It's December 31st and after a frenetic day in bustling vibrant Queenstown which consisted of two excellent luge runs from the top of Bobs Peak which overlooks Queenstown and the dazzling turquoise waters of Lake Wahitipu and the best "feeesh and chups" I have ever eaten from a questionable looking but highly recommended shack on the lakeshore we found ourselves in a DOC campsite by the lake. It was very busy, I guess due to the fact it was New Year's Eve, with loads of large groups of young men playing music very loudly and as we are in an Australasian milieu, "hooning" around.
Anyway it wasn't quite the relaxing atmosphere we have been used to at the scenic DOC sites so far. The final straw was when the noise got even louder, four pit bulls on strings appeared and the blokes started drinking their beer out of a hose.
Guess you get gribble the world over and as snobby as that might sound, I don't care. As Billy Crystal shouted in City Slickers as he was dragged through the scrub by a spooked cow "I'm on vacation!", we stuck two fingers up to their youthful merriment even though most of them looked about 30 and headed out on to the road again at 8pm.
I do believe things happen for a reason and the reason is the photo below. The joy of freedom camping which is allowable if you are in a self-contained meth mobile which we were and are within freedom camping zones, means you can pull up anywhere and settle in for the night.
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We found the perfect spot. Just us nice flat gravel bed, elevated position, exquisite views of the mountains and lake which we would never have seen if we hadn't left the campsite as we did not intend to head further up this way on our trip.
So while I imagine the gang of hoons are having great fun drinking petrol out of their engines and probably fell into a coma by 10pm on New Year's Eve, I thank them as due to their loutish behaviour, we are now staying at the best camping spot so far.
We decided we might go back to the original site at 7am while they are sleeping and loudly drink orange juice out of our waste water hose or take our Rice Krispies right up to their windows!! Yeah ... See how they like it.
I found out recently that some of The Fellowship of the Ring was shot at this campsite. It was the scenes when the Fellowship make camp by a river after leaving Lothlorien, Boromir goes doolally, Frodo and Sam split from the group and they are all attacked by Sauron's mutts, to quote from Tolkien directly. I can only assume some of the Uruk-hai extras went method in 2001 and were still hanging out at the campsite 13 years later.
Next Week: Fiordland
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