We ran through the airport and we were standing in the security line when "final boarding call" was on screen for our flight. Lucky for us and unlucky for anyone scared of terrorism on airplanes, security in that airport is a joke. We skipped from the security section straight onto our Air New Zealand flight.
It was only 7am and they gave everyone a chocolate chip cookie. Love this airline already.
We had barely taken off before we were descending in Christchurch. A quick airport brekkie and an even quicker check of Canadian news headlines (you miss a lot in a couple weeks...) and we were boarding for Queenstown.
The view here is marginally better than at YOW.
A couple getting off the city bus at the airport gave us their bus passes which still have multiple days of travel on them! Big deal, you're thinking. Yes, big deal, because a day pass costs $24 here. One day. For the first time in my life, I appreciated OC Transpo. That feeling will disappear my first day back in Ottawa, but for today, they're a decent organization.
Ha.
We found our cozy cottage at the top of a very steep hill. This is when overpacking actually hurt me. Pushing fifty pounds of rolly luggage up a serious incline was had me questioning my ability to do this "Great Walk". At the same time, I flashed back to shoving weighted plates across the gym floor and realized that was training for this real life moment. Except I'm pretty sure I didn't slide fifty pounds and the gym floor is flat.
This is the half way point.
Walking through Queenstown, it becomes clear this city lives off the tourists' buck. To be specific, the outdoorsy adventure tourist. Bungee jumping, sky diving, hang gliding, cliff jumping and rolling down a hill in an inflatable plastic ball are popular activities here. Guess which one I'm signed up for?!
Trick question, of course. I prefer to die of natural causes.
Lunch was the fuel we needed to tramp to the grocery store to buy enough food to sustain us for four days in the middle of nowhere.
The rest of the day was spent packing and repacking and food prepping and repacking and repacking and doing trivia and packing and eating pizza and repacking.
I thought eating some of the mega chocolate bar we bought for the trip would lighten a pack by a pound. Lace reminded me that the chocolate has to last us four days. Sigh. And only one bag of candies. I'm less concerned about torrential rain than withdrawal symptoms.
It's another early start tomorrow when we hop a bus, then a boat, to be dropped off at the beginning of my personal, ultimate disaster: no GPS or map, no access to treats and more rain than Sydney gifted me.
I'm excited. Let's do this. I'll be back in four days! I think.
Having a horrible thought that those may be the last words I ever write. And now I'm thinking that this line could be. Stopping now.
