Musings of an Idiot

Farewell Queenstown, Hello Alexandra

The early morning starts are always a killer and I definitely was sad leaving Queenstown. Lance and me walked to the bus stop and somewhere inbetween I lost the bus tickets. They were sitting in my back pocket, so they must have fallen off when I shifted the weight of the bags around, so I ran back about 50 meters from the bus stop and sure enough they were lying on the footpath.


The bus journey was good and bad at the same time. Good because the central otago scenery was stunning and the landscapes are a marvel; bad because I couldn't take very many photographs as the bus was swaying from side to side through the entire journey. I did manage to get a couple of them.



The trip was pretty uneventful and as we got down from the bus we realized that we did not know where the backpackers was in relation to where we were. Lance asked a couple of guys but they didn't seem to know the location either and just then a lady yelled from about 10 feet away, telling us where it was. We were pretty amazed - first because the backpackers was just around the corner and second because the lady who gave us the directions had pretty amazing hearing capabilities.

Since we had about 4 hours before the wedding, Lance thought that it was a good idea to check out the church and then also check out the place where the reception was taking place as he was going to film it. On the way to the church Lance pointed to a guy sitting in a local cafe and said 'That's Frank Bunce', since I didn't know who that was I asked him 'Who is Frank Bunce?'and because the air was so quiet and the group at the cafe was sitting next to the footpath - my words would obviously have traveled through to them. Lance was shaking his head in disbelief at me that I would say such a thing like that. After we got a little distance away from the cafe he told me that Frank Bunce was a famous All Black - back in the day. I am ignorant about NZ Rugby and rugby legends, so I told Lance that it didn't really mean anything to me.

The church was easy to find and after a quick look we decided to walk to the reception area based on a street map on the public board. After walking for about 30 minutes odd it felt like we were going nowhere and the heat in Alexandra was searing. Lance was teasing me about wearing an icebreaker in such hot weather - the double catch was that if I removed my ice breaker and tied it around my shoulders he would start calling me 'preppy boy' - a term he gave to me in Queenstown when he saw me tie my ice breaker around my shoulder. So the long and short of it was that the heat was really getting to me. Then Lance had the brilliant idea to ask a couple of locals about how far the place really was and the guys told us that it was a good 6 KM walk. On hearing that we promptly started walking back to the backpackers. But as we were walking back Lance realized that the guy sitting at the cafe was not Frank but it was another All Black legend called Chuck. On hearing this I cracked up laughing as the joke was on him - that he didn't recognize the person properly and based on my initial question 'Who is Frank Bunce?', Chuck would probably be thinking a couple of choice things about Lance's recognition skills.

Alexandra is a small town and even though it is very quite I can't imagine ever being able to live there for a long time - more so because it reminded me of Rohtak - the small town where I studied my business degrees. I mean it is way more beautiful than Rohtak but the vibe was kind of similar. We didn't really explore the town that much more as it was really hot and considering that it had already been a long day and we still had the wedding and the reception to attend - taking a small nap before the wedding proved to be an excellent idea.

We got to the wedding early and the church itself was a beauty - it had a nice cozy feel to it. The wedding was nice as well and Rachel looked stunning in her bridal gown. I don't have any photographs of the actual ceremony itself but I will post some pics up once Lance comes back to Auckland from his current camera job.




After the wedding the big challenge was to get a ride to the reception and by turn of events we got a ride with Peter - the preacher who conducted the marriage ceremony and Marilyn - his wife. Peter is a really funny guy and add Scottish accent to it and it is fascinating listening to him. Anyway the reception was great and the guest had to find their way to the center of the maze and once you got there you had refreshments and stuff. Lance got some amazing stuff of people trying to get to the location. After enjoying the lovely weather, the actual reception ceremony began and I am still surprised at how short the wedding ceremonies over here usually are and how the receptions are longer affairs unlike India where both the ceremonies are pretty long drawn affairs - more so in South Indian than in North India.






The food was great, the festivities were roaring and we finished the night by catching a lift back with Peter and Marilyn back to the backpackers at almost 1.30 or 2.00 in the morning. In a way it is good that I decided to attend the wedding otherwise I would not only have missed a good occasion but would probably procrastinated for another couple of years before visiting South Island.

That's the lot for now - stay tuned for Dunedin.
Amit

Labels: Adventure, Alexandra, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel, Wedding

posted by Amit @ 6:16 AM