Day 9

Had a great sleep in the lodge and then had toast and tea while sitting at the railing looking at the hills and waterfall. We got picked up for horseback riding at 9:45 and rode up to the top of the hill to the stables. It was 5 people on the trek - me, Susan, Fran, and two women from the Kiwi Experience Bus - Allison and Diane. I got a horse named Chestnut (very creative) and Denise got Turk.



Chestnut is a follower and loves Turk, so if Turk was in front Chestnut would stick his nose right next to his ass and not move from that position. Since Turk didn't feel like running and I was keen to take off, Janie (one of the guides) held Chestnut back until Turk got to the end of the meadow we were in and then then let him go. I was able to go really fast - up until the point when Chestnut reached Turk and then it was a full stop and back to the status quo. Eventually what we did was hold Turk back and get Chestnut in front of him and I was able to go a bit faster. As long as there was at least one horse in front of him, Chestnut was happy. So Susan on Gypsy and Allison on Buster and I cantered up a few hills, which was fun. At the top of one of the hills Pedro came trotting by without a rider. Turns out he has spooked and threw off Fran and took off. Fran landed really hard on her bottom and arm, but she was otherwise fine. She got back on Pedro after Nicola (Janie's mom and another guide) caught him.



Oh, there was also a little dog called Poppy who came with us for a run.




And here's some of the farm raised deer that we saw. Delicious.



We got back to the lodge just in time, for it started pouring for about half an hour. We all curled up on couches to wait for the white-water rafters and I found a copy of "Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett which I grabbed from the swap library (I did leave a book in it's place).

We headed out at about 1, and quite a few of us were getting carsick on the winding road back up. We stopped for lunch at the Flat Hills Cafe (chicken satay burger) and then off to Wellington.



Napped again, of course, and woke up when we pulled into Wellington at 7 pm. We checked into the Base Wellington hostel and ended up sharing a room with some strange Canadian guy. I picked up a Fringe Guide as the Wellington Fringe begins on Feb 8th and we'll be back in the city on the way north later on in the tour. I'll try to catch something then. Susan (who has a cold) and Andrea and I went to Malaysian restaurant called Satay Kajang and I had a really nice Nasi Lemak.



Dinner conversation turned towards Germany and the war (again) and then what Japan did as well. After dinner we ended up at Arty Bees Books, a used bookstore. I got a book of short stories called "Nights at the Embassy" by Elizabeth Smither because I figured that I should have at least one New Zealand book. New Zealand authors don't really write light fluffy books, I've found out, so not that much choice for vacation reading. Books here are amazingly expensive. A mass market (regular paperback) book might go for $25.00. Even my little used trade paperback used book was $15.

Once back to the hostel I wandered a few floors looking for a shower that wasn't out of order (very annoying). I was very paranoid as two people on the tour had already had things stolen out of the shower earlier that day. Nothing was taken from me, thank goodness.