Arglesfarg.
Last night before I went to bed I seem to have written the word "arglesfarg" and I’m not entirely sure why. But I think I’m going to leave it there.
We woke up this morning with a Wicked van behind us. The side we could see said "Oh So Emo" and had a picture of an emo kid on it. We didn’t venture around the other side for fear of what the people within would think. They’d probably be hot half naked girls that would think I was a creepy rapist or something and pull a knife or call the cops or something.
After digging a path to the driver’s seat, which largely consisted of Amanda moaning about how badly she had to pee, I drove us back to Hokitika, to the same bp gas station that we’d stopped at the night before and gotten that fruit juice smoothie from. Amanda called bathroom first but she was too slow getting out of the van and I took it (there was just one unisex). As I walked out she gave me the evil eye and said, in a low, dark voice, "Youuuu…." When I explained that it took her too long to exit the van, she claimed it was Alyssa’s fault for hiding her shoes, or something.
We got another jug of that fruit smoothie for breakfast, as well as these awesome hot pie things. Mine had minced beef, bacon, and cheese inside. It was kind of like a portable pot pie. Then, we drove. We drove for well over 200km too see some caves. On the way we stopped to see what are called the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, where my camera died since I’d not had the ability to charge it the night before (slept in the van, eh). The last 14km was on a gravel road that wound ridiculously tightly, I could drive no more than 30kph at best, 10 in some spots. It took half an hour to cover that last 14km. Finally, we arrived at the Oparara Basin, home of the Oparara Arch, which is a large rock tunnel thing, and the rock overhangs outside of it for a bit. It looks really cool but it was not worth the drive to see it. In the same area, we saw two caves: the Crazy Paving Cave and the Box Canyon Cave. They were boring. The end.
So we drove 120km back exactly the way we came and didn’t eat until after 6, in Westport. That’s something like 10 hours without food. We weren’t starving though; we’re getting used to eating only two meals a day on this trip. It saves money and time, I guess, and I guess we’re probably losing weight. The shorts that I spent the first few days in don’t fit me anymore, they fall off of my ass. When I take my shirt off, I am still fat though. Maybe by the end of the trip that will change a little? I doubt it.
Tonight I ate Chicken Cordon Bleu. Mmmmm.
We then drove on to Reefton, which is very close to the hot springs. The drive here was a little maddening; we called the hotel we wanted to stay at from Westport, they said to get there by 9. It was already going on 8 and it was another 80kmish. That would have been easily doable if only for two factors that I didn’t get: (a) straight or at least straightish roads, and (b, which wouldn’t be a big deal if a had been satisfied) no rain. But lo, it did rain on us but only while I was navigating 200° turns (yes, I mean turns that brought us to face a direction farther around than completely reversed. I know what I’m talking about) on roads that had, immediately to my left, a sheer drop off of a cliff with little to no guard rail to speak of. Occasionally there were trees. More often there was nothing.
We made it to the hotel with seven minutes to spare.
Wilson’s Hotel is old and rickety and has lots of character. I like it. It looks like the perfect setting for a ghost story. Even the lady that runs it, who was very kind and offered to bring us drinks in our room even at this hour, was dressed in a manner that you would expect of a ghost story. She looks out of place in this century. Victorian, even, perhaps. After we’d gotten everything into the room I went to explore the bathroom at the end of the hall (no bathrooms in the hotel rooms, just a sink, which is rather curious). After groping around in the dark for several minutes, I located the light switch to the bathroom next to a different entrance to the same bathroom. I can’t quite figure out where that other door leads, though; maybe to the roof?... Then I discovered that each stall has its own light switch. Each stall, though, is a completely enclosed room in its own right. There are actual walls between them, not restroom stall walls, and a full door. As I sat on the toilet, a moth fluttered around, trapped in the room with me, and irritated me a bit. Then it landed on my back. I began talking to it, saying things like, "I don’t mind you in here, sharing the most intimate of moments that I won’t even let my girlfriend in on, but do stay off of me! And my clothes!" because it kept crawling into my drawers as they sat on the floor. Moths eat clothing, don’t they? In the end, after flying around crazily and whacking himself so hard into the walls that I thought he’d squash himself like, well, a bug, he flew himself into a spiderweb. By the time I was finished in there, he’d gotten himself out, and when I opened the door, he flew away.
When I returned to the room and opened the door, I scared the shit out of Amanda and Alyssa. I saw Alyssa first, lying on her bed with horrified expression. Amanda was on the other side of the door to me and when I closed it, I saw her in fighting stance.
Good times. I shall now go to bed.
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