tap tap tapping on the glass
zeal diar #010
TEN WEEKS OF ZEAL!! I’ve been so homesick for New York the past few weeks, so desperately missing spring that the sudden realization I’m about to leave has caught me totally off guard.
The mood of this week has been reflection - looking back at photos of the beginning of the trip, being jealous of the way my hair and skin looked then1 and also trying to remember what my mindset was. I was more of a planner then; booking ferrys weeks in advance. These days I roll up to a hostel same day and ask if there’s anything available. I knew less about other cultures but was excited to meet those of different nationalities; I am now biased against the Germans and French2. I didn’t mind discussing Trump in those first few weeks but now have gotten bored of it, though I do feel more connected to my country/interested in actively protesting the administration when I get back.
Though that still is some time away - I will be heading to Australia to stay with some distant cousins for a little under a month. A part of me wishes I was heading straight home3 but I haven’t done as much writing as I would have liked here. Being in the same place for several weeks without my friends/with Mormon relatives for a while will be hopefully good for that, lol.
Glacier? I Barely Know Her!
At Glowworm, life was very close to perfect. There was free dinner, one full bed in the room that I managed to grab and no roommates. This reality was shattered with the arrival of my roommate at 9:30PM. I was watching RHONY and playing TOTK but it was clear he wanted to talk: “You wouldn’t believe the day I just had.”
“What.” I said flatly. He then showed me a picture of a rental sedan flipped into a ditch on the side of the road. It wasn’t the first flipped car I’d seen that day - I’d passed two others on the drive to the hostel, but it was the first I’d known personally. “How did that happen?”
He said he had been on his phone and it was raining. I sort of lost sympathy after that, but asked how he’d gotten here. Apparently they’d called the tow truck and the car was completely fine, even after landing upside down. He’d driven it the rest of the way there. I was also annoyed to be losing my private room but thankfully he turned out to be a quiet sleeper. I have lost too many nights to others’ snoring!!
The next day, I was making breakfast in the kitchen when the Car-Flipper approached me. I politely asked him what he was going to do that day. He said he had been planning on taking a helicopter to a Glacier hike but was in a lot of pain from the accident. I suggested a “chill day” or a trip to the hospital. He asked me what I was going to do and I said a hike to the lake and then the two easy hikes to the nearby glaciers. He said he was planning on doing the lake too and did I wasnt to go with him?
“I kind of like to go by myself”, I said instantly. This wasn’t not true; I wasn’t going to do any of these with Celine and Aglae. But I also knew that if he was cuter/hadn’t flipped his car into a ditch the day before4 I might have said yes. I felt guilty about rejecting him, so much that I texted Nathaniel about it. Part of my reason also was that he was my only roommate, if he said something weird it could have made me really uncomfortable falling asleep that night. Nathaniel said it was a terrible idea to go on a hike with someone I didn’t know anyways which made me feel better. I am trying to be less immediately judgemental of people. However, I will say that my instincts tend to be right!!
I headed first to the Lake Matheson hike, which the front desk person had recommended first since the clear-skied morning would allow me to see the reflection of Mount Cook in the like. The hike was easy and nice but I spent most of it occupied with an idea for My Little RHONY - an animated re-creation of iconic Real Housewives of NY scenes with the women as ponies. I am not a Brony and have never seen an episode of MLP but I have watched Jenny Nicholson’s The Last Bronycon essay more times than is healthy. I spent most of the hike texting various artsy people I know to ask if they are Real Housewives fans/do animation and coming up with their “cutie marks”. I was unable to find a artistic partner - if anyone knows anyone please connect us. I think this is a million dollar concept.
I’ve made a half-hearted attempt to disconnect from the NY scene while I’ve been here - I’m still on Twitter but driving means I’m not scrolling Insta as much as I normally do. The biggest intentional change I’ve made is actively not listening to podcasts. The six-hour drive from Mt. Cook to the glaciers broke this resolution - I downloaded a few Straightio Labs and let the gay boys talk me through the ride. Out of all the pop/queer culture podcasts I’ve listened to, Straightio is easily the best. Other pop culture podcasts can be exhausting with the sheer amount of backstory you have to learn to get what they’re talking about; George and Sam strike the perfect balance of dumb and smart AND they give excellent book recommendations. I listened to Straightio all through my hikes to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers - maybe I should have focused more on the beautiful surroundings than their discussion on whether tote bags are gay or straight but I have seen a LOT of nature on this trip!! I can only be reverent towards so much of it!!
