from 7 - 10 Oct 2006
No sooner were we off the night bus (with pins and needles despite the big recliner seats), and we were on another. Heading up to around 2000m ASL. What a beauty of a wee town. Kind of similar to Wanaka in fact. Green grass, surrounded by huge mountains, and a slow pace of life.
We were touted (very gently) at the bus stop for hostels, but instead got flagged down by a lovely older lady who rented out a bungalow at the back of her house.
That eve we met an interesting Englishman on the streets and enjoyed a most umsing dinner with him. At 73, he was riding a motorbike from Mexico to the Bottom of SA which was pretty impresive I thought. Our dinner was Parilla (of course) with a magiciam do9ing tricks and comparing some songs too. we were the only 3 foreigners there and just blended in. Nice
We visted a very inspiring organic farm .very small with mostly crops, a few donkeys and Lamas. The couple who ran it bought the land 7 years ago for all of $10,000 Ozzy. He was local, she was a Kiwi. I took a few photos and found it all very educational.
Being on the top of a hill I noticed that maybe the money wasnt flowing quite so fast out here. Every vehical going down the hill did so in neutral to save petrol. It reminded me of my teenage years actualy... (we called it ¨Maori overdrive¨..)
Another day was spent horse riding. A full day for $40NZ each including a massive lunch felt very cheap compared to NZ tourist prices (ie $60 for 2 hours, and certainly no food.) We climbed up to 3000m, and it was still bloody hot. Lunch was of course a BBQ (what else). We only got the horses past walk speed once or twice, but the scenery was great.
My stiff legs at the end of the day were not..
But dinner that night was halerious. Sara was getting well and truely sick of meat, meat and meat. Our restaurant of choice for the night served pasta as well as BBQ, so she ordered a bolognase. We joked that it would no doubt be covered in thick meat sauce. But no... when it came out, it had an entire steak sitting on it! A real mastercard moment!
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