Leaving the Comforts of Queenstown

On our last night in Queenstown, Brian and I had to get just one more of those fantabulous ice-cream cones from Patagonia Chocolate Factory on the waterfront. Oh man, sooooo gooood. We discovered that if you hit the right ice-cream worker, and if you are smiling and friendly, the woman behind the counter will personally select a big, fat waffle cone to fit lots and lots of yummy ice-cream into the cone. I had a scoop of 'peanut slab' and another scoop of fig and pistachio. Goodness gracious, this ice-cream is to die for. I mean, come'on, look at the size of these cones here people. It's like a meal!After ice-cream in our bellies and a stupendous meal at Christina and Perg's place, we slept one more sweet night in a king size bed, and enjoyed all the space and comfort that goes along with a king size bed. I have to get one of these, eventually. The following morning we decided to have one more round of disc golf (disastrous, oh man, BAD), and then we made it out of town to multiple hills rounding the side of the lake, with a severe headwind. Not the best situation to enhance my ability to stop swearing..... We made it to Kingston at the bottom of the lake after four hours of cycling. It was getting dark, we were tired of the wind and our tummies were missing ice creams and burgers. We spent one night in a campground with a "TV Lounge and Dining Area" approximately the size of a hamster den. It was ridiculous enough to mention here. I have a photo, but it doesn't do the uselessness of the place justice. Here's an up-close-and-personal photo of my bike, Mongoose. He's one heavy sucker, but he's served me well so far.... The blue cloth hanging from the top is my snot rag (a.k.a. handkerchief). The ride during this day was great. We both felt strong. The wind was on the wrong side of us, but it wasn't vicious, and the hills were mostly on the down side, albeit very gradual. I felt like I was pounding back the kilometres, and breaking the speed of sound. Well, perhaps not the speed of sound, but we were going fast for a while and it felt really nice. Along the way, we spotted one black sheep in amongst a field of white sheep. Can you spot it too? Lunch was eaten at a highway side cafe called Lazybones. Not the best name for a cafe, but it certainly reflected the weirdness of the place. We bought a few scones from the woman behind the counter, and she put a slab of butter in them so thick you'd have thought it was a fat piece of cheddar cheese. Yum? We ate it anyway, and darnit, it tasted good, actually really good. We warmed our cold and sweaty bodies by the fire while reading the paper, drinking crappy coffees and listening to what has to be the most desperate round up of songs in the entire universe. I can't even think of how to begin describing the level of crappiness that these songs represented. It was like bad eighties tunes with lyrics worse than a repetitive country song. I remember one song in particular was all about "being on the rebound, and having another go around". The best part was that the owner, one shaggy looking bearded man a little off his rocker and in his late forties, appeared to really like the music. I bet it was his cd, no wait, I bet it was his eight track. No one in their right mind would play that kind of ludicrous music in public areas unless they wanted to detract business. Looking around, it made sense. We were the only schmucks in the place. Back on the road for a few hours and ended up in Mossburn, a small town sixty kilometres from Te Anau. We had no food left, and arrived to see the only grocery store was closed. Uh oh. Two friendly ladies sold us some delicious muffins and told us about a touristy place down the road that sold hot, greasy food. Hmm... I can't wait. We rode fifty metres down the road to a small side store with three big tour buses triple parked on the road out front and Japanese people fretting all about eating ice cream and bouncing about inside the small store like a bunch of highly charged electrons. Brian and I managed to squeak inside and find some nuts, a large package of peanut m&m's, a bag of potato chips, some ginger cookies and two bowls of quick soup, Japanese style. This little grocery stop cost us $34.oo. Holy moly on that one. This soup better be darned good. We must rethink our attempts to cook our own meals when we are in smaller than small towns where it has simply got to cost much less to go out for a hot meal at the local hotel restaurant rather than spend an arm and a leg eating a mis-match of old shelf-life food where you are left with a bit of a belly ache and yet a feeling of lingering hunger. Our fine dinner: Instead of forking out more cash for a campsite a few kilometres back out of town (no backtracking allowed after missing shoe incident), we opted for the cheap and reasonable choice of staying at the local elementary schoolyard. Cheap, easy, and relatively safe. This schoolyard was particularly awesome because of water taps, picnic tables and a large, covered section where we could set up our tent and remain dew-free come the morning hours. The wee-morning hours brought about the usefulness of earplugs, which I didn't want to get out of the tent to retrieve, so I had to endure complete teenage debauchery until 5:00 AM where one girl was yelling her soap opera life story to the entire neighborhood, and a number of boys were singing along to a bass-thumping whopper of songs including what appeared to be a live version of U2's album released in 2000 (the name of the album escapes me). I don't know what's worse, listening to teenagers scream and holler to extremely loud music, or finding myself singing along to the teenagers screaming and hollering to songs that I somewhat recognize.... It's a tough call, really. ---- The radio at the same internet station as yesterday is playing I wear my sunglasses at night by Cory Heart. No comment. ---- The later morning hours brought about dry sleeping bags (thank you covered area!), and one sweet breakfast of oatmeal complimented by an assortment of coloured m&m's. You can't go wrong with that, except that it is best if you eat the meal rather quickly so the dye on the m&m's doesn't melt and look like exploded paint balls. The covered section at the school had murals and paintings all over the walls inside. There were two nice ones that looked like the surrounding scenery of Mossburn, but there were other ones that were done by the same artist, who tried to make it look like a child had painted them. It is of my opinion that the next three renditions of the Cat in the Hat, Lisa Simpson, and lastly, I think, a wig-wearing Family Man dad are completely scary, if not a bit on the psycho side and would likely cause any young thing to have repetitive nightmares until late in their twenties or beyond. Goodbye Mossburn, hello open road. And open it was. All the mountains dissipated into rolling fields of sheep and tall trees lined the crests of the hills on the horizon. It was beautiful. Te Anau was within reach fairly quickly, and we bolted on into town with strength and vitality as we completed another sixty clicks. Tenting was our first option, but we were rather quickly convinced to spend another four dollars each to get a cabin with a double bed and an electric heater. You don't have to ask us twice. My favourite things upon entering a new town are hot showers and yummy fresh food (and much more reasonably priced than the crazy Mossburn store, I might add). I took the hottest shower I've had in a while, and Brian made us the best sandwiches we've eaten in yonks. One side of the sandwich was super yummy and had sprouts, red onions, walnuts and a chutney spice cream cheese spread on a date scone. We're all about the scones. They are super tasty and appear to fill us up more than other bread-ey items. Dinners have been great too. Our first night we ate BBQ'd steaks and a vast array of steamed veggies. Our second night of delicacies included appetizers of crackers, cream cheese and an entire jar of olives (we felt required to increase our salt uptake for exercise-physiological purposes). A ten-dollar bottle of wine assisted in the cooking process of BBQ'd chicken breasts which were added to a "serves four" package of fresh pasta and a whole jar of pesto. After eating everything, we packed down a number of ginger cookies with peanut butter and Nutella smeared on top. Good thing our daily energy output is higher than our caloric intake. Whoa. Wait a minute. Am I really caught up on my blog? Is this the most recent thing that has happened to us? Yes, aside from a five-dollar hair cut I endured two hours ago. I have to say, being caught up feels pretty nice. Whew... Now we can rest and relax and go get some more food. One last thing for today before we run to the grocery store: Brian wrote an article on surfing in New Zealand two weeks ago, and it was published last Thursday in a weekly magazine in Edmonton, AB called Vue Weekly. Click here to read his story. It's really good!