After a slow start, on 15th March I decided I would head for Wanaka – another recommended village 70 km north of Queenstown. The route I wanted to take was directly over the hills, rather than round through the valleys (where the infrequent bus went) so I decided to walk 6 km to where the direct route turned off the main road, and try to hitch a ride from there. I saw several other backpackers who seemed to have the same idea as me.

After a long wait, a VW Beetle stopped. The driver was an Englishman who is the owner of a tourist attraction in Wanaka, called the Puzzle Centre. The trip over to Wanaka was very scenic, and a pleasant hour later I was dropped in the centre of the village. I chatted to some cyclists who arrived at the same time, and they said they were heading to the interestingly named Wanaka Bakpaka hostel, so I went there too and checked in.

After lunch I investigated my options for heading north to the ferry port of Picton in a couple of days. The preferred option would have been the special bus that follows the west coast – I knew this was popular with other travellers and would require advanced booking. As I feared, it was too late, and it was full for the next few days. I therefore made a reservation via Christchurch, which still follows the coast (the eastern one) for some of the way.

After booking another day of paragliding, I decided to investigate the Puzzle Centre, which was a little way out of town. It had a 3D maze which entertained me for the best part of an hour. I saw the owner again and said “hello” but he seemed to have completely forgotten that he had given me a ride in the morning – he had no idea who I was!

I then went for a walk up a nearby hill. I sat for a while listening to the BBC World Service – I had been a bit out of touch with world events recently, what with all the adventure activity. Also, short wave reception in New Zealand hasn’t been quite as good as it was in South America.

Being along on a hilltop listening to faraway voices, suddenly made me nostalgic for the 4 months in Latin America, and for speaking Spanish. I spun the dial (well, pressed the keys…) on my radio to see if I could pick up any distant Spanish speaking stations. I did find one – it sounded more like Central American than Argentinean or Chilean Spanish – and it triggered a kaleidoscope of memories…

I found some sheep that appeared to be admiring the view. I’d known that I’d find some sheep somewhere in this country, since it is one of the things that New Zealand is famous for!

When I got back to the “Bakpaka hostel”, I got chatting to a friendly German girl called Angelika, who had just got back from doing the paragliding that I have booked for tomorrow. She made it sound a lot better than what I did at Queenstown, involving much longer flights, and radio headsets to communicate. I’m looking forward to it…