Yes, you may call me lucky bastard!

My day started the worst way possible. I woke up to the sound of rain which in my case was really bad since I was about to hitch to Wanaka. But also bad since I remembered that my both pair of shoes were outside. I run outside to check my shoes and there were fishes swimming in my shoes. I'm not kidding! ;) Well that wasn't even the worst part but since I'm not carrying any rain gear I was thinking that what the hell am I gonna do. My host had a schedule and I needed to get a lift from him to the intersection which leads to Wanaka and I knew that there is totally no cover from the rain what so ever. Shiiit.

I couldn't just wait for the rain to stop at the vineyard. Luckily, miraculously even, the rain stopped when I was having my breakfast and I still had my flip flops to use. So my host dropped me at the intersection to Wanaka and we said good byes. The problem for me at that point was that there were only a few cars passing by which kind of makes hitching a little bit harder.

At least I had some cows to accompany me. This is the junction
leading to Wanaka.

Anyway, a truck finally picked me up after only like 15 minutes of waiting and took me straight to the city centre of Wanaka. It was too early to check into the hostel so I dropped my backpack there and borrowed the hairdryer to dry my shoes. While I was blowing my shoes I thought that I really should by a rain jacket since it's probably gonna rain a lot on the west coast and the forecast promised some rain for the next day also. Oh yes, I was on a schedule to get to my next woofing place. They really needed some help and I promised to be there on a certain date, aka the next day.

rugged landscapes of Wanaka

"Oh the glorious snow covered mountains..."

So first I went to the Salvation army boutique to find some cheap rain gear but of course they didn't have anything near my size. I tried one rain jacket there but the leaves were only up to my elbows... I even went to another shop with the same idea but also they didn't have anything for me. Not even hobbit size rain gear. I was forced to go to a "proper" shop and as you might  know everything is freaking expensive here. Then again I kind of needed a pair of trousers also since you know what happened at the gold mine on my previous post. You don’t? 

I ripped my pants on my way to the top of that old machinery! Note to myself: Please don’t climb on things. It’s not safe for your health or your clothes.

I went through couple of shops but everything was just really expensive and I was getting a little bit frustrated. Then at this one shop I found perfect pants and “only” for 79 dollars which is cheap here. BUT, even though they were basically my size according to the label they were huge for me!

The girl at the store with the huge pants, and btw they were the only ones left, told me that there’s one more place I should check and I thought I’ve got nothing to lose. Why not,ay?

So I went to this store and started browsing through the clothes and it looked a bit more promising. The prices were still steep as hell but it was quality stuff. So I tried one pair of pants and they were ok and about the cheapest ones I could find. They were still 119 dollars but I needed something so I decided to go for it.

So I went to the register and complained friendly about the price. The lady working there told me that sometimes there's discount on some products but they just haven’t had the time to put on the new price. So she checked the price from the machine and voilá! Now the price was 79dollars!!1!!! At this point I decided to ask also about the rain jackets. First she was like "Naah, there's nothing on sale.....NO...Wait....Theres something." She took me to the jackets and I started browsing through them when saw this elderly couple checking the rain gear also. They were chatting with the sails person and I overheard them saying that they're going to Europe

I was like maybe I can give them hints and tips. "Excuse me sir, So youre heading to Europe? Blaa blaa blaaah"....

Public BBQ apparatus! 

the hotplate of the grill 

Imagine yourself bbq:ing for free in this scenery! NZ can be
glorious. 

Remember my schedule? Onlyone night in Wanaka since I needed to be in my next woofing place in Hokitika the next day. I was gonna hitch to there also but I was a bit nervous about that since it was like 400km of really winding road. I feared that I wouldn’t make it in one day. Now some of you are like: “But its only 400km”. Yeah, come here and let’s see about that =)

Back to the store and to the elderly couple. After some chit chat they asked me if I was travelling alone. 

“Yes, sir. It’s only me”. 

“Do you have your own car?”

“Naaah, I hitch”

“Well in that case, would you like to come with us to Hokitika tomorrow?”

“Would I ever!!”

Holy shit. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. I got a ride without even hitching and just by opening my mouth to see if I could be in assistance. I wouldn’t say that I believe in karma but I guess I have done something right at some point of my life. Or previous...

Almost forgot, I did in fact end up buying a rain jacket also. What a day! ;)

Wanaka. Just beautiful.