Touring New Zealand Days 30 and 31: Dunedin to Arrowtown

Day 31:  Queenstown to Arrowtown

31 December 2010
Not Many Miles at All and All in Lucy

It’s New Year’s Eve and we are counting our blessings that we are comfortably camped here in Arrowtown, surrounded primarily by Kiwi families with just a few of us traveling folk scattered throughout their summertime haven.

We can tell who the locals are by the breakdown of their campsite:  Zephyr caravan planted securely with wooden chock blocks, festive orange and green striped awnings attached alongside to serve as laundry lines and changing rooms, and detached picnic tents planted in front under which large, folding tables are surrounded by dozens of camping chairs, small children, and an empty bottle or two.

We are currently being serenaded by Elton John’s Greatest Hits (… Philadephia Freedom, I love love love you, yes I do …), which is actually quite fun and festive for us, having left iPods and iTunes behind in Sydney.  I’m hoping for a little AC/DC next, just to complete that New Year’s Eve on Vashon Island feel.

While I sit here typing this, Gina is busy with her expense log and calculator.  It’s her favorite day of the month, you see, being the 31st.  So much accounting and statistics can be gathered and crunched upon this day.  What she has excitedly shared with me so far:

We’ve been 38 nights on the road, comprised of:

  • 14 Tent sites
  • 13 Warmshowers
  • 8 Cozy cabins
  • 2 Hostels
  • 1 Guesthouse

Tonight’s holiday dinner will be a cooked chicken and salad, served with a fine Merlot and, if the neighbors keep playing the Best of the 70s, a Pinot Noir as well.  Might as well join in the local fun!

Day 30:  Dunedin to Alexandra to Queenstown

30 December 2010
5 km (3 mile) Bike Ride

Today was a travel day.  First by bus, from Dunedin to Alexandra.  Then by bicycle, from Alexandra proper to Alexandra outskirts, where we picked up our lovely Lucy from Kevin and Jenny’s.  How they managed to keep their hands off her and not take her for a cruise through town will forever be a mystery to us.  Packed back up, we were off to Queenstown … along with every 20-something Kiwi local and foreign traveler.  Fun for some (but maybe not so much for us), Queenstown was bustling beyond bustling.  This is a small’ish mountain town in a spectacular setting, surrounded by craggy peaks and a beautiful blue lake whipped into nearly as big of a frenzy as the town, thanks to another gusty New Zealand afternoon.

Given the spectacle of what was going on all around us, we were comforted to know that we could leave the younger ones behind to party and spend our evening a few kilometers outside of town at another fantastic Warmshowers, hosted by Melissa and Simon.  (Author’s Note:  Having never met a single Simon in our lives, since relocating to the Southern Hemisphere we have now met three.  Bettering even that, we have met four Helens, representing about 83 percent of the people we know down here.)

Melissa and Simon were wonderful, offering us an authentic “Kiwi burger” dinner.  A Kiwi burger is better than any American burger out there, for it is served with pineapple and a fried egg.  Simply brilliant.  It also comes with Beet Root, a.k.a., beets, which sensible folk know taste like dirt.  Fortunately for us, Melissa and Simon serve their Beet Root as an optional ingredient.