Hi there
I was so excited anticipating my week in Wanaka. You may remember that in February 2024, I was going to do all sorts of wonderful things when I went down south, but a couple of days before leaving I pulled a muscle in my leg, though I still insisted on going. It was to my detriment. I could hardly hobble a metre, let alone go ziplining which I wanted definitely to do.
So this year, I was determined to, at least, do some of my 'wants' that I hadnt been able to do last year. For the whole year I was most looking forward to those eight Glenorchy Paradise Ziplines that were just out of Queenstown. But the night before I left Wellington, I got an email to say it was a no-go because of the now lack of the to and fro transport Queenstown/Glenorchy. I was staying in Wanaka, about two and a half hours away from Glenorchy, and I just couldnt get the new times to fit... So disappointed.
I did manage to fulfil my wish of kayaking on Lake Wanaka. However, it was windy and a bit of a chore using the paddle, seeing I had a painful wrist -
Wait, what - ? A painful wrist, you ask?
Well .......
(promise not to laugh?)
On one day, I went over to Lake Hawea, my favourite swimming lake. I had a gorgeous swim, then got into the driving seat of my rental car. I leaned sideways to grope under the front passenger seat for my wallet... with my left hand.
My left hand got STUCK between two iron bars!!
above photos. Of course, you already know what a brilliant photographer I am. As a photographer/influencer I am surely number 1..... Yeah, Right.
And ...hey, didn't You promise not to laugh? Shame on you.. Tee-hee.
You can see one iron bar in the photos of the under-seat. The other iron bar was enclosed in felt.
Anyway....
I was petrified. What-to-do?-What-to-do? I was sitting in a shut-in car with a 30c temperature outside-
I'm gong to end up like those dogs-in-cars-on-hot-days. They die.
I managed to open my door. "Help," I called out. the beach was down a short slope in front of my car. "Help!" I bellowed. All the beach-goers were enjoying themselves doing beachy things, they werent on the alert for shouts of anguish.
I yelled some more. Louder. My phone was in the car boot (trunk, if you're American) so that was of no help. My wrist was at a weird angle under the seat and I couldnt budge it no matter how hard I tried.
With my right hand, I beeped the car horn ever so delicately.
There... That should do it. Everyone down there on the beach will come running...
Nobody so much as dawdled up the slope to answer my summons, let alone come running.
I beeped the horn a little bit louder. Then a bit louder again. I was so stressed out and in so much pain, I wanted to just give up...
Oh, to heck with it...
I beeped that horn non-stop.
Goodness,, what was that? A woman? A woman in her twenties had stood up and was looking toward my car-
I waved my free hand, yelled, and beeped the horn frantically. "Over here. Please help me! Help-help-HELP!"
She leaned into the car - "I thought it was children playing with the car horn". But she understood almost instantly what was wrong and said, "I'll get you free." She hurried over to the passenger door, threw it open and crouched down in the gravel,
"Can you slide over to the passenger seat?"
No, the movement would break my wrist.
"Can we slide the seat back?"
No, the movement would break my wrist.
"Perhaps you could lubricate my hand with sunblock to make it easier to slide free?" I offered. "Or call the fire brigade." I believed the fire brigade were well-trained in getting children to pull their heads out from between fence railings. Or was that just an urban myth?
"I can do it." My angel was puffing though her efforts. My watch was so hampering those efforts.
The woman's cousin arrived on the scene. They both got down to work on my (by now) extremely painful wrist. And shoulder. The angle of my arm was causing the problem.
"Bingo!" The woman had somehow managed to unlock my swimming watch from my wrist. The watch had been impeding the rescue. I had no idea how she got the watch catch to open just by feel as it usually took me a while under normal circumstances to work out how to undo the complicated catch.
But five minutes later, with a lot of pulling and twisting from her and her cousin, my hand came free....Whooppee!!!!
My shoulder felt better immediately. Not so, my wrist. I nursed it.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you". I didn't have enough thank-yous in my body to express how grateful I was to my two rescuers....
above: Lake Hawea. there is a slope that drops down to the water that's out of view in this picture. Down the bottom of the slope is where people sunbathe and picnic. Photo was taken as I was standing by my car. Lake Hawea is a 20 minute drive from Wanaka.
above: Me sitting on edge of Lake Wanaka.
above: Hotel Edgewater Cafe, Wanaka I discovered this wonderful place as I was walking along the track on the far left side of the lake. It's only about ten minutes' pleasant amble after you pass the dozens of tourists photographing the famous 'tree growing in the lake' - a magnificent stunt originally created by Wanaka public relations people to get tourists to see who can come up with the best photo of the tree and put it on a Wanaka website. About five minutes further up the track from this tree there are two -repeat, two - trees growing together in the lake but, how sad, they get no publicity.
Wanaka is always crowded, so difficult to get into restaurants and cafes, but at the Edgewater Cafe, it was peaceful and quiet, with a great view. It was nice to walk there, but a car would only take a few minutes from the township. I would love to stay in the hotel, but there didnt appear to be a swimming beach out front.
PS: 3 March: a beach friend has just returned from Wanaka this week where - surprise! " she stayed at Edgewater Resort. And she did swim in the lake right opposite the hotel.
