10/04/09

We drove from the gravel pit and passed the largest, flattest gravel pit just 2 km down the road, we were well disapointed. We stopped off at Lake Matheson, it was sunny again but was freezing in the shade, which I only realised after we had set off on the walk in shorts and T-Shirt. We walked all the way around the lake and got to Reflection Island where we could see Mount Cook and Mount Tasman reflected in the lake. I managed to find a few unraveling Silver Ferns, but none worthy of photographing. I was freezing by the time we got back to the camper so I went to the public loos and shoved my feet and hands under the dryers for a few minutes then spent ages deciding which postcard to buy. The guys and I were debating buying a giant sausage roll for $7, but none of us had the guts to do it. We then drove to Lake Hawea just north of Wanaka where we parked up for the night and played a bit of Billionaire and cards before going to bed. Coops and I watched transformers because we weren't tired enough to sleep at 9pm.

11/04/09

We all got up and ready to leave and were at Puzzle World near Lake Wanaka at bang on 9am. After waiting for Pat to get ready for what seemed like an eternity we finally entered the building. After a brief look around we paid for our tickets and decided to go straight for the maze. There was a sign telling us to try the to complete the maze in the hardest route possible, this meant going to the yellow corner first, then following it around clockwise to get to the green then blue and finally red before finding your way out. We started off quite calmly and were walking around as a group, but after about 2 minutes the girls decided to go a different way to the way the guys and I wanted to go, the race for first to the yellow corner was on. Pat and I started walking briskly and we soon all split up. Occasionally I could hear Helen and Laura walking near me still together. I managed to stumble upon the green corner first which was a little dissapointing and after a while realised that all the routes to the yellow arrived from a huge bridge from the other side of the maze in the red corner. I ran there and managed to get to the yellow first, Pat wasn't far behind, I saw him on the bridge just as he was about to reach yellow, but he obviously didn't take a good look at the path because he still took about 5 minutes to find it.

I rushed off thinking I could remeber how to get to green, but I was stumped, I spent the next 20 minutes going around in circles with every route either turning into a dead end or taking me back to where I was before. Eventually Pat managed to find the green and shortly after that I managed to figure it out. While I was up at the green corner I had a good laugh at the girls still trying to find the yellow, they were on completely the wrong path, as I was laughing at them I saw Rich in the distance bobbing his head up and down and walking around in circles near the red corner. The Blue and Red corners didn't take long to find after this as I had already visited them whilst tryingn to find the green. When I got to red I sat down and enjoyed watching the girls trying to get to blue and red. Rich still hadn't found green and was starting to get irate. Some kids were running around on the bridge getting really agitated and shouting out "AAAAHH I just came from here". The girls finally found me at red and we decided to have a race to find the way out. I ran off and bumped in to Rich and Pat on the bridge, I ended up doing laps of the green corner clockwise and the others were doing it anticlockwise, we ended up passing each other 3 or 4 times before concluding that we weren't going to get out this way. When we finally got out the girls were already sat there waiting for us, they must have cheated.

We used the Roman toilets that were there and took plenty of photos of us sat next to pictures of guys with their trousers down taking a dump. We then entered the Illusion Rooms, to begin with there were loads of holographic photos which were a little boring, then there were a few giant illusions on the wall and then a room full of concave faces that when you sidestep appear convex and seem to follow you around the room. The next room was small at one end and big at the other, with a patterned carpet that gave the illusion that it was the same size all over, so we managed to take some photos making me look bigger that Rich, I was well chuffed. At one point a baby walked in to the room while we were in there and looked bigger than Pat. The next room was the strangest by far, the entire floor was on a ridiculous slant, there was a pool table in it and when you used it it looked like the balls were rolling up hill, very strange. It was quite funny looking at everyone standing at a weird angle, after a while we all started to fell a bit sick though so we had to leave. We spent an hour or so in the cafe at the entrance trying to do the hundreds of puzzles they had on offer. I ended up eating 2 huge sandwiches and a chocololate slice. They had one of those 3x3 cubes made out of wood and cut in to various shapes that when slotted together reform the 3x3. Everyone attempted to complete it and ended up with the same single piece sticking out the top, we jokingly asked if they had a hand saw to complete it, and the woman showed us how to start it off. After a while we were all starting to get rather pissed off with most of the puzzles so we decided to leave.

We drove to the info centre and found out where to shop and camp up. We did a huge shop at New World that came to $136 and then drove to the camp site to park up and charge up. I spent all afternoon in the sun bouncing on the trampoline and doing exercise because I'd eated so much. We had spud and beans for tea and then went out for the night. We sat in a nice bar in town and had a few beers. Every time one of us visited the bogs we found that another person had been sick in the urinal, it was rank. Rich went in a bit later and found 2 bouncers in there with buckets trying to wash it away saying "it's no use the chunks are too big". The girls and I were feeling pretty tired by now as it was nearly midnight and we are now used to going to bed at about 9 so we walked back while the guys stayed to watch the football.

12/04/09

Woke up warm for once as we had had the heating on all night, it was great, I could get straight out of bed without shivering my arse off. We spent what seemed like ages faffing around, we had crumpets for breakfast but the toaster at the camp-site was actually the s***test in the world. We put the crumpets in, but there was no way to push them down so they were half sticking out of the thing, and the elements inside it barely heated up at all, they certainly didn't turn red. I stood there for 3 minutes and it just about made the crumpets warm, I gave up and just had them cold.

The girls and I walked in to town to check out the craft market, there wasn't much going on other than some crazy guy with a ladder fixed in the middle at the bottom and top and at 45 degree angle, the object was to climb it and grab the $20, $50 or $100 notes at the top, we watched a few kids attempt, it looked really hard. I went off and hired a mountain bike for 4 hours and biked along the coast of the lake around to Albert Town. It was really sunny and I soon got a sweaty back so had to de-shirt, I a few funny looks because I was doing it in Jandals. When I got to the edge of Albert Town I came out at the top of a huge hill so raced to the bottom overtaking a few cars on the way down. I had to stop off in the Albert Town Post Shop and ask for directions to get back towards town, I had to bike up the huge hill again. I got back to town and biked the other way, stopping every now and then to scoff some chocolate because my legs were starting to cramp up a bit. I continued on for about an hour, going up the hills was so tiring and the downhill sections seemed to be over with in a matter of seconds. I'd used up 3/4 of my time when I saw a cool looking off road track, I had to lift the bike over a gate and into some private property to get to it but no one was about. I started biking up the path and it got steeper and steeper, it was shattering, I managed to get half way and stopped to get my breath and take some photos of the lake, which I had almost biked to the other side of. I sat up on top of the hill for a while to check out the view and then spanked it all the way back down to town.

I managed to bump in to the Campervan on the way back and picked up my shower stuff so I went and stole another shower from the campsite and then handed the bike back. I had a go at the ladder challenge in the craft market on the way back, impossible! We spent the early evening playing bat-n-ball on the field by the lake. It was dark by the time we decided to leave, Rich got in the drivers seat and sped over a curb, all the cupboards were open and we had glass jars of Pesto, curry and pasta sauces falling out, one of them fell right on Helens knee and foot. The pesto jar smashed on the floor and made a nasty mess, at least it the camper doesn't smell fishy any more.