Week 2 / Wednesday

The next morning, Julian and Larissa ran along the lake. The running track was right by the lake, and perfect. The sky was clear and perfectly blue, and the water was a beautiful blue colour, and sparkling. The temperature was perfect, cool but not cold, and Julian just wore shorts. His chest was perfect too. Larissa run in just her sports underwear, and she felt perfect too. Life could not be better than this fine morning; her friends were perfect, her husband was perfect, it was all she could do not to break out into song. If she hadn’t been such a woeful singer, she would’ve.

They ran nearly 10km, and then arrived at their destination. Larissa looked at her phone, and they had ten minutes, so they sat at the water’s edge, stretching, and watching the water level. One of the patreons at the party had claimed that lake level fluctuated up to 10cm every few minutes, and she amazed to see that it was true. No doubt Marty would be able to explain why it happened.

Marty and Tui arrived at to pick them up and they decided to have breakfast at the café right there. Perfect food, perfect view, perfect company. And Tui really could sing, and she clearly felt pretty much the same, so they both did sing, much to their guy’s enjoyment. Really, life could not possibly get better than this. Larissa knew that it was her mood, not life, but why not enjoy, how could she not?

And today would be perfect too. James and Sophie had sat down with them and gone through their holiday and then organised something for them that they’d never have done themselves, and they were going on a tour, a trip over the mountains in the air to Milford sound, a boat trip on Milford sound, a flight back to Queenstown, and then a helicopter ride up to one of the local peaks. Marty was doing some work for the project, exploring a couple of things locally, with Tui, and one meeting before lunch, and they were having coffee with some family relation of Anne’s in the afternoon.

After breakfast, Marty drove them back to their place, they had quick showers and changed, and then Marty dropped them at the offices for their flight, down the road from the main Queenstown airport. It was suspiciously quiet – Larissa looked around in confusion: where was everyone?

Inside the building a receptionist was waiting for them. “Julian and Larissa?” She explained that they were the only passengers today; the other passengers had been from Australia or Auckland and couldn’t make it. But they were still going ahead for their only passengers, so it was pretty much red carpet service today. Did they want a drink?

They waited a few minutes, and then their pilot came and found them and sat down and explained the flights and gave them their safety briefing sitting right there having coffee with them. Awesome. Then he walked with them out to the plane, a little six-seater with overhead wings, so they could see the view better. Since they were the only passengers, they could sit where they wanted, but did one of them want to sit up the front?

Very very much so, and Larissa and Julian had a sharp disagreement for the first time in their whole trip, over who would sit up the front: they both wanted the other one to do it. Their pilot burst into laughter about that, and that was infectious, so they both laughed, and then Julian backed down – as he should, Larissa huffed – and agreed that he’d sit up the front on the way there, and Larissa could do it on the way back if they were still the only passengers.

But they both knew that had never been serious, and once Larissa was sitting in her seat immediately behind the pilot, Julian leaned in and kissed her passionately, and seriously, and only stopped when she was ready to jump him on the spot. She grinned at him when he looked around at her from the front seat – payback would definitely be hell.

The pilot gave her a headset to match Julian’s one, so the three of them could talk, and she could listen in to the air controllers. Oh wow, this was much better than she expected. Then he finished the safety briefing and off they went. Taxiing out on Queenstown airport behind an AirNZ 737 was pretty exciting too. It certainly looked a lot bigger than she expected from behind it, and seeing it’s full power in display right in from of them was quite exciting.

They took off and headed up along the lake, gradually gaining height, while the pilot told them about the lake and the mountains around it. Then they turned west and up over the mountains. Today was an incredible day, hardly any cloud, so the whole Tasman Alps were spread out below them. Australia had no mountains like this, and Larissa had never had any experience like this, nor had Julian, so she was spellbound and silent as they flew over them towards Milford Sound, and the pilot told them important and interesting facts about what they could see. Mountains, valleys, snow, glaciers, rivers, lakes, an utterly astonishing view. While she watched, she thought about her daily report, how she could try and do this justice, and make it sound great enough to thank James and Sophie, and also, how to not rub other people’s faces in it, or put Layna under pressure to do it. But she could take photos and she took lots of them.

