The old driver picked us, the five Chinese guys and me, up at 14:30 from the Rarakau carpark. Within 30min we were back at the office in Tuatapere, he drives the road at least twice each day in both directions. Now I had about 1h to wait for my next lift to Mossburn. I needed to rearrange my backpack and bag from hiking mode into travel mode. Hence, I needed to get all my belongings first out and then packed again. The women in the office were not very friendly while I was doing this. They didn’t say anything, but based on their body language they didn’t like that I made a small “chaos” for a few minutes until both my bags were sorted out again.
I was the only guest going the 90km to Mossburn, the Chinese families went back to Invercargill to fly back to Auckland. During the drive I was talking to the young driver. He was really nice. He told me that he was born in South Africa, and then his family used to live in Nigeria and Uganda before his father looked for a business to buy in New Zealand. First he owned a car rental business in Queenstown, before he took over the Hump Ridge Track corporation. His father seemed to be an entrepreneur, and it doesn’t seem to matter for him which business he’s running. No wonder, that it’s now profitable at those prices ;). He said the biggest advantage of NZ compared to South Africa is its safety.
In Mossburn I needed to wait for a tourist bus to pick me up. The driver was really friendly, she came from a day tour with tourists from Milford Sound and Te Anau. They looked a bit awkward when they saw me in my hiking gear, while wearing shorts and a lot of sunscreen to get the perfect tan. We followed first the former Kingston Branch line to Lake Wakatipu, but who might’ve guessed that the line between Invercargill and Fairlight is already closed since 1982…surprise, surprise NZ. Only the last few kilometres are currently operated by the Kingston Flyer’s vintage railway.
The drive along Lake Wakatipu is really beautiful. You’ve the snow covered mountains in the backdrop, and it’s the first time for me to get really close to them. While Queenstown has really a marvellous spot at the lake, it’s a bloody tourist destination full of (wannabe) hedonists. It already starts by entering the town. You drive those private communities like Jacks Point and Hanleys Farm. It’s only built for the purpose that those Insta hedonists stay among themselves, and don’t even want to mingle anymore with the general public. As there’s no facilities in the private communities, the soccer mums still need to drive their SUV into town to get a piece of butter. Further down the road are then the rest of the holiday apartments, big (single glazed) windows – so everyone can look into their living room. It felt a bit like Ischgl or Sölden, but with less flair and only optimised to get more money out of the tourists. Not that I ever stayed in Ischgl overnight, I’m only there to approach the Heidelberger Hut. But even the even the 2 close by ski resorts in Queenstown (for the other 2 you’ve to drive at least 1h towards Wanaka) appear quite small compared to European standard, but therefore they’re at least more expensive and the service is worse (there’s not even drivers for the ski buses available to get all tourists to the lift). Queenstown is the hotspot for adventure tourism like Downhill MTB (yes, who would dare to go uphill), Jetskiing, Skydiving, SUP, Bungee Jumping, you name it, all the cool stuff. And in downtown you only see those wannabes. Not a place where I want to stay for long. I’m only here to connect my transport.
Based on the recent inspiration I got, I changed my travel plans for the coming days. Hence, in the evening I altered my bookings and reservations for the bus and the hostels for the next days. I was going to Wanaka for several days, but now decided with changing hostel availability to do that later, and go earlier to Arthur’s Pass. The bed in the hostel was the only I could get for Boxing Day. I knew the brand, and it was known to be a party hostel, but I haven’t experienced anything like this. The new kids on the block were running in the hallway all night long, drinking and partying on the balconies. And it wasn’t even our room, all people in my 8-bed dorm room (tried to) sleep by 23:00 o’clock the latest. So all the door smashing were in other rooms next to us. It was an expensive experience for 42.70$/night for sure. But maybe I’m getting too old and prudish for the hostel lifestyle, maybe I did the same 20 years ago 😜.
B' on Tour 
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