Wanaka

Funny thing happened today. I was wondering around, didn’t know what to do or where to go. I booked my bus ticket to Queenstown for Saturday; I went to the waterfront to take some photos. I didn’t feel like doing anything, so I walked around, until I found a little lookout point over the city. It was beautiful.

So I sat there for like an hour or so. I noticed few people in their balconies, sunbathing. I looked over my right, there was a guy sitting and watching something. Half an hour later he walks towards me, saying that “I needed to introduce myself to you, because I just took your photo while you were sitting here”. He said that “I took your pic, but it’s nothing dirty or anything.” He showed me the pic and it was quite okay (I am very critical what it comes to self-pictures and I don’t like people taking my photos, because I cannot censure them. I have a one picture of myself that I really like and it’s taken by my cousins professional photographer friend just before Christmas when she organized a day for all her god children(?))  The guy introduced himself as Jamie, a New Zealander from Dunedin, who now lives in Adelaide, Australia. We agreed it’s the nicest city in AUS. He told me to look him up, when I get to Adelaide next year. Facebook connects people,eih?

It was funny to be in a situation I’ve been before. He told me he wanted to come and say hi, because he was wondering who is up there, doing absolutely nothing. It was like a Deiza-vu, because I did the same with Jay, at the Blue Mountains and now, there I was sitting with a guy, whom I have no idea who he was. We talked a bit, not too much though. He had three beers, one for each and we shared the third one. He came to Wanaka for a wedding.

I talked about my experiences in NZ and Australia, what it felt like going home within few weeks, just random stuff. He works with trains; he didn’t tell me if he was a conductor or something. I made him guess what I do for a living and he was the third person to say that “you must work with kids”. What is with that?! How come the first impression of me, is that I work with children?!

After a while, he asked me if I could take off my sunglasses that it’s weird to talk to someone and you don’t get to see their eyes. I was wearing my pirate scarf on my head, not to get headache from the sun. But I didn’t apply any sunscreen on me, so I was a bit worried about getting sunburned.

We listened to some NZ rap music and I introduced him to a Finnish band called Kymppilinja.

When he was about to leave, he told me to stand up, because he wanted to give me a hug. Yesterday was a Hug a Finn day, but I didn’t get a chance to hug anyone, so he gave me two hugs. One for yesterday and one for today. Then we walked separate ways. I told him that today I am going to catch a glimpse of the Milky Way, because I haven’t seen it yet, so I’ll probably going to see him later today.

These random talks are the best thing while traveling alone. You will always remember the people, because they were the ones who made the trip. I know I have watched the Map of Saturday too many times now, but I just love it! It reminds me why I want to travel, and meet people. And like many people in the film, your ordinary life back home, doesn’t interest you at all and I cannot see myself

Here are pictures from Wanaka. Isn’t this a heaven on earth?