Sunday, November 25, 2007

Day 59 Wanaka Rest Day

Time: 0:00
Distance: 16 k (coffee and dinner run)
Avg Speed: Negligible
Terrain: Downhill

We celebrated Thanksgiving along with the rest of the U.S. today. We started off the morning by calling the families back in the states. We spoke to almost everyone and it was good to hear some voices. The phone calls from NZ to the States have been interesting to say the least. We bought a calling card here based on good rates and the ability to charge it up and use it anywhere in the world. It is called a Yabba card and always trips me out when the computer voice on the other end is a computerized male with a kiwi accent-‘Welcome to Yabba’. The rate we get is based on using a regular phone to make the calls from. We are always around pay phones and in the tiny print they deem it necessary to tack on another $0.30/minute if you are calling on one. It is always the fine print that gets you.
We spoke to half the family and then got ready to go into town. When you are staying at a campervan park you have to time you ablutions carefully. Everyone does the same thing at the same time and if you can wait or be opposite you generally never have to wait in line. We decided to shower after check out today since we figured all the other campers would be gone doing their thing. We had the bathrooms to our selves, but we just had to wait for the cleaning people to finish up. Minor compared to waiting in line for a shower. We headed over for a coffee and muffin to help squelch the hunger before we went food shopping. We always buy the craziest stuff when we are hungry, so eating before is always good (ex. Eggs, sausages, chapattis, and salad all at once for lunch???). We did our shopping and headed back to camp for another round of calls and another snack.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was at 5:00 so we killed a little time reading in the tent. The tent area was all ours except for the guy doing laps on the riding lawnmower around our tent. There is now a little island of uncut grass beneath it. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner of pad thai and red curry salmon. MMM, just like mom used to make (just kidding, my mom never cooked pad thai on Thanksgiving, or any other time I am aware of). We spent the post dinner hour looking at the mountains over Lake Wanaka. It was actually the best Thanksgiving I could have. I was with family in my heart and mind. I ate yummy food. I spent it with my best friend and partner in crime.
Like I have said before…life is good.
CK

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