This morning I got up early, having had another night where I couldn’t sleep. I peered out the window and realised that it looked a bit too miserable to go for a run, so instead I set about packing my stuff up without waking Nic and Ro; I managed this surprisingly successfully.
When I left the cabin, I was really surprised to see three pukekos pecking around on the floor outside – I think they scared me as much as I scared them! I hadn’t seen a pukeko from so close before, so was actually quite excited. I went to the kitchen, made a cup of tea and watched them for a while.
Eventually everyone was up and ready to go, so the bus was packed up and we began our drive to Barrytown. The first thing we did was confirm the theme for the fancy dress – Daisy settled on the very broad theme of ‘alternative textiles’. That meant our first stop was back at the little town just out of Marahau, so that we could go to the supermarket and Warehouse, to get the bits we needed for our costumes. I went to Warehouse and after much searching, found what I needed, then headed back to the bus. At least not being able to sleep had its benefits – I’d been able to use my insomnia to come up with an idea or a costume!
The drive to Barrytown was relatively uneventful, particularly as the weather was so atrocious – it was driving with rain so much that it was impossible to see any of the scenery so I sat with Daisy’s laptop and created a new playlist from his itunes for his ipod, as the general consensus was that we’d heard all the other ones a few times. We stopped and picked up a few more people and then arrived at Pancake Rocks, where we could do the walk to go see them. I decided to sit in the cafe with a coffee instead, then was amazed to suddenly get a wifi signal from a ISP that I already had an account with, so was able to have a quiet surf. I was able to use the time to book an Intercity bus ticket as I had been discussing my travel plans with Daisy, as I was meant to be staying longer in Barrytown due to the winter timetable and he’d come up with a really good idea which would give me an extra two days in Queenstown, which would be much better than having to be in Barrytown myself and would mean I could remain with this bus gang, rather than having to join a new crowd on the next bus. I was glad I had plumped for not doing the walk – the few people who had done it were soaked and had not really seen much because of the poor weather!
The last part of our drive brought us to Barrytown – a real one horse town, although actually I don’t think there was even one horse, maybe three sheep. This stop on the Stray tour is a bit of a random one, no other tour goes there, but Stray run the hostel, which is also the only pub in the town. It's known as Bazvegas on the Stray tour as when the Stray bus hits town, the place livens up a treat (especially as every bus does a fancy dress party!). The town has a population of about 40 people so our presence nearly doubled the amount of people there! Before we got out at the hostel, we went down to the beach and had an attempt at finding green-stone, or jade – this beach is notorious for being a hot-spot for the precious stone. No one really knew what they were looking for, as it does not start off the colour of the stone that you see in the shops, so the whole bus walked along the beach looking for the illusive gem. I gave up very quickly and instead just enjoyed the views of the waves crashing down and the wind creating lots of spray. It was also rather entertaining everyone scouring the beach intensely, to no avail!
Once everybody else had conceded that they were not going to strike it rich, we went back to the hostel (only a stone’s throw from the beach) and checked in – a process which was made over complex by the staff, but we got there in the end! I ended up in a room with Sarah, Nadine and Nina, the overcomplicated check-in actually worked out great for us, as we had a six bed dorm with only four people, meaning more space for all our stuff! The room itself was a kind of portacabin out the back of the main hostel; there were a few of these in a row and there was another portacabin block in the middle of the little gravelled courtyard, which turned out to be the two toilets and showers for everyone!
The first thing I did was take a shower, as I still stank of smoke from last night’s fire and I was a little concerned about the large number of us and the small number of showers there were! I came back and put my hair into two plaits, once I had done that, I set about creating my costume from the things I had bought in Warehouse. First I took the blue chequered tea towels and fashioned them into a pinafore dress using staples and brown tape, then I took the white pillow and fashioned it into a blouse. I then made ribbons from the red chequered tea towels and put the whole lot together, with a little help from Sarah, some more staples, some more brown tape, a couple of safety pins, a bit of makeup, a pair of red shoes and a little toy dog... ta-da - “Tonight Matthew, I am going to be Dorothy Gale”! I must admit, I was actually rather impressed at my effort!
Once ready, I then had to go and be ‘Makeup Artist’ for a number of other people who had enlisted my talents on the bus. First I turned Ian into a very convincing Egyptian, half way through I realised that I was using the waterproof eyeliner, which would mean it would be particularly difficult for him to remove, without appropriate equipment such as makeup remover, but then figured that it would be quite entertaining if he spent the next day, still covered in thick eyeliner! Next I turned Jimmy into an insect, Nic into a peacock, Ro into a leopard and Sarah into a zebra. Until at last, I was ready to go join the party!
It was really amazing as most people had really made an effort and the costumes were great! Everyone had gone with different ideas and come up with some fabulous outfits. Rebecca had transformed herself into a penguin, Daisy was a robot, Bobbie was a bumblebee, Nicola was ‘Barrytown Barbie’, Simon, Mark, Dan and TJ were the Power Rangers, Camilla and Phillip were turtles and the others were some random crazy things.
We had a hilarious evening and scared the locals who had turned up for a drink, although there were probably only about eight of them; they seemed to just stand at the end of the bar staring at us in confusion! We had the juke box going all night and everyone had a good boogie. During several conversations I had with various people over the course of the evening, it appeared that there was a general belief that I worked for Stray! I couldn’t believe this and thought it was absolutely hilarious; I set a few people straight but then Daisy pointed out that it would be far more funny if I went along with it! I was also bemused by several people thinking that I was wearing a dress I already owned – I then had to show them the staples and brown tape on the underside in order to get them to believe that I had made it!
The rest of the evening passed by with much laughter, more dancing, some appalling games of cards (why do I find even ‘Snap’ a difficult game to play?!), more laughing, some games of pool and the boys raiding the costume cupboard and changing into a variety of outfits from in there, including dresses, Sgt Pepper suits, silly hats and whatever else they could find! Before we knew it, it was 4am and time to drag ourselves into bed – I tried clicking my heels several times, but sadly my ruby slippers did not work and I had to walk through the cold.
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