Soon they started to descend into Milford sound, and the pilot pointed out how the characteristic shape of a glacier-carved valley was visible, and then they lined up on the Milford sound airport. They were going to land on that little thing? Impossible. But they did, a perfect touch and then the pilot turned to their parking spot, and turned the engine off. When they stopped, Julian turned around to look at her, and the size of his grin told her just how much he’d enjoyed that.

“Babe, you were right. I’m glad I did that first. Watching him fly was an incredible experience.”

Larissa grinned at him. “I’m always right!”

Julian laughed. “Babe, you are. I love you lots.”

“Hah I love you more!”

The pilot grinned at them, and said that there was little while before the boat trip, and he’d walk them over. On the way, he asked them what they were doing in New Zealand, and Julian explained: honeymoon and research for a Youtube project. The pilot was interested in that, and had worked with plenty of documentary makers and travel shows, so he was pretty familiar with the process, though he’d never heard of Layna.

Then they sat on the dock, enjoying the sunshine, and waiting for their boat to board. It was a little bigger than the whale tour boat, but not huge, and once they boarded, there wasn’t many passengers, which was no longer a surprise. Then they were out on the water exploring Milford Sound. This was very interesting, and she sat at the front of the boat in Julian’s arms, taking lots of photos. They saw waterfalls, birds, seals, sheer cliffs and mountains, and it was all amazing.

Finally, after a couple of hours, they returned to the plane. When they got there, there was no one around. Confused, they looked around – no, where was the pilot?

A few minutes later, he turned up. “I’m sorry, we’ve had to make a change of plans.” Oh? They were supposed to fly back, have lunch at the airport, and then get the helicopter. “One of the things that happens down here is that this is the end of the Milford track. You’ve heard of it?” Larissa and Julian had heard about that: a world famous hiking track, though they never had the time to consider doing it. “Someone on the track is sick, I don’t know the details. They’re close to the end of the track and the nearest place we can rescue them from is the end of the track here. A boat is going to pick them up, and I’m waiting here to fly them to Queenstown where someone else is going to fly them down to hospital in Dunedin. It’s probably going to be an hour and a half till we leave. I’m sorry, but there’s no other plane today, so it has to be us. I talked to the office, and you’ll still get your helicopter trip, but you’ll have to wait here first. I hope that’s OK.” Well, of course it was OK, how could they say anything else? “I asked, and if you want, you can go on the boat that’s going to pick them up.”

They definitely wanted to do that so they ran back to the dock to get on the boat. The captain of the boat welcomed them, and said they could hang anywhere on the boat as long as they kept out of the way. Awesome, and they hung in the back of the wheelhouse, listening to the captain. It wasn’t far from to the dock at the Milford Track, but there was no one there. “OK, we wait,” the captain said. “Shouldn’t be long.”

They waited maybe thirty minutes, and then they could see why. A team of people carrying a stretcher emerged from the bush a couple of hundred meters from the boat, and it was immediately obvious that they were exhausted, well past the point of failure. Julian and Larissa didn’t need any words at all, they just jumped straight off the boat and started sprinting for the group. The crew members followed them, but they weren’t in the kind of condition Julian and Larissa were in.

The stretcher was carrying a woman in her thirties, obviously in not doing well. Julian and Larissa replaced the two front carriers. A few seconds later the two crew replaced the rear carriers, and between them they carried the stretcher to the boat and helped get it down. Then they helped the exhausted stretcher bearers onto the boat, and they just lay there gasping. Larissa knew exactly how that felt, and fetched them water and helped them remove their packs, which they’d also been carrying. By the time she’d helped them all and helped the one woman in the group stand and throw up over the side of the boat, they were back at the dock. There was a ute waiting to take the patient to the plane, but no car for Julian and Larissa. They looked at each other and nodded and took off running – they could be at the plane quicker that way, probably.

