Too close for Comfort

The retired travelers have moved a little further to Queenstown, in the dramatic Southern Alps.  I wasn’t expecting this but it is a real adventure town; home of the original bungy jump where that is still an option but so are many other adrenaline inducing activities like skydiving, both solo and tandem and from a variety of heights and paragliding, which Jo and Brenda are going to do tomorrow, weather permitting.  Lloyd and I are immensely happy to stay firmly on the ground.  I imagine it is a phenomenal experience but I just can’t imagine myself being strapped to a stranger and running off a cliff.  Ever.  Let alone paying for it.  Even if I was being chased, running for my life I think I would find another option. 

 I gave my three companions their own sort of rush today with my driving.  Apparently I keep hugging the left side of the pavement in a manner that is too close to the edge or parked cars for the comfort of my fellow travelers.  It doesn’t help that I have difficulty with spatial dimensions at the best of times but navigating on the ‘wrong’ side of the road poses an extra set of challenges for me.  But I am determined to keep working at it (as long as my driving privileges aren’t revoked by the others!) in part because well, I want to master it and I want to be able to contribute to my share of the driving.  I figured out today that if I look in my side mirror while driving to see how close my rear tires are to the middle line that will help me judge where I am sitting in my lane.  That is a learning strategy that works well on the highway but not so well once you are in a town.  Gheesh.  They have even gone so far as to say maybe I should fold in the passenger side mirror, so I am less likely to clip another vehicle.  Like the big tour bus that I apparently cleared by an inch today.  Which, if that was my intention, would be quite a good feat!  Alas in my mind I was well away from it.  :}

Never mind, there are a gazillion shops here and I am sure we will peek in a good percentage of them when not out doing something active.  Not that we really have much room in our cases to be adding things but I guess if worse comes to worse we can layer up for our flights home. 

Today’s food…… well the veggie bowl at lunch was pretty delicious (the carrot and honey hummus is a new discovery we have made) but the accompanying butter soaked garlic bread was even better.  Far less healthy but so delicious.  Our own little warm loaf with a thick crust begging to be eaten.

On our final walk of the day we stopped in to a local graveyard.  I love old graveyards.  A little glimpse into a time long gone by,  The sadness of reading that a little boy died at 5 from injuries sustained falling off his pony and the 21 year old who died in a snow slide (avalanche?) within sight of his home.  These old tombstones tell heartbreaking early loss tales.  I also noted that many long deceased residents came from County Tyrone in Ireland where my ancestors came from to Canada.  I can’t help but wonder if they would have known each other’s families back in ‘The Old Country’.  And who made the better choice; was NZ with its fairer weather and lack of wildlife predators like bears and wolves and coyotes easier to settle in or did the heat and sometimes drought make here worse than there?   

Bedtime.  Thanks for being on this Down Under journey with me. 

Xo

PS: Some of you have asked; we are well away from the devastating cyclone impact on the North Island and aren’t heading that way for several weeks yet.  What we saw on the news tonight was heartbreaking; so much flooding, landslides, and roads blocked by earth and fallen trees.  A state of emergency has been declared for only the 3^rd time in NZ history.  We were lucky in our planning to be where we are at this time.

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