JESUS CHRISTCHURCH! - LAKE TEKAPO & CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND - DAY 12
I wake up at 5:30AM to a boiling room, and try to roll over until 6AM. This is still two hours before the planned wake up call. I’m rather exhausted, but I can’t go back to sleep now that I’m up. I don’t know why I haven’t been able to sleep fully at all this trip.
Albeit, it’s probably due to the anticipation of a new adventure awaiting us every single day. We haven’t gone a single day without a new view, activity or exploration that hasn’t awakened and vibrated my soul with such raw, open wilderness or such pure beauty.
I get dressed, pack up, and strip my sheets. All the while, all my other five roommates are still sound asleep. I sneak out to eat some breakfast in the kitchen. A bowl of cereal and two cups of hot water while watching HGTV in the lounge. With some time not rushing to leave and sit peacefully, I enjoy something of a meditative peace. I nod off, still feeling very tired, and awake to Rachel nudging my shoulder so we can make eggs. For me, second breakfast. Now we hurry up again, eat, load the car, get coffee and we hit the road again.
We leave just in time...It’s supposed to snow tonight in Lake Tekapo! I’m extra thrilled I got my galaxy shots last night. Mom, I know how much you love lakes, and I wish I could bring you to all the three we’ve seen and stayed at. The fog has been covering a lot, but the sunsets are serene, and as I said, the nightscape in Takapo was majestic. Praying I can take you one day.
On the road, the girls play sad, crunchy hipster music, so I ride in the back and put my headphones in. I guess they weren’t as into the old school rock music of the 70s and 80s as I thought they were when I was the car DJ haha!
The scenery today is all rolling green hills, farmland and lush landscape as far as the eye can see. The trees are more naked now, and it’s cloudy with a few blue sky spots broken up in between. We weave through more territory that looks like Colorado, and then Southern California desert. Eventually, we stop for a hike at Castle Hill. It’s enormous, and how I would imagine a deconstructed mountain to look like. It reminds me of scenery from Lord Of The Rings, Princess Bride, and The Never Ending Story- Essentially, it’s a bunch of beautifully formed, enormous boulders on rolling hills, and sprawling farmland. Rachel can't help herself as we get out of the car and quotes Donkey from "Shrek". She points to the formations in the distance and says, "Look at that boulder. That is a nice boulder".
As we ascend, the hike is a steep one, but we make it to the top quickly. When I will tell people that I went to an open field to check out a bunch of rocks, it sounds lame, but this was really amazing. Nature is a beautiful and mysterious thing. It’s incredible how these rocks came to be. I have no idea how they came to be, but it's still incredible. I was a kid in a playground; filming, running, shooting, jumping...I even crawled through a minute open space, with a boulder just pinched over me- It looks like it could fall and crush you at any moment. The boulder also looked like a whale, which was fitting.
The most interesting thing to me about these boulders, was that they seemed to absorb sound. Obviously, we were outside, but I would shout to Rachel and it was like we were in an echoless chamber. We couldn’t even hear the cars passing by on the freeway nearby.
The moment we stepped into this world, was the moment where is felt like time froze. Surrounded by boulders, you’re blocked from people, sound, and civilization. If you stood still, you actually couldn’t hear anything. All you could hear were your own footsteps if you decided to move. It was completely peaceful and serene, but VERY bizarre.
We spend hours here, and try to adventure through the neighboring cliff, but discover it’s being excavated, and we aren’t allowed to enter.
We turn back, and I have to use the facilities. A compost toilet, I open the door to go inside. It’s the only bathroom I’ve seen that doesn’t have a “no squat” sign, and so naturally, someone did just that. There was shit on the back end of the toilet seat running all the way down, with two footprints on the seat. ...I'm good.
I get to drive again, and I cruise along hair pin turns all the way down the mountain. I think I scared Rachel riding shotgun, with Ashely clinging to the seats in the back. Nothing like living on the edge to get the blood flowing. At our hostel, we arrive back in a city / suburb, park and check-in. I finished my leftovers from the day, but the girls want dinner, so we head out. We're on the hunt for Speights, New Zealand authentic made beer.
At dinner, we wind up in a high-end restaurant. The girls look nicer than I do- I'm severely underdressed. They order, and share a funny story about Rachel and Ashley's trip to Japan, and their climb on Mt. Fuji. Apparently you can buy a hiking stick there, and it gets stamped along the way from the monks at each check point. Rachel found one in a bathroom and used that as her walking stick. Ashley, and our other friend Jeena realize something, and hold in the secret as they giggle all the way up the mountain. About 3/4 of the way up, Ashley and Jeena finally tell Rachel that it's a "poop stick"- Something they use to shove the shit down in the compost toilets on the mountain. Rachel used it all the way up the climb as a necessity after that this, but refused to take it home with her as a souvenir. All of us laughed until we cried at this. We were pretty "pooped" from hiking and driving ourselves, and start back to our hostel. We have all day in Christchurch tomorrow before catching a 9PM flight.
-eM
