To Old to Party

I have definitely come to the realization that my partying days are over. Last night was the strangest night ever. I stayed at the Base hostel in Queenstown in a four share mixed dorm room. When I arrived there were two large tattooed guys napping on two of the beds. When I entered the room, they opened their eyes, glared at me, muttered something in a distinctly German accent and then rolled over to face their prospective walls. The one chap had the bed by the window, the other against one of the walls. Their was a pack on the other bed next to the toilet which left mine dead center in the middle of the room. Not the place that I really wanted to be.

I dropped the bag and headed out in to the city. This is my second time here and it truly is a stunning place. Imagine the cleanliness and tourist Mecca of Disney surrounded by massive and beautiful mountains that frame an aqua blue lake. It is the adventure capital of New Zealand with stores catering to all of your adrenalin junky needs. If you want to bungy jump , sky dive, ride the rapids, swing over a gorge....well you get the meaning. I intentionally stayed out quite late so I didn't have to deal with the hostile hostel situation. When I returned aroung 1:00am, I could hear the base thumping from the end of Shot Over street. As I approached a distinctly young crowd were screaming, singing, wearing red sombreros and all were feeling very little pain. Not a grey haired fellow among the crowd.

I locked my bag in a storage unit downstairs and headed up to the room. When I opened the door, I could see one shadowy figure on the bed by the bathroom and could barely make out another by the window. I closed the door, fumbled my way over to the center of the room and climbed into the bed. A very strange feeling I must say. After lying there for about ten minutes it started. In this particular case it wasn't the usual middle aged white male snoring (except for the hobbit lady of Milford), this time it was the sound of twenty something drunken and passed out snoring. Even stranger was that the loudest one was definitely a female in a room with young drunken back packers and one really uncomfortable and annoyed old guy. About an hour later I cold hear someone struggling to get the door open..."ah...great. My third roomie is home."