You Killed My Father

I'll pick up where I left off, with the Fergburger. Ria and I were intending on watching the rugby at one of the many establishments around town that would be showing the game. We ended up having to hit a couple of different bars, because, who'd have thought it, but those Kiwis like watching the All Blacks play. Eventually we were able to find a spot in a bar where we could see the screen and settled in. We were doing kind of okay, until Rocky got sent off. But what can you do? After that being so close to so many Kiwis started to grate on my nerves, so we left. Not before we saw one cave man stumble out of the pub slurring some sounds at a guy in a Wallaby jersey.

Next day Ria and I got up pretty early, especially for a Sunday, got our gear on and headed out to the bus that would take us up to the Remarkables. We had Grant the busdriver again, but I didn't ask about how his day with Samantha went. I hope that he had a good time. He certainly was a good bus driver. Some of those roads were very scary. People in New Zealand don't seem to like their roads to have barriers on them, especially when there is a 500 foot drop off one side. Who needs them?

So yeah, we got up the mountain to the ski field, Grant warned that there was alot of rocks on the runs off one of the chairs, I really should have listened. Ria and I were some of the first up the mountain, which would normally be a good thing, but unfortunately it was really windy and icy which is never a great thing. So we didn't do too much riding. We were in fact contemplating hitching back into town because it just wasn't enjoyable. I decided to do a run over where all the rocks were, and this was a good idea to start off with. The chair was pretty much abandoned, but it was definately the pick of them as the bowls and runs off that chair were protected from the wind by the a chunk of mountain. There was lots of really nice snow in there and a huge bowl as well. I did a run down there and had a fantastic time. It was great. It wasn't so great when I ran over some rocks though and tore some grooves into my board. I've never carved out chunks like these ones, and I was fairly upset. I needed to be consoled. Thankfully Ria was able to convince me that they were reasonably superficial and that the repairs dude wouldn't have any trouble fixing it up. Which he didn't. So two hours later we were back riding again. It was awesome. Unfortunately a few other people had found our hidden valley, but that was okay. One dude even managed to disturb the snow enough to create an avalanche which was pretty wild because I've never seen one of those before. It was full on. I thought that the guy was going to get caught in it and then carried off a cliff. Luckily for him, he wasn't. Still, I had a couple of really fantastic runs over there, that is until I destroyed my board again. I almost cried.

Seeing as I kept on trying to hurt myself and my board it was decided that we would retire for the bus for the rest of the afternoon, as waiting in the lodge was impossible as there was a guy singing terrible covers in there.

Back in Queenstown I can remember what we did in the afternoon. It's still very vivid in my memory, but what we had for dinner is a bit vague. I think that we went to Pog Mahone's (which apparently means Kiss My Arse in Gaelic) where I had a steak and Guinness pie. I wasn't feeling too crash hot at this point though, I put it down to the 2 minute noodles I ate earlier in the day.

After Ria and I had gone to bed there was a fire alarm. We had to get out of bed. I wasn't very happy. Nor was Ria. We both forgot our shoes. We had to stand on the cold drive way for 20 minutes. It was cold. It was a false alarm.

The next day was Monday and our last day on the mountain. Ria and I elected to go back to Cardrona as it was the place that we'd had the most fun. So off we went. I tried to get my board repaired again, but the guy in the shop wasn't interested in doing any work that day and told me that it'd be hours before he could repair it. The tear in the bottom didn't end up slowing me down too much. As far as last days go, it was fun. The weather was beautiful. There were a few too many people, meaning we had to wait in line a little bit too long, but it was cool. Ria saw some dude she knew in the queue. Did I say how I saw Adrian Lep at the airport? If I didn't, well, I'll tell you now. He was on his way to Fiji to do some work. With his church. Whoa.

That was it. The trip was just about over. That night we had a pizza for dinner which was pretty good. Went for a final stroll through town. I rang up the bus company to confirm our trip for the next day.

Next morning we were up early, packing our bags and making sure we had all our shit. Ria was really disorganised. We waited for the bus, it arrived, we got on and off we went. Bye Bye Queenstown.

