RELISHING THE ROLE OF TOUR GUIDE -
It was a really great idea to expose Amy to the joys of Patagonia ice cream and their soft ice cream clouds. My dark chocolate and macadamia nut was three layers of delicious and the coconut stracciatella is a sweet crowd pleaser, setting my taste buds a tingle.
NERDING OUT AND OTHER NONSENSE AT PUZZLING WORLD -
We farted around and played the hell out of illusions within the confines of Puzzling World, Stuart Landsborough's home of enigmas and eccentricities. For whatever scientific reason, our brains didn't work with our eyes during the frivolity of sliding and sloping at 15 degrees inside the tilted house. The gravity defying chair lift was fantastic fun and the hall of ghoulish faces makes everyone smile in the octagonal room of 168 historical figures, chasing us with their hollowed out eye balls.
Ames room tomfoolery went down as we mutated from dwarf to giant in video playback, patently wacky illusions bring joy to all with the invisible bench, a tap suspended in mid air, a telephone box of infinity and coloured lights that illuminate by touch. Cartoonish art galore was stranger than strange, tricking the brain with several absurd, perspective paintings.
To use the main bathroom facilities at Puzzling World, you have to pass an enormous, painted representation of Roman toilets. It's such a *normal* thing to take a communal 'whizz' in the latrine and so it's hard to resist inserting yourself into the life-size image to 'relieve' yourself. Afterwards, we had the BEST time racing against the clock at first!! If I'd had the forethought I'd have sprinkled breadcrumbs like Hansel and Gretel. We found three of the four coloured corners in ten minutes with Amy's aMAZEing prowess but then our winning streak took a less nice turn and I was close to weeping like a willow.
The green corner frustrated us no end and we would not rest until we cracked it. Try as we might, we could not seem to get there and were quite literally walking around in circles for forty plus minutes. The purpose of this maze might have been to solely drive me insane!! So I convinced Amy to cut corners and slide under the fencing through chalky dust. It's a bummer that we had to resort to cheating but it's such a conversation piece! Eventually we got to the GREEN corner but were then at a loss as to how to get out. After many more dead ends, we escaped out the emergency exit and even that took some searching out!!
How best to reward ourselves for surviving the maze, than splitting chocolate cake from the café and table top puzzles? Amy has a gift for the puzzle solving and was especially good at IQ Blocks and Solitaire. On the other hand, I found it nigh on impossible fitting the coloured pieces in the box and many other baffling bamboozlements that I gave a red hot go.
In the grounds outside Puzzling World is one of the main attractions luring guests to take a closer inspection - the Leaning Tower of Wanaka, which is balanced inconceivably at a 53 degree angle. Unbeknownst to me, as I posed by sticking out my bottom like Beyoncé and protruded it more and more baboonishly, two unassuming chappies walked up behind my behind and I looked like an ass!
Amy and I went out yonder for a wander to Eely Point, an extraordinarily serene, secret spot. We sat at the reserve staring out at nature. Before having a meal at Lakeside Bar, we pure and simply went there for free wifi as our backpackers had a stingy 500mb cap per day. I had big feelings for my rings of onion and the pumpkin chickpea soup was divine decadence that had me flipping out with excitement.
To the rear of Mountain View is a War Memorial commemorating residents who served in WW1 and WW2; it's a gorgeous setting in which to overlook the lakeside town. We wish we could share a little bit of Wanaka with the rest of the world. When the coldness set in, we took shelter in our room to view one of my go to rom coms, Miss Congeniality. We'll always have a whimsical attachment to ya, Wanaka!!
ONWARDS, EVER ONWARDS -
To Tekapo, we endeavoured to go but there was a minor debacle with our Yello Taxi. Our moany driver hadn't come to fetch us and our fellow passengers in a shuttle large enough for all our masses of baggage? Why didn't he think ahead in the first place??? We were worried that we might miss our connecting bus to take us down to my fave place in New Zealand but were assured that the bus driver had been notified of the hold up. A few minutes later, one of his staff had driven down a more suitable vehicle to transport us in and then we were on our merry way.
As I hadn't slept well at night after a nightmare had me in and out of my REM cycle until 4am, I rested where I could on our bus. When we were dropped off in the lake front car park, it dawned on me how far we had to walk with our stuff over uneven gravelly road and pathways but we made it to Lakefront Lodge Backpackers in one piece. They were so kind to let us check in over an hour early as our two bed dorm was all set for us.
