When I returned from the run (Seth was still out), I went to grab some clean clothes off the line. As soon as I stepped outside, Agra grabbed my shirt sleeve and firmly told me to leave $10 for the laundry. She asserted that I had “done at least five loads worth, used up all the detergent, did the washing way too late at night, and tied up the washing lines.” Stunned, I didn’t know what to say and let her walk bitterly away from me. Well, we had only done two medium-sized loads of laundry, used the recommended amount of detergent, did the washing as soon as we returned from viewing the penguins--which she insisted we do--and used the lines she told us to hang our clothes on. I was a bit confused over the whole thing, but she was so stern she left me in shock.
When Seth returned from his run I could hear Agra outside arguing with him about the laundry. Seth is much better at putting up a fight than I am, and I knew he would not let her get away with pulling a fast one on us. After a while he came in to the room and said she had told him the same thing about the laundry, and he refused to pay. I bumped into her a few more times in the morning, and she didn’t bring it up with me again. It was hard to read Agra: she seemed really generous and protective, yet also burnt out and tired of backpackers. Perhaps she had gotten taken advantage of the past few weeks from the hordes of people passing through her home. She had mentioned that she had been fully booked the past two weeks, but for some reason it was very quiet when the two of us were there. Instead of fleeing her house on a sour note, it would have been good to speak with her, but at that point we just wanted out. Besides, it was 10:38am, and she warned us the night before not to be in her way after 10:30.
We spent the rest of the morning exploring Oamaru. For a town its size it sure had some pretty impressive features, like that opera house! We did some last-minute grocery shopping, knowing that good food from that point on would be harder to come by. One place, Bin Inn (which we also found in Nelson but it was closed), was really great—it was full of reasonably priced organics, bulk grains and mixes, and other splurge items.
We left Oamaru, heading northwest through the Waitaki Valley, passing farmland and beautiful grassy hills. Our first stop was at the Elephant Rocks, giant limestone rocks formed 25 million years ago and eventually exposed by the sea and wind. The rocks are so named because they look like huge, lumbering creatures grazing in the fields. This site was used as a setting in the movie Narnia, which I have yet to watch.
We carried on westward through Omarama, then north, past the fabricated, overly modern Twizel, and finally to our grand destination, Lake Tekapo. The drive was extremely flat, brown, treeless and dry, but the entire time this landscape was contrasted by the surrounding mountains, equally barren. The more distant Southern Alps, however, were also visible, but snow-capped. We passed by several lakes and rivers, damned up for hydroelectric plants. What an eye-sore! The lakes, however, were extremely opaque and blue (like a swimming pool with too many chemicals in it), but this milkiness is caused naturally by sediments called “rock flour”, remnants from when the glaciers carved the lakes.
The town at Lake Tekapo (pop 315) is small, yet booming. It is pretty flat with not many trees (which I didn’t notice before when looking at pictures of Lake Tekapo), surrounded by brown, chiseled mountains, and has a great, open, cloudless sky. We went to Tailor-Made-Backpackers and checked in with Maryrose and one of the owners, Wilma. We will be working here the next ten days.
Wilma gave us a brief tour and let us have the afternoon off, which we spent cooking dinner, walking into “town” and exploring the area, and writing. (Seth played his guitar, which he had regretfully neglected the preceding week or so.) Tailor-Made-Backpackers is very comfortable, clean, and new-looking (even though it is somehow considered a heritage site because it was built for people who worked at the hydro-electric plants some years ago). It consists of several little buildings (VIP, Singlemens, and the Kitchen Building) so the rooms are set apart a little. It does lack a bit of character, but the way it is set up reminds me of my old house in Raleigh. Luckily, Wilma gave Seth and me a nice big double room to ourselves. There is also a garden with veggies and a raspberry plant, some kiddie play areas, and a little community centre with tennis courts right next door. This suburban neighbourhood makes me very nostalgic for home!
This morning (Tuesday 19th Feb) Seth got up early for his run and I slept in a bit. At 10am we went to reception to begin working. Wilma hired a few external girls for the morning to clean the kitchen and bathrooms, and she had Seth and me help her make a few beds and vacuum. Her husband, Michael, is out of town for a few days, so she has been working like mad keeping things in order (the hostel is fully booked three days in advance). Wilma is very nice and genuinely friendly, which is a huge relief. A kind owner or manager can make all the difference in a person’s experience of a new area, especially if working for them. We did light work until noon, but stopped 15min shy for tea and biscuits. If this is all we have to do every day in order to stay in a large double room in a peaceful town (with nice people), I will be very pleased!
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