The bus trip was pretty uneventful. I bought some fart bombs in a town somewhere and a raspberry coke. Ria bought some chilli and lime peanuts. The bus trip went for a few hours. I read my book. Again, New Zealand's South Island is very picturesque.

Eventually our bus arrived at Dunedin airport. This was our destination. This was where we were going to get off so that we could get on a plane back to Australia. That was the plan anyway. Unfortunately the bus driver had other ideas.

I shall describe her for you. She was approximately 60 years old with dull grey hair pulled into a tight bun. She was wearing black rimmed glasses, a navy blue track suit with her jumper tucked into her pants. By my calculations, her pants were pulled much higher than her navel. Around her neck there was a hideous purple scarf. I believe that she was wearing this to hide her turkey chin. Her skin was pale and wrinkly, her cheeks were full, but sagging. Little eyes, set back in her head with unfortunate teeth and an unfortunate demeanour. She was wearing very sensible footwear.

Two other people hopped off the bus before us, the driver retrieved their bags from under the bus. When it was our turn she looked at us. She wondered what we were doing. I said how this was our stop. She said that it wasn't. I said that yes, this was our stop, and this was where we would like to get off. She said no, that she had us down for Dunedin, and so that is where we would be getting off. I said no, this is where I want to get off the bus. She said no, we were down as getting off in Dunedin and that would be where we would be getting off. I said that we would be getting off here as that is what our ticket had said. She said that her piece of paper said that we would be getting off in Dunedin, not the airport, that there was only two people getting off at the airport, and they had already gotten off. I said that I would like to get off the bus now, and that she should look at our ticket to see that this was where we were scheduled to get off. She said that it would be impossible for us to get off here, as our bags were under a pile of other people's bags under the bus. I said that I would like to get off the bus here, and if she would open the bays under the bus, I would be able to get our bags out with a minimum of fuss. She said that this would be impossible as they would be under a pile of bags. I said that I would get the bags off. She said that we had to make a connecting bus in Dunedin. I said that I wanted to get off the bus now, and I would be happy to get the bags off from underneath the bus and that it would take only two minutes. She said that we had to leave to get to Dunedin to make the connecting bus. I told her that she should look at our ticket to see that this was where we would like to get off the bus, and that this would be where I would be getting off the bus. She said no. I was extremely unhappy. We still had some time, and Ria said that we shouldn't worry about and that we should just get back on the bus. Eventually I agreed. This driver wasn't listening to me. I was still extremely unhappy.

Dunedin airport is approximately 30 kilometres out of town. It takes about half an hour to get into town from there. I was extremely unhappy the whole way. Once we arrived at the bus depot all the bags came off the bus. It took about two minutes. The connecting bus was still there. I spoke to the lady, apologising for being short with, saying that I hoped she could understand that I had confirmed the trip the night before, and that my ticket had said that I would be getting off at the airport and that was why I was shocked to find I was unable to get off there. She didn't apologise and say that there must have been a mistake. She inferred that it was my problem. I was extremely unhappy.

Ria and I called a cab and he came and picked us up. The connecting bus that we had to hurry for was still there after we left in the cab. This was twenty minutes later.

Thankfully the cab driver was exceptionally nice. He was telling us about how the Chocolate Festival was on and that that day they were racing jaffas down the steepest street in the Southern Hemisphere. He was a very nice man. All the people that I had spoken to in New Zealand had been like him. Very nice. Very friendly. Ridiculously so. Except for that one unaccomodating bitch. Fuck her.

The cab cost me sixty five dollars. The air had a very perculiar scent on it. I was told that it was the smell of turnips after they had been passed through one of the many dairy cows in the region. Mmmm.

At the airport I attempted to ring to complain about how the situation with the bus driver was handled. Everyone I spoke to at Inter-city Buslines said that it wasn't their problem and they would pass me on to somebody else. The last person I spoke to said that I should ring the travel agent. I don't want to though. I'm going to write a letter to these bastards. I haven't been this angry in a long fucking time. My blood still boils when I think about it. Fuck them. I did everything I was required. This is not my fault and I will not let them try and blame me for it. These fuckers have demeaned me and left a sour taste in my mouth. They have tainted what was otherwise a fantastic trip. It's not the money, it's the way that I was treated. Dealt with. I am still extremely unhappy.