The weather was getting chilly, the sun was setting, and the fog was rolling back in as we headed on down (and up, and down, and up, and down…) the road to Wanaka. We were planning to take the Flightseeing/Boat tour the next day so we wanted to stay local for the night. We had two possible destinations planned. One was an abandoned hotel parking lot where we could camp the night, for free. The other was an established Holiday Park where we could camp the night for a fee (but also have electricity). Since the old hotel was first on our journey, we decided to check it out. Unfortunately, it was so old that the sign was gone and we couldn’t find the spot. It didn’t help that the road we were on was narrow, dark, curvy, high-speed, and on the side of a mountain, with a plethora of “falling rocks” signs. It was surely not the ideal place for slowly scooting along, or worse, turning big’ole Beethoven around (possibly twice). So, off to check out the Holiday Park we went.
This is an important aside…while it was only about 7:30pm at this point, New Zealand has this weird “everything seems MUCH later than it really is” thing. We’re not sure if it’s like this year-round, but we’ve found that most things kinda start shutting down around 5 or 6pm, and by 7 or 8pm it really feels like 11 or 12midnight – we’ve experienced this every night so far. We keep having those “wow, it must be so late” moments when you realize it’s not really “late” at all. Yes, there may be a “jet lag” factor, but since our schedules vary so much in the states, we didn’t think it would have a major effect on us. What’s also weird is that we’ve been waking up around 5:30am every morning (before sunrise, and in silent areas). Oh, and speaking of sunrise….sunrise here is around 7:45am and sunset is around 5:30pm – just about 10 hours of daylight. And, driving at night is both: more challenging, and less awe-inspiring. Oh, and most “explouring” activities need to be done during the day, as well.
Ok, back to last night…before we found the Holiday Park, we passed the airport, so we pulled in, to make sure we knew where to go in the morning (didn’t want to miss our flight!). We then spoke with the very friendly, Aggie, at the Holiday Park and headed in the park’s direction. We took an “afterhours” packet from the box, headed to our site, and set-up camp. And, yes, having an RV is awesome! Setting up camp consists of: turning on the LP/Propane, plugging in the electrical cord, and hanging the window shades. Within minutes of parking, the place is warm, private, and mkl is busy preparing dinner. Yay!
Speaking of dinner, mkl made Smoked Garlic Marinated Grilled Tofu Fillets dressed with Thick Peanut Sauce and laid over a bed of Moroccan Quinoa. Yum, delicious!!
Then, we went to bed. Full bellies, satisfying day, and anticipation for tomorrow…