Not quicker, but it was close. To Larissa’s surprise, they were loading the patient on the plane, but there was no nurse on board. What? There just wasn’t anyone, the pilot said, and it’s only a twenty-five minute flight. Larissa shook her head, no way. She climbed over the sears and sat next to the woman and wiped her forehead. Larissa had no idea what was happening with her but she had at least a fever, and she was damp with sweat, and only just conscious. She told Julian to get in the front of the plane, no arguing, and she’d sit with the woman.

She plugged her headset in, belted herself in, and took the woman’s hand. This was like her work, caring for a loved animal that couldn’t talk for itself. She could guess at some of what was wrong, and what the woman needed was comfort and a drip. Well, she couldn’t do that part, but hopefully they could get her a drip at Queenstown.

She did look around a little, and she listened to the commentary, which was more about interesting events and places in the mountains, but she focused almost exclusively on her patient. Comforting her, checking her temperature and adjusting her blankets to help. There wasn’t much she could do, and she was worried. This really looked like a central nervous system infection to her. Nasty. A couple of times the pilot asked her how things were, and all she could say was ‘unchanged’.

When they landed in Queenstown, a real first aid crew was waiting for the plane. Larissa helped them move the woman out of the plane, and they put the drip in right there on the spot. Then they walked the woman over to another plane, and Larissa could see that she had real nurse this time. Good.

She looked around and realised that Julian was holding her. “Thanks, Babe. You did a great job.”

“I really couldn’t do very much.”

“I know, babe, but what you did was 100% of what you could do.” Larissa nodded, she had. “Though you did miss out on the views, and sitting up the front.”

“Yeah, I did, but I’ll live. Anyway, how could I do anything else?”

“I know.” Julian kissed her. “That’s why I love you so much, Babe.”

The pilot had disappeared off to his office, and now he came back with another pilot in a jump suit and some woman in a suit. She did the talking. “Julian and Larissa, I’m really sorry that your trip was mucked around by what happened, and we really appreciate how you helped us out.”

“It wasn’t your fault!” Larissa exclaimed.

“Well, maybe not, but it’s not your fault, and you’re our customer, and John says that you did absolutely everything you could to help. Anyway, we’ve talked about it, and if you have time, we’d like to give you more time in the helicopter – does that work for you?”

Yes, that very much worked.

“OK. You didn’t get lunch either, right? Pete,” pointing at the helicopter pilot, “is going to take you to lunch and then get you in the air.” Sweet.

John, the aeroplane pilot, came and said goodbye. “You guys are awesome. While you were on the boat cruise, I watched both of you on Youtube. Such a privilege to have you as my passengers, and you’re always welcome back!”

Pete had watched the videos while he was waiting for them to come back, so they talked about that over lunch. “No doubt you’re sick of it,” he said to them.

“Sure,” Larissa said, “but we know, people can’t help asking, and we get good with the bad, lots of people bend over backwards to do stuff for us.” She told him some of their adventures. “No way other people would get that.”

After lunch, he said, “OK, so I’m taking you out to our normal mountain top, but we’ve got time for more than that. So where else? You guys Lord of the Rings fans?” Hell yes, Julian said. “Right, want to go a couple of places I flew the crew out to?” Hell, yes, Julian said, his eyes popping right out of his head.

“Ok. Let’s go.”

Pete got them in the air, and then they headed out towards the mountain top. The view from the helicopter was way better than the plane, and she felt like she hadn’t missed out on anything. Damn, this was awesome, though it was also noisy. She could smile at Julian, sitting next to her, and yell at him, but it was really hard to communicate. It didn’t take long, and Pete set them carefully down near the top of a mountain, and they climbed out.

A few minutes of steep walking, and they were literally on top of the world. This wasn’t the tallest mountain around, but there was nothing taller immediately close. This time they could see Aoraki, off in the distance to the north, the tallest of all but from this distance it was just one more peak amongst many. Looking down, far down, they could see bits of Queenstown and around them, more valleys and rivers. It was windy and cold though, and they were up in the snow, so they didn’t stay long. Long enough for Pete to take a photo of them kissing up the top of the mountain.

Then they made their way back to the helicopter, and after another short flight over crazy mountains, Pete let them down carefully in another high valley. When they got out, he said, “Recognise this place?”

