Tramping it up a little

I kind of thought that as the season has finished and a lot of my friends have left Qtown that it would all settle down now and i could save myself a bit of money. How wrong i was. One of the appeals of Qtown over say, Wanaka was that it has more of an atmosphere, more of a vibrant scene. It appears that it also doesn't take much to twist my arm at the moment to do anything. Fair enough really as i am not working anymore and my routine has fallen back into pretty much what is was before i got my job at Coronet Peak. I get up, i go online, i make dinner, i go to bed. Not exactly hectic. So when the offer of interaction and socialising has cropped up over the last week i have relished it and thrown myself toward it. Gotta make the most of my last few weeks in Qtown after all. Now it has never taken a lot of persuassion to get me to play poker, especially since i have re-found my passion for it. Dicks has also really gotten into it over the past few weeks too. And to think, i had to near beg him to come and play a game with me a month ago. Kate is also quite partial to a game, as you may well know, so it is easy for me to convince her to come out too. Before you know it you are playing in nearly all the games Qtown has to offer (4 - not including the casino). My current form continued as i came 4th at Frankton (with Kate coming 3rd - her best performance in ages) and again smashing everybody to win back to back weeks at Rattlesnake. My win at Rattles was probably the highlight of my short poker career. Mainly because at one point on the final table i had only 6 chips left and the other guy had all the rest. I think it worked out i had$30,000 and he had around $350,000! There is an old saying in poker though that to win a game all you need is a chip and a chance. I proved it that night. The guy i beat works in a casino and he bullied us all and talked so much trash it made a lot of people lose their cool and play tilt (tilt means you play a bit crazy). I on the other hand ignored his bullshit and managed to out play his ass. From 30,000 to all the chips and victory in about 10 hands! The guy didn't know what hit him. Shaun, who runs the tournaments told the guy to not have any hard feelings as he had just been beat by one of Qtowns finest, a poker superstar (his words not mine). Made my head swell somewhat but i felt amazing as we left. It was such a good way to win. The guy i beat had bullied and trash talked people all night long and i felt i gave him his come uppance. I joked with Shaun that after that performance i was going to change my name to "Amarillo-not-so-slim" after the legendary poker player "Amarillo slim." So, another $50 bar tab now sits snuggly in my wallet which means i have to do it all over again next Tuesday. I don't really care if i win another tournament in my life because beating that bully was the sweetest victory i will probably ever have (pats own back and imagines everyone hoisting me onto their shoulders and parading me through the school canteen to cheers as the local bully cowers under a table in the corner).

It hasn't all been beer and poker this week though my friends. I went and played golf again. This time with Billy, Talis and one of the doctors from the hill. We had much more of a laugh this time as the weather was a lot nicer. I hadn't realised just how competitive Billy actually was. I watched him smack balls on the driving range before we played and could see him watching all the competition and commenting on how he was going to beat us. Maybe he has a slight case of little man syndrome sometimes but after the first few holes it was all over really. I played really really badly but still managed to whoop them all. I do have the distinct advantage of all those years of playing at quite a high level though. It was good fun though and a welcome change to be outside in the sunlight.

