A few weeks ago I took a short trip from Christchurch to Twizel. It was a last minute necessity to travel and I had the idea to book a ticket on the Intercity bus so could chill out and get into a ‘travel mode’ mindset amongst the European backpackers taking this route.
Fast forward two days to the morning of my trip, I was not in the mood. Christchurch was enduring a miserable winter morning and the thought of 4.5 hours on a bus was not appealing to me. However, subsequent events were going to make me enthusiastic again for the more ordinary aspects of travel. Mundane aspects that are overlooked in most blogs and vlogs. Experiencing a journey with other travellers, bus station convenience kiosks, waiting to load bags on and off the bus. Enthusiastic for, not just the things you think about when you book a trip, but the the in-betweens that you don’t think about.
My mood started to change when I got to the bus station. A couple of German backpackers got onto the bus I was due to depart on. Their backpacks fully laden, ready to be put into the luggage hold, it reminded me of the days I spent carrying a backpack around foreign places. I bought an overpriced bottle of water from the bus station kiosk and went back out to wait near the bus. Even the annoyances of travel felt a comfort to me. I was back in my element, about to be on the road amongst like minded people.
The ordinary of travel was not mundane to me. It’s funny how quickly a 4.5 hour bus trip went from being a chore to something better. The bus was roughly half full so most people had two seats to themselves and once we got out of Christchurch the weather cleared and it was blue skies all the way down the South Island. I had not done much serious travel in the last few years and while this was far from serious travel; for a short while, I was back in that world. Backpackers looking through the window at new places they had wanted to see for Months, maybe even years. All action cams pointing out the window, I had the privilege of seeing a landscape I had seen many times through a different perspective.
Everyone on this bus was going somewhere to do some activity. Everyone but me, who was here to run an errand. But it didn’t matter on this journey. The ordinary had become interesting to me.
The first stop was the South Canterbury town of Geraldine. It’s a small pleasant town, a nice place to walk around for 30 minutes. Some travellers bought some snacks from the cafe, I took a walk around the town. The central South Island of New Zealand is beautiful in the winter, even more than in summer I think but this was just a short stop.
I would normally drive this route and have to concentrate on the road but today, on the bus, I can relax and look at the scenery. Which gets better further South on the road after Geraldine. On a clear day, like today, you have great views of the snow capped Southern alps set against the rugged tussock landscape of the Mackenzie District. This is my favourite area of New Zealand to drive through. This time, I wasn’t driving, just relaxing and looking out the window in a bus with other travellers.
We took a longer stop in Tekapo as the bus terminates in Queenstown, which Tekapo is the halfway point roughly. A number of people got off here, they had booked activities to do in the alpine lake town. They collected their bags and this ‘ordinary’ stage of their journey was over for them.
I bought some snacks at the Four Square and took a walk down to the Lake shoreline. The Lake at Tekapo provides great views in winter. It is a beautiful sight with the alps covered with snow and with fewer tourists than in the summer.
After my walk I went back to wait for the bus to depart. New travellers would replace those that had left. Some more German backpackers and a couple of Australians heading for the Ski season in Queenstown perhaps.
I was back in the midst of people arriving, and getting ready to go to, their destination. But I was sad as I realised it would only be 45 minutes of further travel until I arrived at my destination, the small town of Twizel. I would no longer be amongst fellow travellers. My journey would end soon. Myself and my love of ordinary travel would have to break up soon.
Arriving at Twizel, I said goodbye to those around me and disembarked. I’d never been to this small town before that was originally founded as a temporary settlement by the NZ Ministry of Works to house workers on the Waitaki hydro project. However, it is such a picturesque place to live it became a permanent town.
The bus station in Twizel is just across from the local Four Square supermarket car park, as is often the case in small town New Zealand. I was the only traveller getting off here. So that was it. My all too short experience of being back in travel mode was over, for now at least.
I see lots written online about exotic destinations, beautiful landscapes, which this blog has featured also, but about the love of the more ordinary parts of travel? Not so much. I loved my short experience back in the travel game. No ski holiday, no sky diving, no hike on one of the great walks; just relaxing with travellers taking a journey. This time, for me, the destination was a sidepiece; the journey was the travel.
The ordinary parts of travel can be interesting and relaxing. You can book a view from a tower in the sky, book white water rafting, or plan a hike. But you can’t plan what’s going to happen on the journey to your destination. The people you travel with, the random places you stop at, what you see on a walk in the ‘in-between’ places that you visit. I thought this bus ride was going to be boring, I packed a book in my bag to get through four and a half hours of travel. Instead of having to slog through the trip, I didn’t want it to end. This trip from through New Zealand’s South Island made me love the ordinary parts of travel all over again.
* I purchased my ticket from Christchurch to Twizel from Intercity bus for $79 NZD – bus travel in New Zealand seems to be more pricey than it used to be. Having said that, the trip was comfortable and the bus not overly crowded.
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