Larissa did, but couldn’t name it. Julian had no problem. “Hell, yes,” Julian, “This is Dimrill Dale.” Larissa looked at him, where? “That’s where they came out of Moria after Gandalf fought the Balrog.”

Yep, she knew the place now. Julian ran around for a while, and then called her over. “This is the spot, right here, were Aragorn talks to Frodo.” He was spun out by that, and Larissa grinned and pulled out her phone for a selfie photo of them kissing there too.

Then Pete headed off from there, across the other side of the lake and further south, and eventually dropped them on a saddle in the mountains. “And this place?”

Julian nodded. “They walk along here early in the followship, right? It never had a name, but it’s an iconic shot.”

“Well done!” They walked carefully along the saddle, and Larissa took more photos where Julian said.

Once they were back in the air, Pete held the helicopter where they’d filmed from for the movie, and now Larissa could see it too, and she took her own photo.

That was it, but what a trip that was!

One the ground, Julian thanked Pete, and Larissa hugged him, and then they went into the offices to thank the manager and tell her how great her pilots were.

“Babe,” Julian said to her, “I felt bad about this trip when we agreed to it, it just seemed like excess. And a waste of fuel. But ... that was truly spectacular, and I’m completely happy that we went on it. And you can look after a patient like that anytime,” he said with a grin.

Larissa kissed him. What had happened was unexpected but just made it better, and her perfect day had become even more perfect than she could imagine.

Now that they were done, Marty and Tui came and picked them up, and they went and parked at the bottom of the Queenstown gondola. At the top of the gondola, they walked further up the hill, and paid their money for the skyline luge. Larissa’s first impression was the luge was a bit lame, but the first time she went down it, she learnt better – such fun! She spent most of the first trip getting a feel for it, how much control she had and how fast she could go. Maybe faster than the others, they were heavier.

The second and third trips, she was definitely the fastest. Oh what a thrill, to be faster than the three of them at something, and she was hopping with excitement, much their amusement. The third trip, Julian was close to her, there was a downhill advantage for his weight but she could corner faster than him, and she still had her nose in front at the end.

Then they had dinner in the restaurant at the top, looking down over Queenstown, and caught up with each other’s day. Marty and Tui had a great day. They’d had their meetings, and they’d gone well, and Tui had learned just how many doors were open for them now, both because of Layna’s hit count and also because the minister was backing them. Amazing, she said, you can just about have anything you want. Julian nodded. “We can, but we have to be careful.” They’d explored a couple of areas they might be interested in filming, and they looked at the photos and listened to Marty’s report of the biodiversity and overall health of those areas.

Then they’d gone back to their place for a lunch and a siesta. But Larissa saw the twitch in Tui’s mouth and when she asked, Tui admitted that they’d actually spent more time making love than sleeping. Larissa shook her head. “You’re insatiable! Well, I hope you’re good for a second time tonight.”

“Fourth, actually,” Tui admitted with a grin.

“Fourth! Tui, Marty, you guys are on fire!”

Marty was clearly pretty pleased about that too.

Then they’d met up with an aunt or something, and her family. Tui hadn’t seen her since she was a kid and the toddlers she had then were now bouncy young teenagers who were totally amazed at what Marty and Tui had been doing, so that had totally done it for them, and it had been nice to catch up with family. Family was very important to Tui, even more than for Larissa, she knew, so she was super pleased for Tui.

“And then?” Larissa asked them.

“Well, we didn’t know when you were going to get back,” Tui said, “so we went back to our place and waited for you.”

“And fucked,” Marty said with a grin.

“All right. And we ... fucked.” Tui said. “I was going to say, ‘made love’, but that’d be a lie.” And her smile told them that it was just fine with her.

“Tui! Awesome! And you’re sure you’re going to be fine tonight?”

The size of Tui’s smile was a clear answer. And Marty’s was pretty wide too. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be good for tonight. Why, what are we doing?”

“Oh, I don’t know. We’ll think of something. I just was thinking that I’d like to know that any noises we make aren’t going to be a problem for you.”

