Weather Shotover - 02 January 2008

This was a morning I just did not want to wake up to my alarms. All the fun we have been having I think is catching up to me. Fear not however, I woke up and got Hayley moving too. With our time schedule we mapped out last night we managed to move it along like clockwork. After having our hot breakfast upstairs prepared by our hosts, Neil and his wife, here at the Coronet View Bed & Breakfast we climbed into the car and rolled our way to the parking garage down the road a few blocks.
Once parked we had a short five minute walk to our check-in spot across the street from The Station here in Queenstown. We checked in for our White Water Rafting adventure, boarded a bus for a ten minute ride up to the base camp of Queenstown Rafting. It was here we retrieved our wetsuits, booties, overcoat, helmet and life jackets. Once changed it was back on the bus for a ride I think was close to an hour. It was not the distance that made the ride so long, it was the slow speed of the fully-loaded bus climbing a mountain side and descending down the other side. In addition, the one lane gravel road, known as Skipper’s Canyon Road, did not lend itself to a high rate of speed, even if you were in a faster moving vehicle. The road way was an old mining road built back in the 1850’s during the gold mining days of the Shotover River. There were no guard rails along the route and it made for an adrenalin rush of fear as the bus inched its way to the edges to make the nearly 180 degree turns. Andy, one of the guides, throughout the bus ride gave us a history lesson of Skipper’s Canyon Road and the surrounding area, along with some great and wonderful jokes Hayley and I both thought our dads would love.
Nestled safely at the end of Skipper’s Canyon Road we received our safety briefing and broke up into our rafting groups. Hayley and I joined forces with Chris, Catherine, Glenn, Anna and our guide, Gabi. Gabi was truly awesome. She gave us a history lesson of gold mining along the river as we drifted. She engaged us all in great conversation and remembered everyone’s names. Best of all, she kept us safe, while commanding us when necessary so as we did not flip the raft and no one fell out. We went over rapids known as the Miners’ Revenge, Squeeze, Toilet, Jaws, Pinball, Oh Shit, and Cascade. While passing over Squeeze we managed to take on a bit of water, nearly filling the raft and sinking us, yet we stayed afloat. Then, over Oh Shit we got caught in the surf at the bottom and it took Gabi’s experience to navigate our way out and prevent us from flipping the raft sending us all into the cold water. There were seven rafts that day in our group; five got caught in the surf at Oh Shit. At the conclusion of the rafting we stripped ourselves of the borrowed gear and took a brief shower off of the river muck. Then, before we hopped back on the bus into town we helped ourselves to a cup of soup and some coffee.
Back in Queenstown Hayley and I needed to go back to the car in the garage and get my backpack with our gear for our flight to Milford Sound. Still in our swimwear from rafting, and wanting to get into dry clothes, we each took turns changing in the car. In dry, clean clothes we made our way to The Station where we were to check in for the Milford Sound Fly and Cruise trip. At the check in counter the clerk called ahead to confirm the adventure was still on, but due to the poor weather conditions we would be unable to make the trip. Although the weather in Queenstown was beautiful, Milford Sound was being inundated with rain. This was no surprise to us. When we booked yesterday we were told it was a possibility it might night happen.
With a wide open afternoon and a town to explore we had no worries on how to fill the time. First, we found a café we thought would delight our taste buds, only to be disappointed. Food fact, the milkshakes here seem to be more like flavored milk. The one highlight of the café was Hayley got to hear the theme song to House playing overhead. The funny thing is that I recognized it before she, she was so into her disappointing soup.
Following lunch it was my turn to be happy. We skipped right along to Starbucks for dessert, me with my triple venti three pump peppermint mocha non-fat with whip and Hayley with her tall hot chocolate in a grande cup filled the rest of the way with whipped cream. With our slice of Americana in hand we ventured around town browsing through many shops. One shop we visited was www.LordoftheRingsnz.com, where they had numerous LOTR things on sale, in addition to numerous artifacts and artwork of and from the movies on display on loan from private collectors. It was like Hayley had gone to Middle Earth Heaven. We got to see an armored headwear collection for the different armies, Aragorn’s sword and Arwen’s dress, among many other things. Another shop we visited had an art gallery located on the second floor. Admiring the art work we found three artists that tickled our fancy, Joshua Robins, Susan Waderman and a third I now forget. Unfortunately I would have to win Powerball to afford some of the pieces. There was one piece in the gallery, not by one of our three favorites, that was selling for $37000. Following a few more stops in some additional stores and the melting of my credit card, we made our way back to the car with bags in hand so we could return to the Bed and Breakfast.
Relaxing back at the Coronet View we took a few pictures of some beautiful lenticular clouds hovering over the mountain peaks in the Queenstown area. Some of the clouds were taking on a stereotypical UFO shape, very cool to see. Fleeing these alien spaceships we made our way back into town to dine at Fatz Cat Italian Ristorante. Here we unearthed our hidden cravings. With all the food troubles we had been having, it was great to forget them, if only for a moment, while we waltzed our way through our plates of spaghetti.
As the evening has come to a close, Hayley has been doing laundry and I have been trying to keep up with the journals.
Cheers to all,
Bobby & Hayley