Russian Roadtripping!



En route to Arrowtown





En route to Queenstown





Solo traveler in need of hug in Te Anau



Arrowtown

Blue Door Bar

Enjoying myself at Blue Door Bar

En route to WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND

                I met up with Russian Maria and we started our road trip with her announcing that she didn’t have a license.  She said, ‘Girl, you got some real karma on you’ minutes later when she noticed the first policeman in her 7 day trip was following right behind us.  We took it easy up to Queenstown, stopped in for some Thai food, and continued on to Arrowtown where Autumn was really setting in.  The landscape just looked like a painting where the painter got greedy when applying the reds, oranges and yellows.  It was gorgeous!  Arrowtown was an old gold mining town and had a very wild, wild west feeling about it…except there was more danger in dying from tumble weed rather than a big shootout.   On Bjorn’s recommendation we sought the Blue Door Bar.  An old woman, who turned out to be the mailman in town and could have won gold in Olympic speedwalking, showed us right to its door while delivering mail along the way.  The bartender was extremely rude but we nestled right into their leather couches and let the candlelight take away what little problems we had.  We each enjoyed a drink and then continued on to Wanaka.

                We rolled into Alberttown where Maria’s friend lived and had some trouble finding the house.  The street town of Alison Avenue was lost in translation and we were busy looking for ‘Elephant Avenue’ for a bit.  Whoops.  We made it to Wanaka with just enough time to race through the supermarket (everything closes by 8pm).  It was at this point in the trip that I really learned a lot from Maria.  She had just come off a trip to India and Mangolia (and grew up in rural Russia) where she was surrounded by only natural foods.  I grew up off of Route 1 where cheese was preferred in a can and appeared fluorescent in color.  I really don’t know the first thing about cooking or eating at this point in my life and I am very ashamed.  Twenty-seven years and you’d think I’d know something.

                In just two days she’s taken me completely outside of my comfort zone.  Some have been great…some of them have been harder. She is really smart and I definitely trust her level of knowledge on the natural processes of foods and how they affect the body.   I refused to give up my coca cola though.  You can tell me it’s my one way ticket to hell and I will still proudly drink it down and exclaim, ‘Ahhhhhhhhhh. ‘ Here is where I give a shout-out to my sister Gayle who is really healthy and has always been a good role model for me.   I’m not sure how she got that way since the rest of us are yuckmouths but she knows how to provide healthy meals for her family and I really could learn a thing or two from her.  I respect her for the way she lives.  And I also respect that she respects my way of eating.  It’s not easy to watch someone eat crap and hold one’s tongue.  She’ll be glad to know that I am trying new, healthier foods on my trip.  I was being very stingy at the beginning though and not eating much.  After getting some headaches and stomach aches, I figured I better eat.

                Maria’s been playing quite the joke on facebook with all her friends since she wrote, “Met a fellow New Yorker today- gorgeous red head, hockey player, fresh off the trading floor”.  They all think she’s roadtripping with a guy and she’s only been posting pictures that imply the same.  When I fell asleep watching hockey highlights that night, she started to think that maybe she wasn’t too far off. Haha.  Rowan would have been proud of me.