The Worst Day
But I'm still on vacation
Top of mind
Well we essentially hit rock bottom on this particular day of the trip, losing another full day to gale force winds. Things got so bad out here that local businesses were sandbagging their entryways and boarding up windows. The morale in the group was on the floor as we all aimlessly wandered around Queenstown defaulting to shopping and drinking in the adventure capital of the world.
The end of trip blues are hitting especially hard this time round and I think a lot of us have major New Zealand FOMO. It’s hard to not think about what we missed out on. Even our CEO mentioned the things we missed were huge parts of the trip.
But all said we did cover some decent ground and there were some incredibly bright spots of the trip. The star gazing, the rainforest walk and hāngī, even the geyser and thermal baths.
I had some pretty terrible dreams about getting back home and my suitcase falling apart, adjusting my trip mid-experience to go back to Japan, and returning to work.
10/23
Original plan: Fiordlands National Park day
Revised plan: Morning wine tasting & lunch, afternoon steam boat ride and farm visit*
Revised revised plan: Wine in the morning. Dinner.
With my afternoon I spent an extended amount of time walking around the Queenstown Gardens with myself, reflecting on the trip and doing a mini forest bathing sesh amidst the frisbee golf course which seemed pretty good? The tide was pretty high. I saw a little baby rabbit.
What I drank
So much wine. Like, I know that New Zealand is known for wine but this is overkill. The pinot noirs were standouts and this is coming from someone who knows little to nothing about it. I bought a nice hat that says wine stuff on it.
The plan for the afternoon: get blasted before the group dinner. Tenses were high today and everyone was pissed, I had a feeling that the vibe was going to be incredibly sour.
I arrived at the only bar in town with a fireplace, dodging the country club crowd and ignoring the Nordstrom rack playlist blasting, while the bar tender hands me a piece of paper describing my whiskey flight. As I make the turn for the final whiskey I’m laughing incredibly hard at the thought of my roommate not knowing what a goat is (see attached) and the playlist has at least improved at the bar.
Dinner ended up being a good time actually. No major confrontations or fights and the company was good as we commiserated. It’s nice to know that for future touring groups our legacy will live on as the group that had the most cancellations / saw the most wineries.
What’s next
Half the group is spending the day out in the Milford Sound viewing fiords by boat (originally in our itinerary), while half is in Queenstown. Pending cancellations I’ll be riding a high speed boat, dining at a nice restaurant, and considering bungee jumping or ziplining in the afternoon.
Appendix
*Starting to cover ground we’ve already experienced but at this point we’d take anything