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My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

(continued)   An American woman was waiting next to me and we talked a little. Other people arrived and a shy and not very happy looking Asian girl stood on the other side of me. The American’s husband arrived and they conversed exclusively. Hoping to find a companion for the journey I turned to the Asian girl and asked the usual question.

Sunny was very happy to talk with me and we sat together and talked until we got to Tekapo, where she left the bus. Sunny is Korean and will go to University soon to study psychology. She is in New Zealand to study English for a few months and was having a weekend trip to Tekapo because she had run out of things to do in Christchurch. She said it was safe and peaceful but she is not into the bar scene and was getting a little bored.

Lake Tekapo

When I told her I have been a Counsellor she drew me out to talk about it and I spoke about things like keeping yourself psychologically safe, basic attitudes to clients, and incorporating techniques into your behaviour so they don’t appear false. I talked about a standard phrase used in U.S. movies when someone is really unhappy because something tragic has happened. To say ‘It’s ok,’ to someone who has just lost the most important person in their life is not just inappropriate, it is demeaning. They would just look at you and think, ‘Who are you trying to kid?’ For a professional to say that is to lose the client’s trust and respect.

Sunny and I shared an appreciation of the landscape and the way the light illuminated some of its features. She gave me a basic outline of South Korean politics and when I asked about Korean hospitals revealed that they have some of the corruption problems of Chinese hospitals but have Western standards of privacy and hygiene. We shared our snacks.

We had a good time connecting across the gulf of age, language and culture and I was quite sad to say goodbye at Tekapo.

‘Seven Years in Tibet’ was my companion for the rest of the trip through the wonderful scenery en route to Queenstown. Acres and acres devoted to vineyards astonished me. The Australian wine industry has serious competition in New Zealand.

My bus arrived at 6.30p.m., twenty minutes behind schedule and fifteen after Elaine was due to arrive at the same place, or so I thought. There was no sign of her so I enquired where Deco Backpackers was and set off up a very steep hill to get there. It was very difficult going for me and I was forced to stop several times to recover my breath on the way. How can I make sure I always get a hostel on flat ground near the bus stop?

Mountains at dusk, Queenstown

When I arrived I found Elaine was not there and they didn’t have a booking for her. I deposited my things and headed off to town to eat and check if her bus had arrived late. She wasn’t there so I wandered around and found an internet bar where I wrote a funny letter to her half in Pinyin and half in English, asking where she had got to.

A couple of minutes after I left the internet bar Elaine came into view. She had checked in to the hostel and come looking for me.

Elaine told me she had met a Taiwanese man and enjoyed sharing travel experiences with him. She was to meet him at eight o’clock at a popular burger bar. While waiting we went to a travel centre where she tried to change her plans for the next day so we could do things together but could not get a bed at Mt. Cook the day after so had to keep her itinerary as it was.

We met the man, Shou (I guess the spelling but it could be Xu or Shu) and I bought a burger and we went down to the lakeside to eat. They encouraged me to speak Chinese and we laughed a lot. I teased Elaine about the location of the hostel she recommended and we had a lot of fun.

Shou and Elaine wanted me to go to Tekapo the next evening but I was travelling in the other direction. I was determined to go to Milford because I had memories of its beauty from my last trip to the country in 1978. Curiously, Elaine didn’t seem to be able to change the information in her head to understand that I was going to stay in Queenstown another day, though I told her three times. In the end I said ‘Ting bu dong!’ literally, ‘can’t hear’, but an idiom for ‘you don’t understand my language’. That led to more laughter. (to be continued)

My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

(continued) My big task for that day was to find a better day bag. The cheap disposals bag I had bought the week before was not convenient at all. I found a bargain priced daypack at Macpac and joined their discount club and saved some more.

Sheep on the move

The day was sunny and I took more shots around the Cathedral. They don’t mind people taking photos inside so I got photos of the stained glass windows. Without a tripod many failed but the rose window turned out well because I jammed the camera against a pillar to steady it. I spoke briefly with a woman from Peru who had a nifty slim monopod for her point and shoot camera.

I bumped into Tess on the street but she was meeting a young cousin.

At the iSite I booked for Deco Backpackers in Queenstown where Elaine had asked me to stay and also booked a bus ticket, for the next day. A morning’s walking had tired me so I spent the afternoon reorganizing my things and napping.

My room mates this time were two German girls and a very smart young man from Wyoming who studied Philology and is now changing to a more profitable career in a computer area.

For dinner I returned to the Sampan and was delighted to find Jin Zhen Gu and Hai Xia on the menu. The first are ‘Real Gold Mushrooms’ and the second is prawns. They were stir fried together in a savoury sauce. I had a bowl of jirou mitang as well, the usual chicken and corn soup.

It was great fun playing at talking Chinese again and one of the waitresses encouraged me with her sense of humour. She’s a Shanghainese who is studying nursing by day and waitressing at night. She looks about 16 but is 25. Another girl, from Lanzhou in Gansu, looks like one of my former students.

