Live the Live ™

Boy, things change in a heartbeat ’round here…

We made it to Queenstown. Thank God the weather finally co-operated once we got out of Haast, and we actually saw some freakin’ sunshine on the way here to the Canyons Lodge.

Check this out…the photos do not exaggerate, and we have this place to ourselves, at least for now!

http://www.thecanyonslodge.com

We took what’s called the Crowns Pass down to Queenstown and we got some amazing video and photos of our descent into the Qtown area. It was described by a buddy of ours as an airplane landing into Queenstown, and that’s not far from the truth!

The owners of the lodge here, Andy and Mel, are really cool, and we’ve settled in nicely. We’ve had some drinks with them and discussed what we thought was our itinerary, only to find out how quickly and easily things change.

First of all, my rafting trip has been moved. The severe rain that they’ve had in this area actually shut down rafting for today, and they told me they wouldn’t know if they were rafting tomorrow morning until the last minute. So the plan was for me to show up and see what happens.

Well…looks now like I will be rafting another day. The reason is that we are taking a helicopter ride to Milford Sound, which includes cruising over the sound, as well as landing on a freaking glacier. (Yes, I was totally talked into this!)

We are no longer doing a 6-hour bus, then boat, then plane trip back…and instead are doing an all-encompassing helicopter ride for about 2 1/2 hours. (If I knew my Mom was reading this blog, you can bet your ass I wouldn’t be writing it!)

Anyway…more later…but we’re here…and that’s a major accomplishment!

OK…caught up for now…

If you’re able to follow a map of the western coast of New Zealand, you’ll see that Haast is sort of the last town along the coast before the road heading south to Queenstown turns inward toward the mountains. That’s where we are right now…having a snack before our journey continues. We’ve got about half of our trip left…hoping that the weather, at least, gets better.

It has been raining…and raining hard, pretty much our entire trip since we left this morning about 3 1/2 hours ago. We’ve seen no glaciers anywhere…no beautiful views of famous lakes…nothing but rain and fog.

I’ve found a good way to a make the journey a little bit less stressful: I followed a big tour bus. Not only does this guy know the roads far better than I ever will, but I can determine my own course of action in my brick-of-a rental car by watching what he does ahead of me. It worked really well for most of the trip until the bus turned off for a scenic stop. (Kind of a joke since you can’t see anything…but they did have restrooms there, too.)

Still in Haast, taking advantage of Internet connections here…

January 3, 2011

It’s about 7 AM, and we’re starting to pack our stuff back into the car for the ride to Queenstown.

It’s been raining on and off all night, but the real massive downpours started around 2 AM, and they’re continuing even now. Packing the car is not a problem, fortunately, because there is a carport type-thing in front of our ground-floor room, so I can roll everything out the door and right into the back of the car.

But the drive will be a bitch.

Much like yesterday, if it keeps raining, there’s no reason for us to make a stop apart from food, gas or bathroom needs. There will be no scenery to see. But my biggest concern is all this rain could’ve washed out a road ahead of us somewhere in the mountains and we won’t really know until we get there.

Internet connections at this hotel are not happening because the bad weather is blocking satellite feeds. And the local TV offers nothing as far as any valuable information. So we’ll just have to take it as it comes…slow and steady. I will be very glad when we’ve checked into our room at the Canyons Lodge in Queenstown later today/tonight.

There’s two couples from Australia staying in a room across from us and they came here to get away from the rain (and now flooding) of their home country…no such luck! They’re also on their way to Queenstown. They mentioned that they heard it will be clearing up toward Queenstown today, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed!