West Coast of New Zealand (and Wanaka for Good Measure)

Cruised down the West Coast, notorious for "maritime" weather and a profound lack of record stores. Hit up Greymouth, which has a bad rap amongst travelers but has a gritty (make that salty) charm. It may smell like a paper mill, but at least there is Monteith's brewery to keep you occupied. I did make the critical mistake of spending a night in Westport, which has a bad rap amongst travelers that is well-deserved. It may smell like a paper mill, but at least the graveyards have sheep tending to the shrubs.

Passed a quiet three days in the jade capital of the country, Hokitika. Lovely sea-side town chock full of blue haired ladies buying knickknacks while their husbands scope out excuses to sit in the pub (the very important rugby/soccer/cricket match is a good one). Read about 7 or 8 National Geographics in the hostel and then hit the road.

Ended up in the hamlet of Franz Josef, where people from around the world come to spend a day crawling around a 50 million ton chunk of ice, usually in the rain. For some reason 7 of us were there applying for a job that would entail us doing said activity every day. A tight knit community with a church, grocery store, and plenty of bars with smokin' deals at happy hour.

Interviews over, we all migrated to Wanaka, which is often described as Queenstown 15 or 20 years ago. Like Queenstown it is situated around a fabulously blue lake with snow-capped peaks in the Mt Aspiring range in the background. A postcard town with overnight express prices. There is a excellent cinema in town (complete with warm cookies at intermission and couches for sprawling), but the best scenes are outside the door. A break in the weather inspired a traverse of the mountains right outside of town with an Irish tour bus driver who happens to be an accomplished road cyclist and has the lung capacity to prove it. A tiring and majestic 6 hour push concluded with a lift back to town courtesy of a gent from Timaru, who had nothing but scorn for Wanaka, but that wasn't stopping him from spending a holiday there.

Because it's mandatory, we have no choice but to continue on to Queenstown to see what Wanaka will look 15 or 20 years from now. All reports say "way too touristy", but to travel to New Zealand and complain of tourism is like going to Mississippi and complaining of the humidity.