January 5th, 2005 - Hamish!

We were up early for our 3.5 hour horse trek. They picked us up from the Holiday Park and we drove deep into the Valley towards some pristine mountains, the sun was shining - things were going great. When we arrived, I had to fess up to not having ever ridden a horse. It was then that I met Hamish - the laziest damn horse on the face of the planet. Our guide showed me the basic means of controlling the horse, but I'll be damned if my commands made any difference to the him! He was on a slow autopilot and I lagged behind the line of riders, while Hamish set on his ways. No matter how much I kicked, prodded, pet, flipped my reigns, straightened my posture...I could not get this guy to move any faster than his meandering pace well behind the others. I might as well have not been there! There wasn't all down sides...the scenery ws terrific and the experience was valuable, but I would have much preffered to learn more and follow less. After a snack, it started to rain in the valley and the water level was just too high for us to cross a river. We asked if we could try trotting and the guide was enthusiastic about us trying it on our way back. Little did we know, the trot would happen with the blink of an eye on an uphill and it was prompted by following example from the lead horse...I was so pleased that Hamish could actually move, and spent the rest of the time trying to get him to trot again but to no avail. That afternoon, we headed over to Invercargill which is not a very tourist driven town, but we decided it would be worth while to cut driving times. En route, we stumbled across some limestone caves and I didn't hesitate to explore them. Little did I know that the self guided tour was NUTS! Small reflective badges marked the way, at first I was just bent over at the waist and then I came across a corner and the badge went down slightly...I rounded the corner and would have had to crawl on all fours, squirming through a narrow opening, through which there didn't seem to be an end! No thank you! Instead I entered the cave from the exit half a kilometer down the road. Here I got substantially into the cave and I could hear an underwater river way below, straying from the path slightly, I found myself in the middle of a crevice where I could look oth up and down for 10 m either way. No guard rails, no warning signs, nothing! The house in Invercargill was a beautiful old Victorian style house and we were very comfortable there. We made cookies and steak and pasta for the rest of the afternoon, as it was cold and rainy and the town didn't have much to offer. The common room to the hostel was a very cozy room with a radio, fireplace and an old iron heating stove where we parked ourselves for most of the afternoon and read, but not before we took turns solving the house rubix cube. The next day we were off to Dunedin.