Tui laughed. “You’re worrying about noises now?”

Larissa laughed. “All right. But you understand, right? I just like the idea that you’re getting it on with me. I mean, with Marty with me. Well, I mean, at the same time as me.”

Julian laughed. “Babe, you should stop while you’re ahead!”

Larissa laughed. “All right, but you know what I mean!”

Then they talked about news from Melbourne. Two more friends had covid now – Ruby and Liam. Ross was on the mend, but his Dad was sick now. Xander was thinking about closing the factory, it was hard to know whether they’d have minimum staff on any given day, and Steph said that it seemed like a quarter of the people in her apartment block had it. Fresh food was starting to run out before the end of the day at supermarkets, and deliveries were running late.

She asked Michelle for her take, and she said that she thought only one in ten people with covid were bothering to get tested, and testing turn around had blown out to nearly two weeks – so it was entirely useless. And home tests were simply not available anywhere. So the staff at her hospital figured that the real count was twenty times the official count, and that somewhere around 15% of the population had Covid right now, and more than 40% of people in the age bracket 18-30 had it. Whatever happened, it had just let rip with a roar. But nearly everybody was at least double vaccinated, plenty of people had three vaccinations, like Larissa, and there weren’t many people in hospital. Everyone – government and the people – had just given up fighting it in Melbourne. Michelle thought Sydney and Melbourne had more cases per head than anywhere else in the world. Get sick, whatever.

But she still heard from her friends, while they didn’t care about getting it anymore, they were working really hard to keep it from their older relatives, and while she could reel off a list of sick friends, Sophie said she didn’t know anyone older than fifty that was sick. So that part seemed to be working really well.

Maria reported that they’d had twelve sick people at the place for a while, but some had gotten better and had gone home. It had been totally fun. Fun? Yes, fun. Sure, they were all a bit sick, but there’d just been a wonderful community feeling in their apartment for a whole week.

So where was this going? Michelle reported that the word from the infectious diseases people at the hospital was that the peak had arrived. Reported numbers would continue to go up since testing was so far behind, but things were going to get better, and the supply chain problems would start to ease. Hopefully the staffing problems for aged care centres would too. Sophie was working full time at one now too, for free, while they tried to find enough staff that weren’t sick.

All this was mind-blowing for the kiwis – the people on the next table joined in the discussion. The kiwis were clearly digging in for a long fight with Omicron, slow it down as much as possible, and what was happening in Australia sounded just awful. Larissa wasn’t sure – once everyone who would was vaccinated, wouldn’t it better just to let it rip over a few weeks and be done with it? Fortunately, it wasn’t her decision.

Well, they were done at the restaurant. They paid up, got the gondola back to the ute, and went back to their place. Once they were back there, Larissa grabbed her computer and walked out to the lounge, intending to work on her daily report.

“Hey Babe. Come over here,” Julian said. He was standing at the kitchen counter, with Tui and Marty, and there was a mattress on it. What the hell? “Babe, thanks for volunteering.” Oh? What for? “You know how Marty said yesterday that he would’ve given Tui a massage, but he didn’t know how to?” Larissa nodded, he said that. “Well, you’ve volunteered to be our massage doll so that I can teach Marty and Tui how to do massage.” Larissa grinned at him. Sure, she volunteered, right. But she sure would’ve if they’d asked her, so whatever. “So get your gear off and hop up here.”

Larissa put her computer in a seat nearby and undressed. She could see Tui’s amazement, and she said, “It’s really easy to get your clothes off!”

Larissa laughed. “This is one of the best reasons I’ve ever had to get my gear off, but anytime Julian says to, I will.”

She hopped up on the massage table, and lay down on her front. She was looking forward to this. Naked in front of her husband and two great friends, and they were going to put their hands all over her? What a gift Julian was giving her! At what point would Tui figure that out?

Julian put his hand on her back. “OK. So massage is touch, so touch her. Put your hands on her back.” She felt two more hands on her back, touching her tentatively.

“No,” she said, “if you’re going to touch me, be confident about it. And you are going to touch me, nearly all over. I want you to, that’s what I’m here for. So touch me.”

