Bad hair day!

I guess some of you might like an explanation as to why this is a bad hair day. Well I lost my STA cashcard… disaster because when I tried to use my backup Clarity credit card, I found that a limit had been imposed on it and this had been reached – major nightmare!!

To cut a long story short, I phoned the last place I used the card and the Bottom Bus but to no avail. I spent most of the afternoon with the very kind young man in the Queenstown STA office. Incidentally for those of you who think STA in NZ is the same as STA in UK, it is not! Just like Vodaphone IS NOT!! I tried repeatedly phoning the lost/stolen cards UK number and just got an answerphone which then cut off. The young STA man was very supportive and offered me tea and biscuits while I continued to try different numbers to sort out my card and ongoing cash problem. Eventually he suggested I report it to the police and directed me to the police station. I rang the bell on the desk but could raise no one and thought, it’s a good thing there’s no emergency in Queenstown. I left to draw out on my clarity card the final $50 which would have to pay for the next night’s hostel and some food, before returning to the police station. At last I managed to raise someone but they were just so laid back and really weren’t interested.

I returned to the hostel resigned to the fact that I might have to get a job cleaning at the next hostel to pay my keep. (I had seen advertisements for jobs on various hostel noticeboards and hey this would be another Kiwi backpackers experience!) However, for now I was ok and I booked myself on the next Kiwi Bus out of Queenstown in the morning, only to be told it was full and I was put on a standby list….. could things get worse…..

Thanks Leigh, without going into too much detail, you got me out of a very sticky spot and I appreciate all the trouble you went to to get some cash to me!!