June 16, 2010

After a good night's sleep, my travel fatigue wore off. I went for a hike in the national park nearby (Tongariro Park, on the north island). It was fairly strenuous, probably because I have been sitting in a machine eating chips all winter. The trail went between two large volcanoes. One was new and was a perfect cone, covered in snow. The other was more craggy and broken. Both were pretty imposing. It was silent, and I saw no animals, not even a bird. The landscape was pretty bleak... only scrub brush growing on an endless lava flow. It took about 4 hours and I was bushed.

I'm staying at a hostel outside the park, filled with young internationals trying to find a job for the ski season. The mood is a little desperate, since most people aren't having any luck. They jealously asked me how I got my job. I told them that I've been working at a ski resort for eight years. Plus I got my job before I came over, instead of showing up broke on the doorstep.

New Zealand tied their World Cup match, which was cause for celebration. The radio DJs were going on about it, but it was a little hard for me to follow the conversation because I was too busy giggling at their funny vowels. Plus I was driving my car while listening to the radio, so I couldn't pay much attention. The driving is a little tricky. Several times I have accidentally pulled out into the right lane. Luckily there's not much traffic around here. I often jump into the car to go somewhere, sit down, and realize that there's no steering wheel. It's on the other side. The car is an older station wagon with a tiny engine. It gets good mileage, though, and has enough room for my stuff. It has a cassette player and folding power mirrors. I guess those mirrors are for getting into tight parking spaces. I wonder, if you park that closely, how do you get out of the car"

Tomorrow I'm going to drive down to the bottom of the island and take the ferry over. It's a three-hour ride and is about $100 with the car. But it's supposed to be spectacular. I have a few more days before I am supposed to show up at my house, so I think I'm going to go over to the west coast of the south island. There are several more national parks there and I'm going to locate a hostel and do some more hiking. Hopefully the weather isn't too bad. It's late fall here, and the leaves are yellow and red. Strange, strange.

Everything is clean and nice here. It's rural and bucolic where I am. The New Zealanders are very polite and modest and invariably ask "So, how do you find New Zealand?" Oddly, though, I haven't talked to many New Zealanders so far, as I'm busy listening to the Argentine argue with the Swiss about the World Cup. I did advise the Swiss about adjusting his brakes on his junky old van, which I felt good about. He's trying to get it road-certified and is having a lot of trouble. I had the mistaken impression that every Swiss was an engineer, for some reason.

Well, I'm sure I will have more stories soon.

Ray

Mt Ngauruhoe - aka "Mt Doom" from Lord of the Rings

bread and cheese ftw