being stuck in reefton is not fun

have to keep reminding ourselves that cars and money and things are replaceable. our health is not. but seriously, of all places to be stuck.. reefton would not top my list. the town has a population of about 1000, though the one thing we did have in our favor was that it at least made the lonely planet guidebook (can't say that about a few other places we visited..). and, we learned a lot that we never would have had we arrived in picton as planned.

here are some fun facts about reefton:
- it was the first place in nz and the southern hemisphere to have electricity, hence called "the town of lights"

- it was named for the abundance of gold-infested quartz reefs
- it is home to the southern hemisphere's largest skate park

- its main industries are coal mining and dairy farming
- tourism is quickly catching up; the town can accommodate almost 300 people. crazy!
- there is a bearded mining company, where you can talk to, well, bearded miners
- there are 5 cafes (we went to all of them)
- the most popular hangout for the kids is the I-Site info center

and that's all i got.

but wow, keeping ourselves occupied for a few hours was difficult, let alone a couple days. and to make matters worse, it was the weekend, so most things were closed anyway. including the pharmacy - so no medical supplies for my now increasingly swollen and painful feet. i swear, if sandflies make my feet go gangrene and need to be amputated, i will not be a happy camper..

while steph made some phone calls to insurance people (which, of course, are closed on sundays), mechanics and the like, theresa and i scoped out the best way to bust out of reefton. turns out there is only 1 bus that leaves the town, and it leaves at 9am. so we had already missed it on sunday, and would be here at least one more night. grrrrreat. steph got no where fast on the phones, so back to the hostel to book another night, then back to a cafe for food/drink and a place to hang out that wasn't the hostel. hung out there reading as long as we could, then walked the entire town of reefton, which unfortunately didn't take up as much time as we needed.

hung out at the I-Site for a while longer, checking internet which was mega expensive ($2 for 10mins). though this is were we found out I-Site is apparently THE place to chill for the local hoodlum and ruffian children. witnessed some kids try smoking cigarettes for the first time. fun times. then some kids riding bikes and knocking down all the signs outside the info center and not picking them up. and some kids not wearing helmets and getting the "death finger" from our pal taye the cop. and it was barely noon! went back to the hostel to make some lunch, then back to town.

as we sat at a cafe across the street from the I-Site, watched a group of kids - let's call them a gang - get into a fight with another group of kids. it was all trash talk at first, but then there was some threats of physical violence. namely throwing their bikes onto the ground and pumping out their chests like they were tough 10 year olds. when things started to escalate, the owner of our cafe came out with a phone in her hand and shouted "break it up or i'll make a call". one of the ruffians belonged to her, and came over to tell what was really happening. we got an earful about so-and-so doing something to another so-and-so. it was very entertaining.

but it wasn't over yet! about an hour later, our friendly copper taye showed up. i really would hate to have his job. apparently he had been called to investigate a sugar robbery or something of that nature. so he was questioning the worker at the I-Site and the owner of the grocery next door, as well as all the hoodlum children. about an hour or so after that, he was gone, and we again got an earful from the cafe lady shouting across the street to the grocer man, both shaking their heads in a "what has this world come to" and "i can't wait for monday so they're back in school" sort of way. the kids may be crazy, but at least all the adults are incredibly kind and helpful.

we'd have enough excitement for one day, so back at the hostel to make dinner and do some more reading. what else could we do? got online there (a bit more reasonable then the I-Site) and got to bed early, considering we wanted to make sure we made that 9am bus the next day. there was no way we were staying in reefton one more night!