Queenstown and Routeburn

    About a week ago today, Dustin and I arrived in Queenstown, the self-proclaimed adrenaline and party capital of New Zealand.  We tried to book ahead for the weekend, but the good hostels were all booked, so we had to stay at Base.  The Base hostel has a great location, meal deals, and is pretty cheap, but is also known to be the party hostel for 18 and 19 year olds on their gap year.  Thankfully our room was full of pretty reasonable folks and made friends with a few of them (3 Canadian girls and a German guy) and decided to stay a few nights. 

    During the day time, Queenstown is a super active town right on the lake with a Zilker Park kind of vibe.  The first few days I explored the town, drank goon (local box wine) at the beach, slacklined with randos, and tossed the frisbee around with an Israeli guy and Austrian girl – pretty much perfect days.  The nights were a different story.  Everyone in our room partied and pregamed in the dorm until about 1 AM for the first two nights.  It was a bit tiring and annoying, but we knew most the people in the room so it really wasn’t that bad.  But, every day, old people move out and new people move in.

    Enter Ben, the Chilean douchebag.  I had heard stories about people having sex in hostels and just hoped it would never happen in my room.  Well it turns out Ben was pretty keen on the idea, you know, because he’s a douchebag.  I won’t go into too much detail, but I woke up to Ben and some girl going for it, along with two Canadian girls giggling nonstop.  After Ben left, the whole room erupted with laughter, and I didn’t really know what was so funny.  Turns out they were laughing at me - “James, you were sleep talking to them while they were doing it!”  Apparently, I had sat up and said to him, “You need some help down there?”  Then I laid back down and said, “I could go for a pint of beer right now… you know, maybe a cocktail or mixed drink, but definitely no shooters.”  We were all wide awake afterwards, talking and crying laughing – it could have been such a bad experience, but turned out to be one of the funniest things that happened.  I’m just glad they weren’t sharing a bunk with me, or things woulda gotten real.

    It was clearly time to get the hell out of Queenstown, and the Routeburn track was the perfect escape.  With a mere two hour drive to the trailhead, the Routeburn is a 2 night trek through the glaciated mountains of Fjordland National Park and is considered one of the “Great Walks” of New Zealand.  Dustin had done the track a few days earlier while I chilled in town to rest my knees.  For the first time, I was able to hike at a very leisurely pace, with nothing to hurry to the end for, and without having to overwork myself. 

    The first day of the trek went through a beautiful, mossy forest with a half dozen large rivers and millions of ferns.  After having lunch at the bank of one of these rivers, simply watching the super clear water rush around, I found a dried up riverbed that the path crossed over.  Thousands of people probably pass right over it without taking any notice, but it was one of my favorite parts of the hike.  I ran around, frolicked, found some premier skipping rocks (with no water to skip them in) and then devolved into throwing them as hard as I could into mosses, logs, or other rocks.  As I explored, a small, curious little bird started hopping towards me.  I crouched down to take pictures and it eventually stood on my boot, about a foot away from my face, until I scared it off trying to get a good picture of the scene.  I also got to get within almost arms reach of 2 Keas, the only alpine parrots in the world.  I spent the first night in the Routeburn falls “hut,” which seemed more like a lodge, complete with gas stoves in the kitchen and beds for up to 50 people.

    Day two was a much steeper ascent to the Harris Saddle and, being above tree line, also had some of the best views of the area.  At the saddle, I took off my pack and went up the optional Conical Hill hike and was rewarded with a spectacular of mountains, valleys, mini-glaciers, lakes, and a small glimpse of the Tasman see in the far distance.  The way down was a bit rough, but I had picked up a companion, a 29 year old doctor from England, which made the grind seem easier.  And he gave me some ibuprofen.  The Lake Mackenzie “hut” was just as nice as the last one, but featured about 15 beds directly next to each other, without any barriers, along a long wall.  I opted for the bunks. 

    The forecast for the third and final day called for “rain, some heavy; snow above 900m.”  My English friend and I decided to set off early to try to avoid it and were rewarded with a light and manageable drizzle the entire way.  We had two days of absolutely perfect weather, so we didn’t mind taking a little bad with the good.  I had to wait 3 hours for my bus, 4 hours more to get back to Queenstown.  I checked into my hostel, grabbed some ice cream, and chatted up a few of the 9 girls I was sharing the room with.  The room smelled like roses and sunshine until my crusty-crust self walked in.  I felt bad until 7 AM this morning when four of them were screaming in Swedish as they packed their bags, then I wish I had smelled worse. 

    This morning, I saw Dustin off as he got on a bus to the airport, and just like that I was on my own again.  As I was on the hike, I again had the thought, “why am I here?”  This time, I came up with an answer – to listen.  I’m pretty much free from the normal distractions of life and have more time to simply listen to God than I probably ever will.  It also struck me as odd that, back home, my obedience is divided between several things: YoungLife, school work, friends, and spending time with God.  Out here, I’m more or less limited to the last thing on that list.  That time has been really fruitful and good for my soul so far and I’m excited that I’ll have to lean on it more and more.  Tonight was the first time I came back to my hostel and just didn’t care to meet anybody in my room – you can only skim the surface with so many people before you stop caring about all the countries they’ve been to or whatever.  But like I said before, I’m praying that I see the people I’m meeting as God’s children and people to be served, instead of just random encounters. 

    I only have a week left in New Zealand, so I have to make the most of it!  I’m headed to Dunedin in a few days to catch a Super 15 rugby match and I’m pretty stoked for it.