The green-eyed monster

Today has been a glorious day...although the weather changes every single second. After a day of hiking through the Hooker Valley, which took over 3 hours and was quite advanced, I must say. There were several bits that required us to navigate ourselves through freezing cold water, over rocks and through creeks...but the views were top notch and so picturesque. You had to trek over 2 suspension bridges as well and I personally do not appreciate trekking over a bridge suspended in mid-air by a few cables that has a sign on it saying no more than 5 people at one time. What does that mean exactly? Is that 5 people of average weight...do children count...I was very confused, but made it across the rapid flowing water below cascading over jagged rocks and smashing against the banks on either side and the wind...oh the wind...I swear I have never been to such a windy country...
After conquering the second suspension bridge, you are greatly rewarded with your first "up-close" view of Mt Cook, which is only about 1/3 the size of Mt Everest (a factoid I learned yesterday), but no less spectacular. It was a sunny, yet windy day with a bite in the air and the snow covered Mt Cook looked scrumptious. I could have taken a slice out of her and eaten her up with a large cappuccino on the side...what a treat! People actually climb this monster and live to tell the tale! We were quite satisfied with the gruelling 3 hour hike there and back and our views from afar. We took another little detour on our way to Dunedin (pronounced dune...like a sand dune then a long 'e' sound and then din)...we were told by the grocery store lady in a very stern tone so clearly this place is mispronounced regularly. Like Twizel, another tiny town we stayed in that is not pronounced like twizlers the liquorice candy, but with a long 'I' sound as in, "I don't care how to pronounce these places!" Back to my story...where was I...oh yes, our detour to the Tasman Glacier, the first of many glaciers we will be visiting on or South Island leg of the New Zealand tour. You basically hike a steep uphill battle to the top to overlook a gorge filled with a dull brown lake with a series of dirty glacier formations...not particularly what I had imagined, but my first glaciers none the less. There were a few that had distance bright blue stripes, but overall, not that impressive. Alex says that I am very hard to impress, but if I am going to hike uphill in an outfit that should only be worn to humiliate a person into submission in some sort of strange torture experiment (look out for the next blog entitled 'How NOT to pack for an around the world trip and other lessons learned' and pictures to accompany said blog, coming soon), then I expect...no I demand a reward. It needn't be a tangible reward, but some beauty man...throw me a bone here...I'm trying to make some freaking memories! There were also a few other baby treks around the Tasman Glacier to the Blue Lakes, though they are more green in colour, and they were gorgeous...so sparkly and they shimmered and glowed every time the wind blew the water across the top of the lake underneath the warm sunlight and another walk to the Tasman Lake, which offered a more close-up view of the glaciers. Then, after a most fulfilling day of treks and hikes, we zoomed down the highway, passing breathtaking scenery at every turn through Oamaru where we stopped for the night. We spent the morning there doing laundry, which we had not done in over 3 weeks and walking all around the old timey quaint little town, including a walking tour of Janet Frame's life in Oamaru. She was a famous and tortured author from New Zealand who was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and spent years in the local insane asylum (as they were called back then) narrowly escaping a frontal lobotomy doe to her gifted writing ability. So many tortured women authors from NZ...hmmm...wonder what that is all about!
We finally made our way to Dunedin and what an interesting little afternoon we had here...and I also discovered my dirty little dark side of sheer, pure unadulterated jealousy that only poked its' little head out a few short hours ago. It all began with a lovely little walk around the city centre that is shaped like an octagon, stopping briefly to peruse the local second-hand bookshops and have a lovely coffee at one of the local cafes. We carried on with a visit to the NZ Sports Hall of Fame Museum for an interesting and educational (for me really) trip down sports memory lane. I was introduced to many of NZ's most inspiring athletes and told about their daring wins and shattering wold record moments, while also learning a bit about cricket and rugby....Go All Blacks! We moved on to the Public Art Gallery, which is small and free...two of my favourite words associated with art galleries. We were able to peruse each room of random artworks all displayed on a wall painted in a different colour...very eye catching indeed. Then a quick detour to the naturopath to learn all about our bodies and what we should be doing, how we should be eating and supplements we should be taking for our individual health needs...some very good information given...life changing I might say, as living in a van and travellnig for a year can take its' tole at times.
Then the dreaded moment of jealousy...the evil lurking within me when we turned the corner to visit another free art gallery called the Temple Gallery with works of art hanging on the walls of an old synagogue in the city...like 1800s old! Innocently, we walked up the series of 4 ramps through the garden of roses and other varieties of flowers that canopied the cement walkway overgrown with moss until we reached the top. We could see the glorious stained glass windows in the shape of Jewish stars peering atop the hill of walkways we endured with a tiny opening on the far left side..we entered a long corridor littered with a plethora of various artworks arbitrarily displayed on the walls and along the floor...It almost seemed as though we were entering someone's personal home...but that could not be true, as it is a gallery! As soon as we met the woman who owns the gallery, as she poked her head out of what appeared to be a sitting room complete with sofa, flat screen television and a desk propped up right next to a glorious open plan kitchen where an older lady was cooking up some homemade soup, we knew this was a gallery that was owned and accommodated by family...enter the green-eyed monster. She told us about how she and her architect husband purchased this old synagogue back in 1992 for super cheap, but it was in total disrepair. She said that her husband has an eye for buildings and after the fixed it up, they turned half of it into a gallery and the rest into their home...by the way, they sleep in the main synagogue in a huge master bedroom with a pulpit and an old arc in front of their king sized bed...I felt a warm rage building in my stomach! I WANT THAT HOUSE! I mean, I want it! I am so jealous that this family (not even sure if they are Jewish, as it wasn't prudent to ask...so Alex tells me) live in MY dream house. Not only are they surrounded by amazing and ever changing artworks, but they sleep in a synagogue for crying out loud. I have never seen such a thing...and I want it! Alex and I worked through some of my issues...we talked them out...she explained that the home was already owned and that the family weren't going to sell it...blah blah blah...
I did manage to work myself down and just calmed my jealous rage...it peaked again, as we sat on the tiny cement bench at the bottom of the garden walkway leading up to MY dream house, but I was able to curtail it...barely! Alex thought it might be cathartic to blog about it...my rage that is...just let it all out. I guess it helped a bit...and it doesn't count as rampant jealousy that I am plotting a way to steal the Temple Gallery in some amazing financial upheaval of the family's assets or some family lineage gone array in which I have to take over the mortgage and become the rightful Jewish owner....muahhh haaa haaa aaaa muaahhhh aahh ahhh haha (please imagine that I am wringing my hands, while laughing in this devious manner)...because I am...muahhhh haa haaa muahh haaa