well i’m on my way…

It’s only been 6 days since I last posted but it feels like a lot longer than that:  this is the third town I’ve been in since then and I’m not used to traveling this quickly…

Mathieu and I took the ferry from Wellinton to Picton on the South Island on Monday.  I was feeling a bit sea sick-I didn’t vomit but I was a bit nautious.  It could have had something to do with the drinking I did the night before, or the strong smell of the fuel we couldn’t escape no matter where we were on the boat.  The scenery was amazing!  The combination of pine and palm trees covering the hills/mountains/extinct volcanoes (I’m not really sure about the geological aspect of the place, so I’m just assuming it’s all extinct volcanoes) stretched down to the sea.  There were so many little coves and beaches and it was really neat and beautiful. 

There isn’t much to say about Picton except the hostel we stayed in.  Picton is the town where the ferries arriving from Wellington land.  The town consists of two blocks and a waterfront.  There was an aquarium, but I wasn’t about to check that out.  The hostel was super chill, had an amazing outdoor common area and a hottub!  As soon as I claimed my bed I put my suit on and got in.  It was super hot and hard to stay in, but I think I was in for about 2 hours.  The next day we started making plans and booked a car.  In hindsight, I think we should have looked at a map and discussed our own travel plans before we booked the car.  I couldn’t be bothered and read at the hostel all day.  I’m pretty sure Mathieu was bored as he has to be doing something all the time.  Should have taken that as a sign…

The next day we took the bus to Nelson and arrived in the middle of the day.  We checked in, booked a kayak/tramp tour for the Abel Tasman National Park, and walked around the city.  I’m looking at my diary and I only wrote what was going through my head, not what we did, so I’m guessing it was an uneventful day.

The next day was our only full day in Nelson so we went to the museum and purchased warm clothes.  I brought mostly summer clothes aside from my North Face and it’s only going to get colder.  I have a feeling that the temperatures I’m experiencing are about the same I would be if I was at home.  I bought a set of long johns-top and bottom set.  And they aren’t green!  I tried getting lost like I usually do, by wandering down streets that don’t have a lot of people in them, looking for the suburban part of the city, but Mathieu kept on pulling out his Lonely Planet to see what there is to do.  I started calling him an “American tourist”, a title I’m sure he woudn’t like (hell, I don’t like it) but he kept his grasp firmly on the book. 

So when we got back to the hostel, he started looking at the map and flipping through his book.  I’ve been talking to people, and doing some thinking about what I really really want to see, knowing that for me to do everything I want to will take years and we only have three weeks with the car.  We sat down and looked at the map and he showed me the route he thinks we should take and what he wants to see.  I told him what I really want to see, and they were some of the things he wants to as well.  I pulled out my calendar and realized that for us to see everything he wants to, we can only stay in a place two days maximum, most of them one day.  Some of these places are big cities and natural areas that will take way longer than 2 days to check out.  I told him that we need to get rid of some things, his response was “But these are the ‘fay-moose’ places I want to see”.  I was beginning to think that I’ve joined a tour.  Which is not really my style.  I expressed this and he told me that it would be impossible to stay a week in all of these places.  I agreed with this, but maybe we could eliminate some places.  He wasn’t too keen on that, so I tried to explain what compromise meant in the most basic way I could think of (there is a bit of language barrier between the two of us).  I know he saw the disappointment in my face but I’m not sure he could tell how hopelessly trapped I felt.

But we were going kayaking the next day so I put on my happy face (which I was honestly thrilled about) and said we’d talk later about this.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 9:33 pm and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.