Kohan, a Japanese restaurant, was recommended to Amy as we checked out at Mountain View Backpackers but by the time we got there it was nearing 2pm when the kitchen was closing. They served us anyway as we ordered quickly and then ate fast and furiously. It was a crackin' recommendation as my 8 pieces of teriyaki chicken sushi rolls were fully fledged, outstanding sushi rolls. The only drawback to our lunch was my chopstick moronics; you'd think I'd have mastered the technique by now, having a sister-in-law from China.
Church of the Good Shepherd, a small famous landmark of striking stone is smack dab on the embankment of Lake Tekapo. It is a charming feature of Mackenzie heritage. As is the Collie dog, bronze statue which was unveiled in 1968 to praise and credit the Scottish dogs brought over by Scots shepherds to form the pastures and round up sheep. The memorial is covered with spear grass and matagouri and is a sure bet to be visited by tourists.
No adjective of prettiness can cut it to portray the Dark Sky Reserve but I swear turquoizey Tekapo gets more and more beautiful every time and melts troubles of the world away. Luminous sunbeams rebound from the aquamarine waters in all its sparkling glory and mystical Mackenzie basin mountains ring around the rock-flour lake. It seems UNREAL and almost too beautiful, if there is such a thing.
Their quintessential lupins were not in bloom and looked burnt; it was a shame as in mid-November, the landscape is ablaze with violet and pink. Stillness and serenity ignites a fire in my unencumbered soul; it's a wonderful life in Tekapo! Many a tourist now think Amy and I are insane but it's obligatory to be a playful rascal 'pon on the rocks. Large volumes of rocks deposited at the glacial terminal during the last ice age 15-18,000 years back. Amy's Little Mermaid re-enactment of the scene where Ariel reprises 'Part of your world' was inspired. I attempted to copy but was just sticking out my booty and close to falling off while dreaming that I'd look flippity, tippity fly. Yeah, we'll pretend that didn't happen! Are we still laughing about that, Amy?!!
Amy dipped her feet into icy, rippling, glacial lake while we were both blown away by the unaffected beauty of all we surveyed. We raced back over the rocks, wooing while we went, as we're impulsive beings! I'll forever be humbled by the grandeur and power of nature so long as I'm living.
We don't do low-cal on holibubs so we splurged on one of life's great pleasures - an iced chocolate in a mason jar glass from Reflections Café. It was cool but not too cool and sweet but not too sweet, quenching our thirst on a summery day. Ice cube throat freeze had me looking BANANAS; why do I do this when I know others will slam me for it? Amy recorded me trying to scoop up the marshmallows with my straw which sounds a lot less fun than it was when I read this back.
That evening, we each consumed green curries with steamed rice and veg from Thai Tekapo. Mine was gooooooood and of a medium spice but Amy's mild was too much for her delicate palate as they'd misrepresented the mildness level. Her lips were slightly swollen! Thereafter, I'd pleaded for a cashier to just let me buy some chocolate fish and crispy m & m's for us as the store was closing within minutes, she conceded. Let's imagine I said something healthier!!
So many bunnies were bouncing back to their burrows and we didn't have to wait for the honey bunnies to do anything adorbs. We crept up on them for peeks. My cable attached to a power bank, caught on a hedge and almost yanked my arm out of its socket. Why do I feel like nature is dissing me? It was an extremely cloudy night which wouldn't have made for optimal stargazing conditions but they dispersed shortly and the quilt overhead sparkled high in the sky.
It was a chilly one so we'd worn our coordinated hoodies and beanies with our warmest jacket but we were toooooo happy to care about the temps. We used the apps Star Chart and Sky View to pinpoint exact constellations but my Zodiac sign Scorpius didn't require any eagle-eyed observation - it was radically distinctive with its scorpion tail shimmering. Pluto, Neptune, Venus, Uranus and Saturn manifested themselves almost entirely also. Messier 63, the Sunflower Galaxy is the universe's aptly named spiral galaxy; its infrared rays shone vividly as a cosmic flower.
We lay down by the church in silence, stupefied by precious, galactic objects. 'Are you shining just for' us? It certainly felt that way with all the celestial, stella phenomena we'd encountered that eve. The sky played host to the: Big and little horse - the latter being the second smallest constellation, Dolphin and dragon - Delphinus the Latin name for dolphin is close to the celestial equator, Alpha and Beta Centauri - better known as Southern Cross and Pointers are roughly thirty degrees from South Celestial pole, Canopus - the second brightest star in the night sky (after Sirius) overwhelms, Peacock - takes up 0.92% of the evening firmament, Orion- one of the most instantly recognisable star patterns, and Diphda - an orange to red giant star in Cetus which is brighter as a beta than its alpha. Amy and I were overawed with the celestial, twinkling night jewels; they marked a truly happy time for us.
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