After a bit of car rental confusion in Christchurch, I headed to Ashburton, a largish, by New Zealand standards, town about 90 minutes south of Christchurch. I stopped in a Motel, being checked by a charming, elderly, “oh I’m sorry, my husband usually does this” lady. I hide from the chilly drizzle in a warm pub, passing the time with a delicious Lamb dinner. An early night made for an early start.

I’d decided to do even less driving than on the north Island, and headed straight to Queenstown for my first bungee jump – I’d started wondering if I’d go through with it. I planned for 7 to 10 days at Lake Wanaka, which was described as smaller than Queenstown, equally stunning and much less visited.

In Queenstown I did a mini pub-crawl. Being the off-season, things were quiet; school vacation was over and the last of the ski areas closed the day before. There was a distinct exodus but I did find a pub wit more customers than staff. It had a rough edge that appealed to me. A place that attracted the few tourists still in town, and the locals that liked to “mix” with the tourists.

A guy darted up next to me to order a couple jugs (pitchers) of beer and shots. The Irish fighter in the movie “Snatch” came to mind, he even looked a bit like Brad Pitt. He was wiry, wearing a worn dark green tee shirt and jeans that were frayed at the bottom, both spattered with paint. He was barefooted, which I noted since there was still snow. There were little clumps of mud in his ears, and his hair hung in his eyes. He leaned forward to order, and then skipped back a couple steps like a hyperactive boxer. He teased the ladies behind the bar, jumping forward to say something, then skipping back to wait for the response. This guy was seriously on edge. However, the mischievous gleam in his eyes, which I thought make him look kind of dicey, charmed the girls behind the bar.

He had to get more money. The girls must have said something to him about his footwear because he came back proudly showing off a pair of flip-flops, that were at least 3 sizes too small. You could only tell he was wearing something on his feet by the straps stretched over the top of his toes.