Farewells, Flights And Family Reunions
We said most of our farewells last night and thanked everyone for such a fun footy tour. After our last Brown Pub supper, I retired early, allowing plenty of time to wrangle far-flung clothes into inadequately-sized vessels ready for travel bright and early in the morning.
Surprisingly, all Joneses were present and accounted for around the breakfast table, some (namely Toby, who still didn’t have a full bill of health) there in body only. Our bus promptly arrived at 8:30am and we loaded our bags in the icy, clear Methven morning, the vibrant pink and orange sunrise our beautiful backdrop. We were unexpectedly joined on the coach by Matt and Ryan-o, the team’s coaching dynamic duo, who were supposed to have boarded their coach 3 hours earlier but had evidently snoozed through their alarm! With some help from their friends they’d been able to rebook on a later flight, which just happened to be ours. They may have been a bit out of pocket but at least they got a sleep-in and we got to spend more time with them!
I had a good long chat with our coach driver on the way back to Christchurch and he was imparting some local knowledge to me. He was a retired dairy farmer and was lamenting the fact that many young New Zealanders aren’t prepared to live off the land – his children included – opting instead to move to Auckland and find work in the Big Smoke. Lots of family farms are getting sold to hard-working South Americans or Asians who aren’t afraid of rolling up their sleeves and putting in the hours. He told me he and his wife had made a good living out of dairy cows. They started off buying a few cows at a time and they continued adding to their number until they could sell half and buy a property (better than magic beans!) Although it gave him a laugh, he did think I was a complete idiot when, having visions of him seated on a stool methodically pulling on teats to fill his metal bucket for years on end, I enquired about how sore his hands must get. I obviously need to read up a bit more on dairy farming.
Speeding past patchwork quilts of crops and seeds, lots of cows and the odd paddock of sheep, the row of proud snow-capped mountains stood tall off in the distance as we crossed the freezing river towards Christchurch. With a population of around only 5 million, New Zealand sure does have loads of land to spare and a rich rural culture.
The Air New Zealand propeller plane we caught to Queenstown provided us, as promised, with some of the best mountain views we’d ever seen! It really was incredible to fly so close to these gargantuan geological structures, covered with thick snow; so close you felt like you could almost reach out and touch them! We literally flew right through the middle of the mountain range and down over picturesque Queenstown, its crystal blue, tree-lined lake twinkling up at us from below. Matt and Ryan-o had been enviously eyeing Sam as he was fortuitously seated next to a could-be super model. They were seated a few rows in front and were claiming they would’ve made more of a move had they been so lucky and that if only they’d been sitting closer they could at least have been Sam’s wingmen. It turns out Sam did fine on his own, reporting “Amelia” was attending Uni in Queenstown and having a lovely long chat. He told the boys they would’ve exchanged numbers had she not already been taken!
After touching down, we picked up our rental car (a process that included a snow chain demo and took way longer than we were expecting) and then dropped Matt and Ryan-o to their backpacker accommodation, which while not palatial was all about location, location, location – right slap-bang in the centre of town and, as the kids jealously noted, right next-door to a chocolate shop. We did a quick driving tour of Queenstown and then headed straight back to the airport to meet Molly’s plane! When she walked through the gate into the airport we were so happy to see her and mobbed her with hugs and kisses!
Ross and Sam having already been here, were playing tour guide and showing us all the sights. Queenstown is a truly beautiful place with postcard worthy pictures feasting your eyes at every turn. Our accommodation is right across the road from Lake Wakatipu and looks directly at the Remarkables Mountain Range, which rises steeply and dramatically right out of the lake. From our windows, we look at these imposing snowy peaks through the silhouetted deciduous trees lining the waterfront. It is incredible!
Unless you count the cup of tea and biscuit we had on the plane, none of us had eaten anything since our Methven brekky and it was approaching 4pm. We then had the age old dilemma of deciding whether we have a big lunch and very light dinner or a light lunch and big dinner or do we combine the 2 and have “linner”? (First world problem I know). I was in favour of the linner option but the idea of discounting any opportunity where food could be consumed was abhorrent to the boys. We ended up going to Devil Burger (which, according to Sam and Ross, is the just slightly poorer cousin of the infamous “Fergburger”, still on our Queenstown bucket list). The burgers were totally scrumptious and will be hard to top.
It was then back to our hotel (serviced apartment really) where we cozied up on the couch to watch the epic battle that divides our family; the battle between the mighty Sea Eagle and the powerful Shark. Unfortunately for Ross and Tobes, the Eagles were triumphant but neither team played brilliantly. In Toby’s words “it was just terrible”.
The weather man is predicting a meagre 1 degree Celsius and snow tomorrow so we’re in for a chilly one!
