finally succeeded, the wind almost knocked me over. It put me in mind of that one reporter who gets left behind as the hurricane comes ashore and fights to stand upright while "reporting live from Miami Beach!!!" I had to crouch down to get out of the wind and creep back to the car. Yikes!
After a couple more photo stops, I turned around, drove back into and then right out the other side of Queenstown. Spun the radio dial, found a local rock station and rocketed out of town on the Gorge Road. And who should come blasting out of the car speakers ? None other than that other Jersey Boy, Bruce Springsteen.
All the way on the other side of the world! Sheesh! What are the odds?
And what song was it? "Born To Run", of course!
What a perfect send-off.
"Baby this town rips the bones from your back, it's a death trap, it's a suicide rap, we gotta while we're young, 'cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run!"
And run I did, the storm nipping at my heels and catching me from time to time.
Stopped in Arrowtown, a cute-and-kitcshy NZ Gold Rush era settlement that looked very much like any of the cute-and-kitschy California Gold Rush towns found in the foothills of the Sierra. Too many tourists and too much downpour drove me out of there pretty quickly.
After that, I pointed my nose toward Twizel in the Mackenzie Country, about 120 miles to the north. With stops in Cromwell and Omarama, I continually flirted with the storm and often only had mere minutes to get out of the car and take a few quick snaps before rain would suddenly come dancing down on my head.
By and large, I only came up with a few usable photos from today's journey.
Twizel is a speck of a town, a mere way station for fly fishermen plying Diamond Lake and backpackers and climbers intent on traversing and scaling the heights of Mt. Cook, about an hour distant. My hotel is rather pedestrian but thank (insert Deity here) there is a wonderful upscale cafe just across the street.
Dinner tonight consisted of Pumpkin and Coconut Soup, then Beef Bourguignon Pie with a side salad, and finished off with Sticky Date Pudding with Roasted Walnuts, Butterscotch Sauce and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. I would have taken a photo if I weren't so vehemently opposed to Hipstamatic "look at what I'm eating" food porn.
Tomorrow I'll read the weather reports and concoct a day trip to someplace where it will not be raining.
OK. All for now. Here are a few scant pix from today.
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