Zelma’s Trip

Okay, firstly apologies for the title, but all should become clear……..

…So, I spent the day in Wanaka, wandered around the town and went and got a rather good gourmet burger with Lance. We went back to the hostel and after a little while there was a knock at the window. Lance answered and I heard, "is Zelma there?". It transpired that Paul, the guy I had met in Wellington, had hitch-hiked from Christchurch to Wanaka and asked around the hostels to find out where I was. I went into town with him and we were in a bar when I was talking to him and trying to explain that I didn’t want to meet up with him further down the line in my travels. Perhaps it will help to explain that he was firstly intoxicated and also infatuated with me before I explain the next bit. Anyway, after explaining that I wanted to travel by myself I got up to go. He got up and said, "is that it?", and I again explained that I wanted to go and to travel by myself. At that point he went for me, completely out of the blue. He properly flew at me, screaming and throwing punches. I ducked and covered my head but one of them managed to crack me on the back of my head at the top of my neck. I looked up and could hear the staff screaming at him to stop, which he didn’t. I shouted out, "Mate", to the staff and they were relatively quick to get over to us and wrestled him to the floor. They all asked if I was okay and told me to leave, which I did after they assured me they had already called the Police. Shortly after getting out of the door I wondered why I had to leave and went back in. For some reason I asked them not to hurt him and they urged me to leave again. This time I did and ran as fast as I could back to my hostel. The fast as I could didn’t seem as fast as it would have been previously and I vowed to smoke less, although I think a lot of my panting was as I was in shock and scared. When I got back to the dorm I explained that I needed to get out of town and Lance said he would take me. As I finished packing my stuff there was a knock at the door and it was the Police who had apparently been informed by Paul where I was staying.

At the Police station I gave statements and was majorly impressed that firstly I had been assaulted by some nut when traveling but also that I was in a Police station, giving statements! The Police were really brilliant but it was still a preverbial pain in the backside. After the interview I was taken to the Doctor’s as I had a cracking headache. I was given painkillers and advice about concussion and, to really rub salt in the wounds, had to pay for the privilege. As we drove out of town I began to calm down in one way but got really annoyed that anyone could do something like this to me, particularly with no provocation. I also told myself that it could have been far worse, for example if he picked up a glass, if I was wearing my hoop earrings or heels as I would normally have been or if I had been less with it and had more than the two glasses of wine which I had. Due to too much work, I also did several risk assessments before we got to the club which may sound weird but may also have helped a bit.

It was late when we left Wanaka and by the time we reached Queenstown nowhere was open. Lance asked at the Y.H.A. who pointed us to a "cheap" hotel which turned out to be anything but. We carried on and got to Glenorchy, a small town surrounded by countryside and mountains.