It's just a hot dog...

After Fiordland, we drove to Haast, which is a small town on the western coast of New Zealand. Being on the edge of the Southwest World Heritage Area and Mount Aspiring National Park, it is the perfect place for hiking and fishing in the back country. We arrived on Tuesday the 10th, where we checked in and had a few issues. We woke up Wednesday and drove inland to look for a good fly fishing spot. We found a suitable place, parked, and got our gear ready. We hiked thru the young valley, waded over the Makarora River, and headed up the gorge along the young river. We hiked upstream, fished for a bit, then hiked back. Even though we didn't catch any fish, Dave was able to get a huge 8 pound rainbow to take his fly. He broke it off after the strike, but it was still quite satisfying. The 5 mile hike itself was beautiful and we really enjoyed our day out in the wilderness. We headed back to the hotel, but stopped at the mini grocery to find something for dinner. We opted for hotdogs because we figured they would be easy to grill and we had all the extras in our cooler. Once we got to the hotel we inquired about the advertised BBQ area. We were told they would bring the grill to us. Then we got a call from the receptionist that she was unable to bring the grill because the manager said it was not allowed. After complaining and asking to speak to the manager, she called back to say they would cook our hot dogs in the kitchen. The manager never called (he must have been scared), so we brought the dogs to the kitchen. After an hour of waiting, Jill went to the front desk to see what was taking so long. They apparently were busy and hadn't gotten to the hot dogs, so we were promised a bottle of wine to make up for it. 30 minutes later we got our hotdogs, and never received any wine. Needless to say, we were quite irritated by the time we got our dinner after 9:00pm. After all, they are just hot dogs... it's not like we asked them to cook steaks. So along with the hot dog issue, an internet issue, a sand fly issue, and a movie issue, we checked out 2 days earlier then planned and moved on. We just couldn't take any more. Once we left the hotel, we stopped to get gas and the clerk didn't want to take Dave's credit card. She said it didn't look like his signature, so he showed his id and she said it didn't look like him. Geeeezzzz... can we catch a break. We have voted Haast, New Zealand the worst place in the whole country! Now we are in Fox Glacier, which has started off as a much better experience!