I did three glacier hikes in one day - while not super strenuous it definitely took it out of me. I finished off the day by going to a ponamu carving workshop, AKA New Zealand greenstone. Greenstone is one of the national symbols of the country, is culturally significant to the Māori and happens to come in all my favorite shades of green. They sell greenstone jewelry at all the gift shops but I had been recommended this workshop by Ashton’s friend. It was run by a white lady but she had been carving since childhood and got the greenstone from local Māori. It was such a unique experience and I got a cool necklace that I made myself!
I really liked Glowworm a lot but decided I would leave the next day. Aglae and Celine were as well and we discussed doing the Hokitika Gorge together. They also wanted to stop in a little town on the way called Ross, which they said was on the way. I had a long drive ahead of me to my next campsite so I said I would also stop but couldn’t stay too long.
That night, I was feeling more talkative so I engaged the Car-Flipper in conversation. I asked him what he did before coming to New Zealand. He said he used to work in meme crypto but got fired. Good to know that my vibe meter is still accurate!
Ross: Dress for Less
The next day I packed up everything and made the drive to Ross in front of Celine and Aglae’s car. It was an old mining town and had a certain cowboy vibe that reminded me of Snowflake. When we got out of the car, Celine and Aglae informed we they were going to do a two hour hike. I didn’t have time to do that and also drive five hours to Gentle Annie’s Seaside Camp, the favorite campsite of the German girls I had met in Fairlie. However, I still wanted to walk around. To be honest, there wasn’t much to see. Aglae and I had to go bathroom and stepped into the nearby public restrooms. While we were in there the song “If You Wanna Be My Lover” by the Spice Girls started blasting so loud I couldn’t hear myself speak. I thought it was coming from the bathroom at first but when I got out I saw that some random guy was sitting in front of the bathrooms with a giant speaker just blasting. #NYCvibes.
We moved away from the speaker guy but had to walk past a few of his buddies who were hanging out around a nearby truck. It was 11am but they were drunk and ogling. I immediately got bad vibes from this town and decided to go. The girls left to do their hike and I got in the car to map myself to the Gorge. I then discovered it was an hour back the way we came. The Car-Flipper had told me the bridge over the Gorge was closed anyways due to recent rain (you could still go just not walk across it) so I decided it wasn’t worth the detour and moved onward to Gentle Annie’s.
Five hours later, I arrived at the campsite. It was 4PM but no one was working. Actually, someone was working but he said I would have to wait until the morning to pay for my site? I had to write my name down in the book. The campsite was nearly empty. I found a spot but even away from the beach the sandflies were pretty bad (which is common on the West Coast of the South Island). When I parked my car, I then realized I couldn’t camp a single more night in New Zealand. I looked up the closest hostel - an hour back the way I came. I called them to make sure they had a bed and drove back.
The hostel was called YHA TripInn and it was a large Victorian style house in the small town of Westport. The front desk man was very nice and I paid in cash before being escorted to my room - which was EMPTY!!!! THANK THE LORD GOD. I had never been so grateful in my life. I had a blissful night of sleep.
Picton Peyton
There wasn’t much to do in Westport besides surfing and beach. It was a nice day but I was too tired to leave the hostel. I paid for a second night and spent the entire day watching RHONY and playing video games. Around 4pm, two people showed up to ruin my me party. One was a German girl around my age and the other was an older woman from Singapore, both of whom were on a Kiwi Experience bus tour. The German girl was very nice and had a great sense of humor. When I told her my name she said “oh, like Peyton Manning?” This is how I learned she was an American female football player in Germany.5 Extremely interesting. They had a beach bonfire to go to so I still had the room to myself for the evening. As I sat back in my bed, I suddenly saw the Car-Flipper walk past the window of my room. He saw me too, and back-tracked so we could awkwardly wave at each other. I took that as my cue to check out the next day. Luckily, no one snored that night.
