Flexing
No, not my massive biceps. Nor my tree trunk-like quads. Not even flexing my hammies and touching my toes — something I’ve not done without significantly bending my knees for a looooong time.
No, I’m flexing my travel. You see, I had a plan.
No, wait, I had an ideation. It hadn’t ever quite come to a plan stage, other than the first couple of baby steps.
My idea was to bus my way down the west coast then pop through the mountains and head east (anyone remember that band?) to Queenstown. InterCity has buses that go that way, and I’ve a pass so, sure, no probs.
I took the first step on the 22nd, going from Picton to Nelson. On the bus, I met three more PhD types: two candidates, and one established. I’ll be damned if I’m not surrounded by smarticle particles here! I’m formulated a hypothesis as to why: it’s summer break, and all of academia is out traveling. These three were all from different countries: Sri Lanka (Kandy, even!), Iran, and Germany.
The German woman was late to board, and the bus was full, so she got stuck having to sit next to me. I thought we had a nice talk for the ninety minutes or so to Nelson, where everyone got off. Her mileage might have differed, but she seemed to enjoy it anyway. Or she’s as good as Meg Ryan was in the diner scene in When Harry Met Sally. Who knows? I don’t. I’m sticking with my version regardless.
Anyway, she’s teaching at a uni in Sydney, and has an interesting accent. Mostly Aussie, with a hint of German on the sides. Fun! She’s off to backpack in the Able Tasman national park (solo! 😱) for five days. Best of luck and safe travels!
I booked the second step upon arriving here in Nelson: bus to Greymouth and a stay overlooking the river. That should be nice. After drinking down the bartender’s failed first ever attempt at a black and tan (He’d never heard of it, and he had Guinness on tap. Shocking, I know.), I started looking further to see how long to stay in Greymouth, before pushing on to Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. The buses don’t run every day, so. Seems like a two night stay would work. Cool. Let’s check accommodations in Franz Josef, the next stop down the coast.
Huh. Nothing.
Well, not nothing, there is some availability in multi-bed dorm rooms. And, as Porky Pig used to say, hibbity, hibbity, hibbity, that’s all folks. Not a private room to be had via my app. (Yeah, I’m fairly confident there would be something else by some other means, but still.) That sucks. I’m rather adamant about not doing the dorm thing. I refuse to sleep in a bunk bed with a horde of stinky youngsters snoring away in the same room. No, I will snore away in my own private stink, thank you very much.
I looked to see if I could bypass Franz (sorry buddy) and get to Fox Glacier. I could get a bus all the way. Cool. Check for accommodations. Nada. Crap.
Next up: Can I get all the way to Queenstown from Greymouth? No service. Have to stop at one of the two above overnight. Dang. Was I stuck? Did I have to circle back to Picton (shudder), and go down the east side?
Then I remembered the Tranzalpine. Bingo, Ringo.
The Tranzalpine is a train service that runs between Christchurch and Greymouth. Sweet. Now I just had to see if it was available. Granted, it’s a freakin’ train and not a bus so lots of seats, but still, (a) it’s a popular out and back day trip for a lot of people, and (b) it’s the high tourist season. So it’s a lot like July in Yosemite. Busy as.
I was able to book a seat. Yay! Now I don’t have to retrace my steps, even as much as back to Blenheim, which is the first place I could get a bus to the east side. I don’t have accommodations yet, but Christchurch is a big place, and just looking, there is more than dorm rooms available. And, my friend Zach is there. It’s looking like we might get a beer together before I’d expected to the second week or so of January.
Now that that’s all settled, it’s time to get ready for my day here in Nelson. Big plans. Big. Huge. Okay, no. But I do have something to do, and that’s go see if I can see a Kiwi. The bird, not a human representative of the country. Seen lots o’ those. Lovely people.
I heard from Avi (Thanks Avi!) about the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary not far from the center of town. I subsequently discovered that I can take an Uber there. Sweet. Trails and water and maybe kiwis. And other coolio birdies, who knows? Even though I’ll likely get dirty and sweaty (it’s to be 25°C today, a veritable heat wave), and I’m traveling mañana, no worries mate: I have en-suite laundry in my stay. I can wash all my stuff from the day, and what’s been getting the sink wash lately. And, since there is an integrated dryer, I can get it all dry before packing it all up tomorrow morning. I’m adverse to packing stinky clothes. I even (usually) use deodorant on travel days. I apparently have some compassion for my fellow travelers after all.
The sanctuary is about 5K out of town, so my thought is to Ube It™ out there, and run back. Oops. Forgot to slap the quotes around “run.” But that’s the idea. We’ll see how I’m feeling after chasing Kiwi tail on the trails in the forest. The birds, of course. And, if not the birds, “eyes on the trail.”
If you know, you know.
Before leaving Picton, I took a time lapse of a ferry coming in. It’s not the best, but it does show the power slide maneuver they do to dock ass-in. I had to go right down to the water line to take it, since the grounds above were overrun with folks who’d arrived via a cruise ship. Not sure why Picton is on the stop list, but I don’t plan these things. Heck, by reading the above, you can pretty much tell planning anything is not exactly in my wheelhouse at the moment. I may miss some things, but I’ve been quite fortunate to stumble into some pretty fantastic encounters.
Be kind and take care of yourselves. If you can, care for someone else, too.
Slang, out.