“Right,” said Julian. “You are going to touch her very intimately. It’s not sex, you won’t massage her there. I will later.” She could hear his grin. “So touch her.” The hands were back, and this time they were resting on her properly. “And here.” Julian moved down to her bum, and pressed on it. Two other hands did the same. “It’s really lovely to be touched there. Now, you generally want to stay touching the person as much as you can. If you’re going to more around, let your hand travel along them.” A hand ran along her back. “And Larissa really likes to be touched, I assure you.”

“Sure do!” Larissa piped up. “Anywhere and everywhere.”

“OK, we’re going to start with her upper back.” He showed them the muscle lines, and got them to trace them with their fingers. Then they all coated her back with oil. Oh how good that was! Once that was done, he showed them the basic moves that worked on the muscles and the lymphatic system, and explained what they did. Wow, Julian had really worked hard on this, more than she realised.

Then he got Marty and Tui to try them out. Larissa helped them get the pressure right. Wow, this was amazing. Sure, they were just learning, but how awesome it was to have her friends doing this.

Then Julian moved down to her lower back, and the gluteal muscles. Yeah, her ass. “Larissa’s ass is lovely, but that’s because she works these muscles hard, so she really likes this movement. Tui totally will too.” He ran this thumbs up from below her glutes, across her bum and into her lower back. She loved that move, and then she got to enjoy Marty and Tui doing it several times.

At one point Julian said, “Yes, you can see between her legs. That’ll happen plenty massaging someone. Don’t do it if they don’t want it, or you don’t want to. Larissa, do you mind?”

Larissa laughed. “After all that you’ve seen? Sure, I want you to. I would anyway.”

Then they did her lower legs, her feet and then her upper legs. Julian took particular care with this one. “Do the inside of her legs – they’re hard-working muscles and people often miss them. You can get your hand all the way up here.” His hands got very nearly to her perineum. She blinked, wow. Then she had the absolute pleasure of Marty doing it, and Tui, and Tui slipped and went just a little bit too far, and she giggled. Oh, that was even better.

“How’s it going there, Babe?”

“I’m really hoping that you’re going stop in another three hours or so!”

They laughed. “Yep,” Julian said, “she couldn’t not enjoy that, and you’ll both enjoy that, either giving or receiving. I mean you are, right.” Both Marty and Tui agreed that they were.

“OK. Before we turn her over, I’m going to show you how I like to turn her on. I always give her a bit of this before I turn her over.” A pair of fingernails very gently ran down her cleft, the inside of her cheeks, across her perineum, and touched her pussy. She shivered, and opened her legs without thinking about it. “It always works,” and she could hear Julian’s amusement. “OK, your turn.”

What? He couldn’t get them to do it. But no, they did the same thing, just further across where they’d already handled her. Shit that was good, and she purred her pleasure.

“OK, last thing before you turn over, babe.” A towel was placed over her, and very gently and slowly pulled down her body. Crazy how good that was, like always. “She really likes this. I really like this. OK babe, turn over.”

She did, and Julian placed a little pillow under her head. Carumba, he was well prepared. How long had he been planning this? She gave her best smile she could to Marty and Tui, this was really lovely.

Julian worked up her body, starting at her feet, then her legs, then her arms, and then her chest. Marty hesitated to repeat what Julian did when he massaged her tits. “It’s up to you, Marty, it has to be ok with both of you, but Larissa really likes it, Tui will really like it, and it’s fine with Larissa to do it.”

“You just want to get your hands on Tui’s tits,” Larissa said.

Immediately, Tui said, “Do it Marty!”

Marty laughed but did it. Then he said, “I feel as though I need some more practice at that,” and did it a couple of more times. And then again. Nice.

Tui was laughing until Julian said, “Your turn, Tui.” She obviously thought about it, and then she asked Larissa with her eyes, and Larissa smiled at her, please do it. Tui did, very gentle, and that was obviously a new experience for her. “Well done, Tui. It’s very intimate, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I’ve never done that before, but you’re right.” She bent down and kissed Larissa very gently. “I’m glad I got to try that out with you.”