I had booked a ferry back to the North Island for May 2nd so I knew I had to be in Picton by then. I had also learned that Emma had bought a car and was coming to the South Island on the 29th. I wanted to spend some time with her before I left town so decided to go to Picton a few days early to meet up. We had a beautiful reunion outside the Piwaka Lodge. I booked a room and Emma covertly slept in her van outside.
The vibe of Piwaka was odd - there was no one working there when walked in so I called the number on a door and the host told me I could just let myself into room 8. Everything was kind of piecemeal, but the beds were comfortable and there was a sink in the room which was nice. Most of the other lodgers were older men and a few younger women who seemed to be a bit off. However, this did create an environment that easily allowed me to sneak Emma in to use the showers. I ended up sharing a room with the only other normal-seeming girl in the hostel, thank god. And no one snored ❤️
It was supposed to rain the next day so Emma and I planned on hitting the nearby museums - one was devoted to an old ship called the Edwin Fox and the other was for whaling, which lead to the reveal that Emma’s favorite book is Moby Dick. It’s upsetting how much smarter she is than me. The museums were small and cute and kept us sheltered from what was turning into an insane rainstorm outside. We bopped around the bookstores and cafes, ending up at the local library where I picked up a book about the business history of the MCU that ended up being kinda interesting lowkey. The next day was supposed to be cloudy but not rainy and the morning after that was my ferry so we expected to be in our last few days together, maybe forever6. To my surprise that night I got a text saying my Friday morning ferry had been cancelled due to weather. This was extremely annoying, especially since I already felt I had limited time to hit my last few sightseeing spots on the North Island and get back to Auckland. The next available ferry was midday Sunday. However, this also meant more Emma time!
Blenheim Babes
Since I had a few more days before my ferry, we decided to leave Picton and head towards nearby Blenheim. Blenheim is a small town but is flanked by several wineries. My Pikawa roommate joined us for the first wine tasting at a place called Saint Clair’s. I was feeling kind of grumpy and anti-social and kept trying to covertly read the MCU book on my phone. However, a phenomenal mocha and the best white wine I’ve ever tasted7 woke me up soon enough. My roommate had other things to do so Emma and I hit a few more wineries by ourselves.
I had originally planned to stay the night in Blenheim and head to nearby Nelson the next day but Blenheim hostels were all either full or had horrible reviews so we decided to make the hour and a half drive to Nelson. It was a bit windy and scary at night but we ended up safely at Tasman Bay Backpackers.
Tazzy Bay
Tasman Bay Backpackers had extremely good reviews, which also meant it was very full. There was only one bed left in my room when I checked in and it was the only top bunk without an outlet. I made friends with a German girl in the best bed who told me she’d be leaving early the next morning so I went down to the front desk and requested to switch beds once she’d gone. They said yes! Tasman Bay was extremely well run - the front desk guy was nice, there was a variety of instruments strewn about the common area and every night they served a chocolate pudding (actually a cake) with ice cream. They also turned a blind eye to me shamelessly allowing Emma into the hostel every night and morning to use the bathrooms and kitchen.
While I’d had good luck with snorers for a the past week, my luck ran out here. There were two guys in my room (usually the culprit) but the enemy this time was the other girl! Feminism dead in a ditch. Emma and I spent the next few days exploring Nelson - going to thrift stores, seeing the jewelry store of the creator of the One Ring, eating and going to the beach.
The Tony nominations came out which sent me spiraling into an Oh, Mary! state of mind. A bout of temporary insanity caused me to DM several people on Reddit looking for a bootleg. Take me away, officers!!
i’m gonna be broke as hell when I go home but I need a facial and haircut statttttt
though fond of the danes!
life world is re-opening! many new theater i want to see! wrap parties for film productions i was not a part of but could have gotten into!
showing extremely poor judgement
her favorite team was the patriots
if someone dies or we get in a fight
it was the st. clair albariño, which is only available to purchase at the winery or in a delivery of six to the US. It is slightly salty and so fucking good. Someone please split the shipment costs with me!!!