The bus from Christchurch to Queenstown is long and dull, aka I sleep
through nearly the whole thing. The few times I awake the scenery's
stunning, straight-up "Lord of the Rings" quality. During one spurt
of awakening I meet Sean, another American traveling without a fully
developed itinerary. We make plans to share a car rental for a chunk
of the trip, hopefully reducing how long I'll sleep through monotonous
bus rides.
A surprisingly long and wet hostel hunt when I reach Queenstown. By
the time I finally find a vacant room, I'm soaked, freezing, and not
caring that, at $25 NZD (~$18 USD) / night, it's nearly twice as much
as my dump in Sydney was. Basically a house, I've got the big bed in
a double room. With any luck, the other occupant won't show up.
Some slowness for the next few hours. I meet up with Sean and he
backs out of the rental: a boring bus works better for him. In other
excitement, I hunt down a large, unhealthy meal of a huge burger and
massive bag of fries.
Finishing Ernest Hemingway's "Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises)," I'm loving
his lifestyle. Misogynistic alcoholic or not, his autobiographical
main character's certainly enjoying life. Knowing at least some
semi-fictional "adults" can just keep regularly traveling makes me
feel better about my addiction.
Between Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson, 2 of my favorite authors
killed themselves. It still really sucks, but I think I at least have
an idea why they might have done it. Drinking, traveling, and
womanizing immensely, it seems like they kind of burnt out on the
intensity of their lives. Maybe getting old and having to slow down
was just a bit too much for them to handle. If nothing else, I'll
consider them reminders to live life intensely: even if you're rich
and famous, things apparently don't always grow better with age.
Rest of the night's barhopping. Things are pricey in this little ski
/ adventure town, but there are plenty of other travelers to talk to.
Weird but tasty are the sweet, chocolaty beer at Dux de Lux and World
Bar's teapots, literal teapots full of mixed drinks. Some good
conversations and a cold stumble later, I've got my own room that
isn't a car or tent for the first time in quite awhile.