On Kates days off this week we decided to go tramping. Remember, tramping is what the Kiwis call hiking. It is not when you grow a beard, sleep with a cardboard duvet in a shopping trolley under a bridge drinking your own urine whilst shouting at pigeons (as fun as that may sound). So i dusted off the old hiking boots and Kate led me out to the Glenorchy road. On her commute to work she is driven along the Glenorchy road to er, Glenorchy, of course. It is a stunning road that skirts the lake and gives you amazing views of the Mt Aspiring national park. Basically it showcases the proper mountains in the area. Don't get me wrong, the Remarkables aren't called that to be facetious, but they can't hold a candle to Mt Earnslaw and the huge snow capped peaks in Mt Aspring national park. Kate reckoned we should do this hike from 7 mile delta all the way to Bobs cove, which should have been about 3-4 hours return. I thought she was being a bit adventurous on our first hike in months but let her lead me off into the bush. After no more than 50 metres she decided that the descent down the cliffs was too steep and that we should head back to Biff. I thought it wasn't too bad but she was worried more about the ascent on the way back. I relented and we headed back to Biff and drove a bit further down the road to Bobs cove. We parked up and Kate decided we would do the hike from there to 12 mile delta which was gonna be around 2 hours. I agreed but before we could set off she decided we were in the wrong spot and that she didn't want to do the hike. Now by this time i was getting a little frustrated and had to suppress my urges to hold her face down in the lake whilst repeatedly hitting the back of her head with a rock! I enhanced my calm and we got back into Biff and headed further down the coast to 12 mile delta. We headed off the road and got to the car park at 12 mile delta but this time we didn't even get out of the van as Kate vetoed it for some other reason. My frustration began to bubble over again. She was just lucky i didn't have any sharp, or in fact blunt instruments in the front seat. Not for her, but for ending my own existence!! We then decided we would continue up the road to Kinloch and to the start of the Routeburn track. The Routeburn and Milford tracks are considered some of the most amazing walks in the world, not just NZ. They are 4-5 day hikes but you can walk the track for a little bit and then head back. So we eventually found our way to the start of the track but at the last minute decided to veer off and in fact walk the Sylvan lake track. So what had started the day as a 3-4 hour steep hike in fact ended up as a 1.5 hours gentle stroll through the forest to Lake Sylvan. It was stunning though to be fair. They filmed a lot of the lord of the rings films in the local forests so there was a real middle earth feel to it. If you have seen the movies i think they filmed Fangorn forest and the bit with the Ents there. The lake was extremely secluded and was very pretty too. We hung out on one of it's beaches and ate home made cookies in the sunshine before heading back to Biff. When we got to him Kate reckoned we should try driving to the Rees valley which was sort of on the way home and was supposed to be stunnning too. So we headed out toward it but stopped on the road to it when we were faced with a sign which read "Backcountry road: beware of fjords and deep trenches." Now Biff doesn't really have 'fjords' and 'deep trenches' in his vocabulary but we pushed on to check it out. After about 10km we rounded a corner and were greeted with a small fjord bisecting the road. I got out to inspect it and reckoned we could get through it but after some thought and the realisation that we were 15km from the nearest town and had no reception on our phones, we decided against it and turned back.

It was a nice introduction back into tramping so the next day we decided to go again. JC and Laura lent us their Wakatipu walks guide and after some deliberation we decided to do a walk out in Arrowtown called "Tobins track." At first i was surprised Kate was up for it as it was described as a continuous gradual climb up to around 900 metres. Even when we got to the bottom of the track and started climbing, i was still unsure that Kate had any idea what she had let herself in for. We eventually made it to the top and were greeted by stunning views of Arrowtown, the wakatipu basin and most importantly, a bench. Kate, extremely red at this point and looking a little like Hellboy, collapsed on to the bench and we rested for a while before heading back down and going home.

In all it was a pretty nice week. I was a little bit disappointed that we didn't road trip it to Mt Hutt but petrol and hotels and money worries sort of killed the buzz. So, the skis have been waxed and stored away in Biff until February when we will get them out again for Salt lake city and it's massive amount of ski resorts. This week i plan to just chill out again until Kate has her days off work. She is trying to make the most of her frontline staff discounts and book us on a couple of trips. Maybe fun-yaking (which is inflatable kayaking) and a trip to the Milford sound. One of the helicopter companies told Kate she can get a free heli-trip to Milford and that i'll get 50% off too. Sounds gnarly but even with 50% off it'll still cost about $200-400. Still, how many times in your life are you given the opportunity to be helicoptered into one of the most beautiful places on earth? We shall see.

So guys, i will let you know how these last few weeks in Qtown go.

Peace

D

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