The weather in the South Island was unbearably freezing with snow and ice everywhere. It was so cold I had to sleep in thermals, woolly socks and hat.
After spending the first few days in Christchurch we hired a car and headed to a small town called Springfield. Springfield was to be our base for skiing in Porters Heights which is aprox 30 mins drive away.
Springfield Town consists of one pub, one youth hostel, one small convenience store with one computer for internet access, one cafe and one service station.
We had already booked our room at the old Irish pub appropriately named Springfield Pub!
As we entered the pub the Irish music seemed to stop and the locals stared at us like they hadn’t seen young people before! The uncomfortable silence was only broken by the bar lady closing one of the local farmer's mouths’ as his jaw dropped to the floor!
The pub was an old Irish pub with fleur de lis wallpaper and scraggy flowered patterned carpets. It was old school 1970’s style.
In our room we had a big four poster bed with heavy old blankets, a sink, mahogany swivel mirror and a chest of drawers. There was no central heating and all we had to try and keep warm was a tiny two bar electric heater and an electric blanket.
The first night we thought to help us sleep through the cold we had better down a few pints of Speights. We both quickly run upstairs as there was something about the whole set up which was a little eerie.
Being in the middle of nowhere , I could hear every sound outside and above the floorboards creeping.
As I lay awake in bed listening to two dogs howling, my imagination started to run wild as I started to remember old films such as 'American Werewolf in London' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles',. Freaking myself out I had to pull the covers over my head and cling onto Jonny....hoping for the best!!
The next morning as I run shivering in front of the electric heater, I stumbled over some playing marbles left on the floor. I wondered how they got there as I didn’t remember them being there. At this point Jonny turned to me almost electronically and said 'they must belong to the child I was talking to last night'
Ok things were getting to me now and I was really beginning to feel quite scared. Not wanting to hear any more from Jonny I demanded we look for somewhere else to stay. There was no way in hell I was going to stay in that place for another night.
So we headed down the road and checked into the youth hostel....which was actually quite luxurious considering.
We were told by the owner of our hostel, yes the hostel was named Springfield Hostel!, the premiere of the new Simpsons movie was coming to town.
The cast and crew, live radio and the nearby towns people all turned up in their droves to see the unveiling of a special gift to Springfield town given to them by none other than Homer Simpson. I know this all sounds odd but the producers wanted to have the premier in an actual town called Springfield and they ended up in N.Z!
As the celebrations got into full swing everyone waited impatiently in the cold to see the huge surprise gift Homer was to unveil and after several hot drinks and hotdogs later.................Homer revealed.................a.................. wait for it........a donut!
Yes I was disappointed! the beautiful unspoilt little town of Springfield now has a giant pink American donut right in the centre of town, hoorah! Classy!
As Homer would say...’D’Oh! ’
