big south trip: day 4

Day 4
Invercargill to Arrowtown

15008 kms from New York

Ann-Kristin's car, bought for $450 at a backpacker car market last year, has served us well in all but one respect: it lacks a working heater. This hasn't been an issue for her in Christchurch, where the temperature rarely dips below freezing even at night, but as we've headed into higher altitudes and more southerly latitudes, this has defect has become more noticeable. Our travels today took us down to the southernmost town in the South Island, Bluff, where the ferries depart to cross the Foveaux Strait to Stewart Island, NZ's third (and by far the smallest) island. We would have loved to include Stewart Island in our itinerary, but the cost of the ferry crossing wasn't nearly in the budget, and we really didn't have time for it either. What we did have time for was some delicious blue cod at a fish and chips shop, eaten with the standard massive portion of fries. One of the measurements used here is a pottle, the exact volume of which I have yet to quantify (I think it's really just synonymous with a portion) but it seems horrifyingly generous. We took the obligatory picture at the signpost to match the one that Bryan and I took in front of the signpost at Cape Reinga in the far north last August, when we thought there was a remote chance that we'd hike all the way down here. Though that didn't even come close to happening, it feels like I've completed something by coming here.

Driving into Queenstown at dusk. Lovely.

We spent a couple of hours bumming around Phil's favorite spots in Invercargill (plus a stop in the southernmost Starbucks in the world, which I would consider a must-see attraction) before heading up Hwy 6 towards Queenstown, a town that I hate in the summer for its throngs of partying tourists and, I've now discovered, despise in the winter when even more of the offensive aforementioned tourists flock there with ski and snowboard gear hanging over their shoulders. I acknowledge that I'm also a tourist, but that doesn't make me like overcrowded, overpriced commercial areas that are ruining the most beautifully set town in the country. It's really awful. We only passed through there because we wanted to take the inland route back home and it was on the way. Thankfully, in a moment of wisdom, we made the excellent decision to stay in the charming historic town of Arrowtown, 20 minutes from Queenstown itself. It's quiet, the hostel is small and warm, and we still benefit from a dazzling location in the midst of mountains that look like they've been topped with powdered sugar. We'll drive back into Queenstown tomorrow for the ritual Fergburger and then get the h-e-double hockey sticks out of there.

-Rachel