Jay's visit, thrill-seekin, and new beginnings

Well, folks, I've just had my first visitor and I have to say that it's definitely my best time in New Zealand as of late.

One of my best friends from Centre, Jay Russell, decided to make a "pit-stop" down under in Kiwi-land on his way back to the states.  He'd been in China, teaching English, since July and decided that the land of the long white cloud wouldn't make such a bad place to take a breather as he re-inserted himself to a life with English-speakers.  To be honest, I felt a little bad about the first week of his visit.  We had planned all these crazy things, the least of which would include a 5-day glacier hike on the Franz Josef or Fox glacier.  However, an unforeseen paper deadline kept me in the library for the better part of 4 days while Jay was here.  I am a lame friend, let's get past that though.  Jay really got along well with my flatmates and was understanding about my academic trials, which is why he is my best friend.  We did, however, get to hang out in a more social scene at some of the clubs around Dunedin and I think he had a pretty decent time.

Mr. Russell and myself

Once I had made some headway with my assignments, Jay and I sat down to plan out exactly what our next adventure would be...this entailed getting out of Dunedin for a bit to do a little bit of exploring.  We decided that the glacier hike may not be the best thing to try and plan last minute, so we opted for a two day bike ride, ending with some thrill-seeking in Queenstown.  The bike trail we followed, the Otago Central Rail Trail, is a popular destination for people looking to get out of the cities and we certainly met this criterion.  The whole ride is about 160 km (100 miles) and would usually take about four days at a non-grueling pace.  Since Jay had to leave for the States in four days, we decided that a two day ride would be enough...didn't want to overdo it, ya know.  Channeling our best memories of Nate Crimmins, our friend who biked across the United States in one summer, we rented some bikes, mounted our steeds, and set out for the great expanse that is Central Otago.  Our journey started in Ranfurly and would end in Clyde, from which we would catch a bus to Queenstown.  We did about 50 km on our first day, stopping in off in Lauder to bunker down at a friend's B&B (Muddy Creek Cutting).  After a serious case of "biker butt", we were ready to get some rest.  This place was amazing.  The whole operation is impeccably managed by two guys, Kevin and Ross, and we had a great time.  Let's not forget the gourmet meal of roasted duck stew and mashed potatoes with a roasted and raw vegetable salad.  Yea, that happened...did I mention that the duck we ate was raised on the farm we were at...quack.  For dessert, we had locally grown apricots and fresh-made cream.  Jealously is expected, don't worry.

Hard.

After a restful night's sleep, we set out from Lauder to finish the rest of our trail.  The first day of riding was pretty winding, causing plenty of choice words to be leveled against the nor'easter threatening some serious man-pride.  In contrast, the second day was pretty much all downhill and without our cheeky foe (read: wind).  We stopped off in Alexandra for a bit, the town where my host dad Barry grew up, and did some pretty cool stuff!  We stopped off for a little education at the local visitor center, learning a lot about Central Otago's gold-mining past.  We also hiked up to a clock set up in the hills of Alex.  Check on facebook for some pictures of this adventure.  We set out from Alex around 5:30pm and got to Clyde around 6:00pm, after following an amazing trail along the Clutha River.  This last leg of the trail was definitely the best part and it was filled with plenty of hills and dips, enough to quench Jay's cycle-thrillseeking and more than adequate for my own more lesiurely, sight-seeing pace.  We caught out bus and headed to Queenstown!

A view from the trail: Invasion of the Clouds!

After our first night in Queenstown, restless as it was, we spent our only full day seeking some more adventure.  We accomplished various feats of man and ended up quite pleased with ourselves.  Queenstown was its typical, welcoming self and we met up with some people we had met earlier on in the day...our Danish friends.  We had a great night, filled with really fattening desserts, and headed home the next day...or so we thought...We boarded our bus bound for Dunedin around 9am on Sunday, April 3rd.  Having spent most of our energy on biking and other adventures, we immediately passed out.  We woke up about 2 hours later to our bus driver asking if we had accommodation for the evening.  Thinking nothing of it, I responded "Of course, we live in Dunedin!". The bus driver's response?  "Dunedin...we are in Wanaka!  This bus isn't going to Dunedin!".  Oops.  Turns out we were supposed to have deboarded our bus in Cromwell to get on the bus that would head for Dunedin.  Ha, we're idiots.  A little depressed, we stepped off the bus and headed straight for the Wanaka visitor center to see if we could find another bus.  Success!  Another bus would leave from Wanaka in 5 hours and we got the last two seats.  Must have been fate because Wanaka was gorgeous and definitely inspired me to make it back during my future journeys in NZ.  Check Wanaka out on Google, not a bad place to end up, eh?

440ft? That's a long way down...

We made it back to Dunedin and watched the UK-UCONN game that we had one of my flatmates record.  The game ended poorly for two UK fans, but the night was not without its high points.  The friend I mentioned earlier, Nate, had also put me in contact with one of his friends who also happened to be studying at Otago, Ellen.  Ellen has quickly become a good friend and she only climbed higher in my books this night.  She was coming over to say good-bye to Jay and watch the game with us (she went to Butler)...or was she?  When I went to let her in the apartment, she was standing there with two of her flatmates and a birthday cake, brightly lit with candles and looking remarkably chocolatey.  The cake was amazing, the company was better, and the night was a net positive.  I love New Zealand.

Lovin' New Zealand, folks

To bring this edition to a close, I dropped Jay off at the airport the next morning and this also happened to be my first experience driving in New Zealand.  My flatmate courageously let me borrow his car and I made it to the airport and back with no damage to either myself or the car.  Yea, appreciate my skills of driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car :)  It was sad to see Jay go, but I was just grateful that he had come in the first place.  To those of you who are thinking about coming...please do!  I really enjoy showing this place off and sharing it with my friends and family.

Well, that's about it for this issue.  Check my facebook for pictures of Jay's Visit!