All of my battery powered appliances were charged for me by the people at Charlie’s front desk and I set my phone alarm for 7.00a.m. to get my bus on time. I chatted briefly with Sue online and rapidly proofread a short document for her. She translated it really well.

Mystical Mountains  Everything looks like that to me if I get up early.

[General comments: Charlie B’s is not suitable for old or infirm travellers because the bathroom floors are very slippery, stainless steel in the shower cubicles and smooth lino to step onto.  I feel very much at peace in Christchurch but there are signs that the night streets are not always safe, lots of broken bottle glass around the city area. However, I think I could live there quite happily. Most houses are pleasant British looking brick or masonry. Their gardens have flowers and trees. It’s a pretty town.]

Day fifteen

My alarm functioned perfectly and I rose and checked out of Charlie B’s and made my way down the street with time to have another excellent omelette at the same café before catching my bus to Queenstown. Harrumph!

Feeling good from my breakfast I arrived at the bus stop and had been standing there for ten minutes when the woman who sold me my ticket came out of the shop and uttered the ominous words, ‘Why are you standing here. Are you waiting for a bus?’

I replied, ‘Yes. I’m going to Queenstown.’

Once again the time on my phone was one hour behind. This time it was no-one’s fault but mine. Not true! My research now shows me I was still under the impression daylight saving had finished but it had not, not till April when I was back home. That phone company made a huge mistake in adjusting by the old rules.

She told me there was only one more bus to Queenstown but not with that company. It leaves at ten o’clock so I had about forty-five minutes. I would have to go to the iSite in the Square to book it and hurry to the stop in a street leading off the Square. I hurried off, bought the ticket and waited twenty minutes until the bus arrived a little late. (to be continued)

My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

Day thirteen

( continued)   Shouldn’t day thirteen have been yesterday?

‘Thai pumpkin soup’ was my breakfast at another nice café in the main street. It was an exquisite morning with a low mist like a white cashmere scarf on the mountains in the distance and I took my best photos of Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton. I was hoping fervently that the day would remain fine for the train trip.

Picton Harbour and hills

As I walked around I went in to the iSite, New Zealand’s term for its network of tourist information centres. They can book accommodation and many other things directly so I made arrangements to sleep at Charlie’s for another two nights. There was no chance I was going to miss the train again so I had a Sub for lunch and sat on the platform reading my book. I got up to stretch my legs and found a couple I recognized sitting along from me. They had booked the Bluebridge ferry just ahead of me. Their phone company had caused them to miss the same train as me. Unfortunately they didn’t have a roaming pass and had to pay for their new ticket.

As we talked one of the Soundsair staff came and told them to contact their phone company in Christchurch and claim their fare. The couple were both Australians, he with Scots ancestry he was keen to trace and she from an Ethiopian family that came to Australia via Greece. She was an infant when she arrived.

Another woman came and sat beside me and she is a South African of Hindu descent. We talked a little about Ghandi’s work in South Africa and she told me that some New Zealanders did not like Indians and she had experienced some racial prejudice.

Transcoastal arriving at Picton

The train arrived and we boarded. My ‘friend’ at the booking office said she got me the best seat and she did. I had the window seat nearest to the open carriage and only two cars from the café. I was able to go out to the open area and return at my convenience.

It’s really not that easy to take good photos from a speeding lurching train but I got some good ones. Some are on this blog. The weather was wonderful and I saw lots of seals basking on rocks, but bizarrely, from my distant vantage point they looked like slugs on a stone.

I finished the novel on the journey and gave it to my two young friends rather than carry it. (note: Buy second hand books when travelling.)

My bags were waiting for me in Christchurch and I was soon at Charlie B’s. Following the directions I was given I turned right at the snack machine and came to the last dorm in the corridor. Using the key I entered and found myself in a twelve bed dorm and I was the only male. There was no doona on the bed and I went to the front desk where I found I had gone to the wrong dorm! Later I worked out that I had turned right at the drinks machine instead of the snack machine. The key worked.

The mistake had one bonus. I met a nice English girl who had just finished journalism at Queensland Uni. We had begun to talk and agreed to find a meal together. Tess is now working in copywriting but hopes to get a newspaper job soon. We went to the Korean restaurant and talked animatedly. On our walk back to Charlie’s Tess had to ask me to walk more slowly because her feet were quite painful from all the tramping she had done. I was surprised and realised my walking speed had increased. I used to have the habit of walking very fast but my health and adjusting to the slower pace of Chinese pedestrians caused me to become a very slow walker. It must be a sign of improved fitness and health.

Day fourteen

Saint Patrick’s Day. Christchurch was full of shop assistants wearing green costumes and hats. Some of the costumes had a strong affiliation with Irish culture and some were just weird. Surely green antlers reveal some confusion about Rudolph’s function!

I breakfasted on pumpkin soup at the first café I ate at in New Zealand. The owner is a very funny fellow from Shanghai. (to be continued)