The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

 [April 6, 2011]

Three seats, one row entirely to myself.

31. 

Today is my birthday and I just boarded a new Air New Zealand All Blacks Rugby themed airplane from Auckland to Queenstown.  The sweet chemical smell of plastic off-gas is still identifiable in the recycled air.  Since new technology is flawless, I take comfort in knowing that this plane will most likely not fall out of the sky. The safety information is brought to us by the ever-lasting flamboyance of Richard Simmons: "step step, pump pump ... and now you're fit to fly!" Yes, he is still doing that thing that he does.  I believe they call it exercise -- no -- "sweatin' to the oldies." Except, in this version he is demonstrating how to fasten a seat belt and put on a life preserver.  Dance music, sweatbands, and electric pink outfits definitely distract from thoughts of planes crashing.

I booked a bus from Queenstown Airport to Te Anau, then tomorrow a shuttle from Te Anau to Te Anau Downs, and a boat to the start of the Milford Track.  When the bus arrived to pick me up at the airport, it turned out that the bus was actually a small van and there were just two other people on board.  As if there was only one thing to do on the South Island, my van-mates Su-Lin and Yan are also hiking the Milford Track tomorrow.  Now that I am slightly less alone, I feel slightly less terrified of my insane solo journey into the wilderness.  Slightly.

Thanks to a hotels.com deal and a generous birthday present, I am staying in a villa in Te Anau like a real adult. Te Anau is one of the smallest towns in the world, comprised of a single main street flanked by hotels, motels, and backpackers for Fiordland adventurers. And me. At about 5:30, I walked to Bev's Tramping Gear Hire to pick up all the stuff for my hike that I didn't bring/don't own/would never own: a hideous bright blue fleece jacket, a fluorescent yellow raincoat, a headlamp with a dead battery, rain pants made of black trash bags, and various other essentials.

Despite my arguments for solitude, Su-Lin and Yan insisted on going out to dinner for my birthday.  Hello, I am a vegan in the middle of nowhere, let's eat! After walking up and down Main Street [or whatever it was called] and reading the menu in nearly every restaurant window, we decided on Chinese Food. The dining room was enormous but only two tables were occupied, both by parties speaking languages other than English. It is a big world in a small town. Here I am, 10,000 miles from where I was born, sitting with strangers in a restaurant at the end of the universe.

Tim made me vegan chocolate chip pancakes with rainbow 

sprinkles for my pre-birthday day!

 Flying over the Southern Alps. South Island, New Zealand

Landing in Queenstown.

[sneak preview]

4.711:  Boarding the boat to Milford Track, Te Anau Downs.

 Scenes from the boat, Lake Te Anau.

 Traveling to the middle of nowhere, getting nervous.

 See that patch of sand, yeah, that is the start of the Milford Track. 

ONWARD!

Waving, Not Drowning

There are waves crashing in the canal of my left ear.  I have jumped, shaken, spun, and poked but not even gravity changed the tides.  In this muffled world with an ache soaring through my head, I now know for sure that I am a lousy swimmer. My form has never progressed from the inefficient half sinking/half gasping for air technique I developed as a kid.  Yesterday, I went swimming for over thirty minutes and finished with a baby pool of water trapped in my ear. 

Last weekend Tim and I accepted a generous invitation to escape to a beach house in the Coromandel Peninsula.  The bach [pronounced "batch," beach house] at Little Bay was tucked into a nick on the eastern coastline, about a three hour drive from Auckland.  The ride was an uneasy mix of beauty and motion sickness: lush green hills on one side, the Pacific Ocean on the other, and a long stretch of scary narrow winding gravel road. 

We arrived late at night and followed Simon, our host, down to the ocean.  I clung to Tim's sleeve like a child afraid of the dark, because I was, and together we carefully walked towards the water.  Without the context provided by daylight, the ocean at night is deceptively small.

In the morning, Simon and I went for a run in the bush [forest].  Our run started with a twenty-minute uphill climb on a dirt road.  I cannot remember the last time I pushed my body to such an extreme that someone had to tell me not to pass out.  I slowed to a pathetic shuffle-like jog and kept moving until we entered the bush.  Simon led the way, and away, as I did my best to keep him in sight and not fall. I failed at both my tasks. I lost the trail because it wasn't a trail -- it was a few broken blades of grass and random gaps between trees.  To my credit though, I only tripped once. 

Later that day, I [almost] cried while swimming in the ocean.  I am not a very good swimmer. So I waded in up to my knees and then walked out ...
No.
Ah, quit being a baby.
Tim dragged me back into the waves, instructing me to either go up and over or under and through. Panic.  I did what I was told and made it out alive.

 

 Next Episode: Tales from the Milford Track

Free Auckland

Some photos before I post some photos.
The Ports of Auckland offers a free boat tour of large vessels, shipping containers, and monster machines:

 

 [The belly of the Harbour Bridge]