Woman! when I behold thee flippant, vain

So lautet ein Poem von John Keats. Was das hiermit zu tun hat? Keine Ahnung, das ueberlasse ich der indistinctness der Sprache. An dieser Stelle eine klitzekleine Buchempfehlung. Ich lese gerade "What Good is the Arts?" von John Carey, das moechte ich mal dringend dringend allen ans Herz legen. Und direkt danach Intellectuals and the Masses. Vielleicht laesst das mal ein bisschen heisse Luft aus den aufgeblasenen eingebildeten Kulturkoepfen ... . Ich bin froh, dass ich nur ein dummer Fussballprolet bin und damit nix zu tun habe.

Anyway, btt. From Wanaka to Manapouri. Manapouri is a tiny peaceful village right on the Lake of the same name and we stayed 3km out of the village, on the hill, at a backpackers called Freestone. Wonderful place. First night the hosts held a valentines day bbq to which we were invited ... Karaoke included. Jimmy gave us beautiful Kiwi renditions of mainly Elvis songs. Incredible and very funny. Next day Doubtful Sound cruise with Real Journeys. We had the one in 365 days of no rain, so that was pretty neat as well. Then off to Tuatapere, which is even more remote but the starting point for the 3-day "Hump Ridge Track". Met some interesting locals in the pub the night before and learnt everything you always wanted to know about the difference between dairy and beef farming. Dairy farming is like working in a bloody factory, mate. Yep, I suppose so. The track itself was reeeeeeally worth doing. First day walk along the beach for two hours, then ascend through native forest to about 1000m and stay at the most luxurious mountain hut I've ever seen. Next day was a little up/down/up/down before we descended to sea level again, being followed but mischievous looking Keas for some minutes. Stay at another really luxurious hut and walk out through more magical forest and along the beach again on day 3. I will post some pictures tonite.

We wanted to drive straight to the Catlins after that, but when we got back to the village the usual picture: Apparently word hat got out that I was there so I had to kiss babies and attend to the virgins before we could move on. All in a day's work for the Tanmaster.

My time is running out, have to continue tonite, because now it's giant breakfast time and the another day of surfing in Dunedin. See ya on the beach!

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