'Mountains, Gandalf, Mountains!'

I'm at a lovely backpackers in Fox Glacier - beautiful gardens, music in the background, the only downside being the spa not working at the moment. I'm trying to remember where I was for my last update, Wellington I think. Anyway, after the minor trauma of losing my credit card there, I got the ferry south across to Picton. I advise not going to the Wellington Museum of City and Sea before the trip, not because it is a bad museum (it's rather good) but because most of the second floor is devoted to ships wrecked in the crossing between Wellington and the South Island. Forebodings aside, the trip was good - a little windy, but coming into Queen Charlotte Sound in the evening was one of the best experiences of my life. Rows of purple mountains like washes of watercolour paint, golden orange light of the sunset streaming out through the clouds.
The next day I went kayaking, which was great fun. We visited a friendly seal and saw giant stingrays, as well as millions of mussels begging to be grabbed and eaten - Papa would have loved it!
Then the annoying bit of playing the trip by ear happened. I'd booked to catch the train down to Christchurch on Saturday, but that night the town was litterally full , and I ended up at a homestay run by the mother of the owners of one backpacker place. It was in the suburbs, and to catch my bus to Wanaka early the next day I had to get a lift into town with one of her sons. With ten minutes to get there, I made it just in time, and still alive, and I am now a firm beliver in St Christopher (and I don't care what the Vatican says about him)!
The mountains are amazing. I'm having a rather postmodern response, in that once they get over a certain height I just can't belive they are real, not images. Yesterday at Wanaka, an 'alpine village' by a lake surrounded by mountains, I kept looking round for an interior (exterior?) decorator to tell them that the backdrops were rather overdone, and far too stereotypical.
Tomorrow I'm doing a day walk up the Fox Glacier. Maybe getting closer will make it more real.