Travel day and the evil stable hands

7 hours, the map said. The drive was pretty, but after a few hours of sheep, you kinda get a little numb to the scenery. Not knowing what the towns we were travelling through had in store for us, I caved in and elected for us to grab breakfast at a 'McCafe' (Yes. They're actually called that.) in Brighton and we were on our way. Can you believe there are no biscuit sandwiches here?! They've replaced our rich, warm, buttery, crumbly, biscuits with toasted bagels! They still have the english muffins though. No change there.

After about 3 hours in the car, we stopped at lake Tekapo. Imagine a glacial lake with light turquoise water and that's it. We took a breather and some pictures and drove another 30 minutes to lake Pukaki. Beautiful. Okay. Drive.

After another 3 hours, we stopped in Cromwell at a 'fruit stand' for lunch. It was a juice and cider factory with a cafe and fruit store attached. I had a chicken wrap and Melissa had a roast beef baguette, true New Zealand cuisine! I ordered a pint of their 'gold cider.' It didn't even cross my mind that the thing might have alchohol in it! But I guess if it doesn't say APPLE, it's probably gonna be some hard type of cider. Oops. My bad. Anyway, since I was turning red, we decided to browse the fruit stand and hang out near the lake while the effects wore down.

Turns out this fruit stand sold fresh fruit ice cream! Rather than hand mixing it Coldstone Creamery style, they have a machine that they mix any fruit in with the icecream of your choice. So we sat and watched the water while we savored our delicious fresh berry ice creams.

When I regained the brown in my cheeks, we drove another hour to our hotel. Melissa's thoughts on the hotel.... First of all we missed it the first time driving by, again. When we opened the door, we saw 2 twin beds. Interesting. Walk thru the hall... bathroom. Well, actually, you turn right into a doorway and there's a sink and mirror on one side, and a stall shower with a shower curtain and stainless steel floor on the other side. A door to the toilet in front. Okay. Walk further down the hall past a dorm fridge and closet is a queen size bed. 3 beds??? Uhh... one for us, one for one luggage, and one for the other. We started settling in and there's a mosquito on the wall. *SMACK* I think I killed about 3 bugs before we went to dinner. And the smoke detector is taped to the ceiling. *scratch head* There better not be a fire when we're in that room. I was a little disappointed cuz that was the last hotel we were staying at and for 3 nights. That's the longest stay and it was a mediocre room with watery shampoo/conditioner (Only one hotel had 2 seperate bottles for shampoo and conditioner?!?), with bugs, noisy toilet, barely a shower, a tiny tv with no remote, and it was cold. *End rant here.*

Back to you Chris... After trying to figure out where to park in one of the busiest little towns in NZ, we walked around to about 10 different restaurants looking at over price menus. Finally, after I saw a 15 dollar steak special in the window, we decided on dinner at a baa. The Surreal bar was playing good jazzy music when we came in and had a surprisingly American ambience, very modern yet rustic. Melissa had a beyooootiful (to be read in the crocodile hunter's accent with lots of enthusiasm) honey soy prawn salad. We took pictures again.

We did more shopping and called it a day. But before that, we're here at an internet cafe where there's actually a "Happy Hour!" Can you imagine that? Cool beans. Best deal in town. Tomorrow we're confirmed for our LOTR bus tour. we're here checking our reservations for our Ride of the Rings Tour. BOO!! (turns keyboard over to the boss.)

So we've strategically planned our last full day to do a horseback riding tour to some LOTR locations near Queenstown. We emailed on Tuesday to confirm the bus tour and this horseback tour. I had booked these back in December. They write me back 2 days later saying that there's only one spot left and that they have spaces for the both of us on Sunday or Monday. WE LEAVE ON SUNDAY!!! That was it, no explaintion why they cancelled my previous reservation, nothing. Just to call to "go over our options." What kind of options could we possibly have? They apparently only have one horse left so we can't both ride the one horse. We can't do another day cuz we're leaving. There was no way we'd be going on this thing. There's nothing they could possibly do for us... give us a discount for next time??? Uhh... we won't be here. So by now I'm frustrated and angry and want to yell at the other end of the email, but really, what good would that do me? We just told them we'd call in the morning to check things out. I don't even want to do it anymore. The last 2 tours were supposed to be the highlight of our trip with all the cool LOTR stuff. We even had our little marathon before we left. And now its just up to the one tour to rule the rest. It better be a good one.

See you tomorrow.

Wiper count: 39 and 1 =D