Saturday 6 January 2007

Wanaka and Queenstown

Backdated 2nd - 4th Jan

Made the return dash over the Crown Range road from Wanaka to Queenstown after going out for dinner and doing some general relaxing. Took the day off in Queenstown to soak up some sun, eat ice cream, get on the smokey treats and generally just chill out with the imminent cruise around Milford Sound coming up.

If Wanaka was the quiet energy - beautiful and serene, then
Queenstown is it's rock n roll big brother. Nearly twice the size but stretched out over the eastern edge by the bend in Lake Wakatipu. It's again amazingly hot here and there's relatively a lot of people. It's weird, I mean Queenstown has a population of 10k or so but stretched out over an area the size of Central London - everyone has their own space. It's just total poles apart from cramped London with everyone literally jostling each other for space. The lake and the mountain range called The Remarkables dominate the view. And it's so beautiful. During the journey you could see these great gouges from the rocky peaks, like a giant dragon had slashed a talon into the living rock and ripped it out with vicious force. Cleared spaces in the forest and higher on the rocky plain showed where landslides and rockfalls had tumbled down during an earthquake, they looked like teeth marks from some astral monster biting into the giant ridges streaching skywards. By the same token, there's this beauty in the ruggedness that draws you and dares you to reach the summit of those peaks and look down, like you've conquered this land.


Queenstown by Lake Wakatipu

Needed to loosen up the other night so I went in a sauna with ass, pubic topiary and piercing on display, bowed my head and shuffled towards an elevated seating position. When I glanced at the thermometer it read 40°C (we were just heating the beggar up). I remembered the last time it was 40°C indoors - the frigging central line on the tube this summer! Admittedly, I ALWAYS wanted to do a tube run nude. Oh! The freedom! Imagine the space you'd get around you in rush hour =) Awesome. Anyways, I digress. Yeah so I kind of closed my eyes and made myself think about all the guys back in the city, wished each one a happy new year in my mind and hoped they all were well and cheerful. Weird then to find a couple had posted comments on the blog! Cheers Duffman and Welsh Chris! The ESP connection obviously still works - and I hope that you guys, and the others, are still chirpy =)

And if it makes you feel any comfier, then realise that I was wishing you all well when i was NAKED. Yeah, how does THAT make you feel? Hehehe.