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12-24-10

Queenstown Christmas

Just hanging out here on Christmas afternoon/eve. The kitchen was busy this evening with about seven people all cooking at the same time while others were sitting at tables eating what they had prepared before. Some of these hostels are what they call “tidy” and others are complete slob joints. This one isn’t bad but the ones in the big cities are pretty terrible. You are supposed to wash dry and put away the pots, pans and dishes you use… sometimes there are huge piles of unwashed dishes in the sink and drain board. As I say this one isn’t too bad but it can get hard to find a frying pan in some of these jumbles.

It is interesting to see what meals are prepared. It sure seems like those German girls are taught to cook at home as well as the Japenese/Korean girls who are sure big on rice.

I am in a room of eight beds here in Queenstown hostel. It sure isn’t a problem for me as I am usually in bed by ten or ten thirty as it is dark about then. The younger ones are out late at the bars I guess as when I wake up in the morning at first light, they are all racked out and sleeping soundly. Both young men and young women are in most dorm rooms that I have been staying in. I actually have not camped out so far as I really find it much nicer to sleep in a bed off the floor and have a kitchen to cook in as well as a lounge area to hang out in as well as power places to hook my computer up to. Most hostels have a system that you can hook up to the internet with wifi, if you have a laptop, or they also have computer that you can use with a pay slot. Ten or fifteen minutes for a buck or a half hour for $2.

When I hook up with wifi I go to their wifi server and buy minutes or megabits with my credit card. The megabit deal is really a bitch as it is about $10 for 100 megs. That works ok unless someone sends a video to watch or a big file to download. Oh, I cant download a new dog log that way either as it uses up those megabits really fast. The time method works best for me, IF it is a fast connection. I have found the best way to download doglogs is to find a library and sometimes they have free wifi and sometimes they charge for minutes. It is really a money making system that they have for internet connections down here. Of course all the kids are connected and are either using their laptops (mini’s lke mine) mostly but some carry the big ones. Phones are always in use too it seems.

There are just a zillion ways for the kids and tourists to spend money here in this town, and more so it seems than any other town I have been in so far. There is walking, hiking, there are little huts along the trails that are made for hikers to use. I met one guy at the last hostel in Dunedin that turns out grew up in the same town I did, He is an equities investor that lives in New York and quit his job to come down here and hike. He said the huts are free to stay in once you pay a $100 fee for a year. They can be reserved on the main hiking trails but not so much on the little ones. He said there were a thousand of those little huts. They have a long sleeping platform and a pile of sleeping mats so you just grab a mat and find your spot. It sure sounds nice not to have to carry a tent and sleeping mat, all you neede it your sleeping bag. A nice dry place to sleep too…

They have posters up and there must be a dozen places downtown that will arrange your activities. There are scooters to rent, bikes to rent, surfboards, kayaks, mountain bikes, road bikes, kite surfing rigs, jet boat rides, cruise ship rides, wildlife boat tours, cars, vans, motor homes, buses for tours, intercity bus, I think they have quads for rent too or maybe they are tours, they have a skydiving thing where it looks like you attach yourself to a guy and jump out of a plane, lots of different kinds of bungee jumping. That is all I can think of at the moment but you get the idea, lots of things to do.

It looks like a lot of that will come to a screeching halt soon as there is supposed to be a big storm headed this way from the south west. A girl at one of the sports shops where I was looking at all the way cool mountain bikes was working, took me over to a computer look at the weather predictions for the next few days. It looks like it is going to get really wet here but should clear off next Wednesday. Looks like I may have to hang out here for a few days.

Tomorrow, Christmas, I have been invited to a supper that I think is for some of us here at the hostel. I was asked to bring something and I asked her what would be the best thing for me to bring and she looked at her list and said I should bring carrots. I went to the store this afternoon and picked up some really nice carrots and not those stupid ones like we get in the states that taste like cord wood. These Kiwi’s know a few things about food production. I know they must use a lot of chemicals because there are NO weeds in their fields. Well, not in their pastures. Actually some of the farmers have a major thistle problem. I have not noticed it before but down here on the south end of the south island it is a problem.

I have not taken photos of sheep but I can tell you there are sure a lot of them here. I guess cows are taking over, or at least dairy cows where it is possible. On the steeper ground, sheep are the animals. With so many sheep it is interesting to see in the grocery store that when c rusing the meat counter, there is very little in the way of lamb for sale. They must export a shit load of sheep. Their major markets are India and China. I am sure they both can eat all the sheep these little islands can produce. The dairy industry is taking over and I find it interesting that they dehydrate most of the milk and export it to those two countries too. It seems like someone said that dried whey was exported too. It sure seems like China is importing everything from around the world.

I was talking with someone and they were telling me that last year there was a huge snowstorm down here at the south end of the country. They got 6 feet of wet show overnight. They have never gotten anywhere near that amount of snow and it crashed a lot of roofs and seems like an auditorium or major building of some sort in Invercargill? The weather is changing all over the world is seems.

OK, out on the road I took the scenic tourist loop along the south edge of the mainland. That guy I met in Dunedin that rode the Triumph said that I should go visit Cannibal bay and check out the artifacts. He said there were a lot of them and I shouldn’t take any but they again, who would miss one or two? Well I saw the sign for the bay and decided to take it because it looked like a nice gravel road, which it was. I didn’t walk around and ‘look’ just rode down and went out to see the beach where there might be sea lions. There were no lions so I kept on going. I am not sure if there was a community there that ate people or not. You will have to google that.

Major sheep crossing the highway. Man that guy had two of the scroungest looking dogs, but they did his calling alright. Oh, everyone seems to wear shorts here like over in OZ.

A big sign on the highway pointed to the Kinston Flyer. I went down and looked around but I don’t think it is running anymore. Or at least these cars were not in use anymore.

I never did see an engine and the tracks led off in the distance but sure didn’t look used but maybe?

A mail coach I think.

By now, I bet some of you are wishing I didn’t have a friend named Keith…

Huge lake and I think that is Queenstown there along the bank at the right.

I really like these mountains name. The Remarkable Mountains. There is a ski area there here or at lest that is what the sign said.

more shoe level art.

I was down town early morning and found this guy sweeping the sidewalks.

$5999 mountain bike sure was beautiful.

I bought a pair of sandals just like these for $63 before I left and have been wearing them. Wow, quite a difference in prices down here eh? My buddy Joe says that you should take half the gear and twice the money when traveling on a motorcycle. Down here it is half the gear and four times the money.

The gas is right at $2NZD a liter which comes out to over $6USD a gallon. Things ain’t cheap down here and that is for sure. I like the sandals but $250 which works out to right at $200USD

This cruise ship was just leaving the dock when I was there this morning. I was talking with a couple of the guys that were helping at the dock side when it left. I asked if it was run on diesel and one guy got almost huffy and said Hell NO! It is fired with coal. It turns out he is the Fireman on this ship and it was his day off but he was delivering coal for it. He said it burns a ton an hour. I asked if it had an automatic stoker and he said he was the stoker and shoveled it all himself. He was driving the truck below that delivered the coal to the chute on the side of the ship. He said the ship was built in pieces in Dunedin and brought over here and riveted together here. I think he said it was built in 1908 so it is a hundred years old. He said it was the last steam powered boat on the lake.