It's been a breeze but home calls

Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read and life as she sees it . . .

If there is one thing my darling despises, it's being woken up.

It doesn't really matter what time of night or morning it is, but nothing can rouse him without also rousing his ire - unless it's a text at 1.30 in the morning saying that Matty Yates has won second place in the Queenstown poker tournament and $60,000.

Congratulations Matty. The thought of playing a few hands of poker with the newly flush you is getting someone very excited about getting back to Queenstown.

I'm excited too, and while I will miss the figgiest figs and peachiest peaches in the world, and swimming in such warm, deep blue water that you feel it should stain your skin, the thought of Kappa Sushi lunch, sticky buns at Provisions and a cuddle and cappucino from Cath at Motogrill will more than make up for it.

We've been living in pretty exalted company this week.

Two of the world's biggest boats - Rising Sun, owned by American record executive, film and theatrical producer and philanthropist David Geffen, and Eos, which is rumoured to be owned by movie and media billionaire Barry Diller - have tied up in the bay opposite us.

As ever, we were the ones stopping the bay from looking like Millionaire's Row - we even have the nerve to hang our wet towels and washing out to dry, which really makes the neighbourhood look tacky!Funnily enough our rich neighbours didn't find us as interesting as we found them.

This boatie life has been bliss - there's always so much to see and do.

My darling loves rushing over to help when anyone is in distress and as long as he takes our Turkish crew, his help actually seems to be helpful.

Little boats pop up all over the place to make our life nicer and easier.

There's a lady in a tiny dinghy who sells the best baklava I have ever eaten (sorry Nicky Martin, it really is).

My friend Jane is a judge in London (the court sort, not the baklava sort) and assured me she hated baklava, but she did manage to eat six bits in one sitting.

I now doubt her honesty.

As well as the boats selling sarongs and fancy dress and eggs and tomatoes and everything else, there is one that we love most of all.

It's the poo boat. It ties up alongside and empties the holding tank for the princely sum of $15 - surely the bargain of the century.

There's something rather unsavoury about taking all that around on holiday with you ...

On to nicer things - the walking here is amazing.

The Lycian Way wiggles 500km around the coastline, up the mountains and down to the bays and one of these days, I am hoping to do all of it.

I am definitely going to have to get better at finding my way and watching for painted rocks.

Once again, we went for a walk over a local farm to buy delicious honey and olive oil and visit the spectacular ruined city at the top of their hill.

We started our walk at a different bay from usual and my ever feeble leadership skills disappointed my followers again.

Those tricky Turkish tracks really had me fooled and our one-hour walk became two and a-half hours without ever finding the farm or the ruins.

Never mind, I probably didn't need oil or honey anyway.

Ramazan finished last night and the town was all set for a massive celebration, but just as the big gun went off to tell the faithful they could now enjoy some dinner or a cigarette or a drink or sex, down came the rain.

We haven't seen rain here since May and this definitely looked like three months' worth all in the space of an hour.

No-one is geared up for rain, especially not us - we were very damp sailors.

This morning it is all back to normal - well, as normal as it ever is here.

There are marching bands and lots of people in uniform and the man who walks round with a tray of buns on his head and cats fighting and it's hard to tell it is meant to be a public holiday as everyone seems to be working as hard as ever.

I was feeling sad to be leaving, but now I can't wait to be home.

Mystery and strangeness is all very fascinating, but it's not a patch on being surrounded by familiar places and faces and being a real part of the community rather than just an interested (and often baffled) onlooker.

It's been a real privilege to spend so long in this beautiful place and it only confirms what I already know - the Wakatipu really is the best place on earth.

And on the subject of privilege, I have just read The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee.

It's a funny sort of morality tale where the super rich golden couple, who deliberately shun closeness with family or friends and benefit from some pretty amoral actions, don't get what the reader expects will be their just desserts.

Dee has done a great job of painting a picture of this perfect family, which is really pretty rotten, but it is done with a tight and witty sarcastic humour that will make you despise Cynthia and Adam and hope things will go a bit sour for them.

And that is how the author has created the necessary tension to make this a book you can't stop reading.

- miranda@queenstown.co.nz

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