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Hiedi-Hi campers!!
The gods of world travel have almost been appeased, my time has been sacraficed, it lies dead and bloodied before there hairy toes and hopefully now they will be satasfied with the senseless slaughter as they would have been with the Mayan virgins of old and perhaps, just pehaps they will bless my harvest to come with bountiful rain and radient sunshine. With an exceptable but still disapointing hoard of NZ dollars i am making the necessary preperations for my invasion of mainland Australia. I must ruthlessly whittle down my two bags down to one in anticipation that i may need to run from time to time as i start my return leg back to the place from whence i came.
Since i last rudely interupted your lives with my longer than necessary travel blog i have been busy making things happen, things that would hopefully provide you with a more interesting read and perhaps illicit more responses from my unwilling subscribers (thats you).
The Routeburn Track
Since arriving back in Queenstown i felt the wieght of indicision fall from my shoulders and again my travels took a more purposeful
direction. On the fourth day after i had sobered up i headed into town with a fist full of CV's that i intended to exchange for a fist full of dollars. Always one to risk something that i haven't done before i decided to throw caution to the wind and gave an employment agency the privilage of representing me to the work scene. A privelage that the first two agencies failed to take advantage of but one that the third and final one in town, to my relief and the relief of my plans gave me the benefit of the doubt and promptly found me a job in a town that so many before had said at this time of the year was not just a town but a town without jobs. After the novelty of moving beds from A to B and then back to A via Y at novotel i landed a job that on paper sat in a heated office seemed ideal.
"The IDEAL Job"
The job was not a job through my eyes but an experience, and eventaully a challenge, i could move beds around in circles in England and for better money
at that. I was to be working in the Fjiordland national park on the construction of the new MacKenzie lodge on the Scenic Routeburn Track with a gang of 5 insane building desperadoes. In that heated office somebody forgot to mention that in the Fjiordland it has the habbit of unleashing an average annual rainfall of somewhere in the region of 8 meters, yes, 8000 millimeters (315 inches). Had i had known i would still have taken the job, i was in it for the helicopter stuff and the probability that one day in ten there was the remote possibility that the clouds would stop flirting with the clouds for just long enough for me to get a photo of the mountains. A good three and a half hour walk from the nearest road i was required to commute to work in a helicopter, a bane i know, but one i had to bare. With food provided and my accomodation included the pathetic hourly rate at least seemed less pathetic as i accumulated 10 days wages for each stint and nowhere to spend it i was unwillingly being forced to save for Australia to come. Admittedly on my four days
off i went slightly crazy indiscriminately unleasing my savings upon the town. I tried not to dwell upon that too much and before i was perhaps ready i found myself in the chopper with a one way ticket to rainville.
Mountain Lessons
It is a widely accepted and scientific fact that the mountains are spiritual places, the existence of Tibetan Monks and Rocky IV's montage is proof alone. So here i will summarise my experiences into bullet points and pass on the life lessons i learned through moist toil, cold mornings and long days to you, my more terrestial readers.
-Kiwis (New Zealanders) love killing Opposums, nothing makes them happier with the exception of condiment usage.
-If it rains all day no matter what clothes you wear, no matter the material or cost,nature finds a way and you get wet.
-The best thing about rain is that sandflies share my dislike of its 24 hour pressence.
-Keas (alpine parrots) hate Kakas (other alpine parrot) as muck as Kiwis hate Opposums.
-Keas love bitting holes in my water proof clothing as much as seagulls love destroying polystyrene trays.
-Working in the mountains with but a few men for company sends you slowly mental.
-Kiwi builders use the slogan 'I may be slow but at least i am rough' as do UK builders, both to hilarious effects.
-The Capital of East Timor is Dili
SkyDive
With a week remaining before i leave these waters for more northerly climbs to begin my ascent up the globe i have began winding down my New Zealand operations, dismantling its infastructure and resigned myself as i have to watching rental films all day in the interests of conserving money. But with a week of conservation under my belt i have invested my hard earned dollars on a 12,000 foot SKYDIVE. An extravagance you may say, i would have said the same last week but i put a good week of time into convincing myself that it was actually an investment. Learning that i have that investing in experience can be a worthwhile venture and a policy i have decided to pursue.
On the road again
As the road rolls out before me i once again anticipate the taste of the transient life i
left behind in december. I must make haste as my hero phileas Fogg once (fictionally) did and rush through the remainder of my destiantions to reach my point of origin before my flights cease to exist, expiring as they do to my dismay on the 16th of August.
Auckland then Oz
On Saturday i will be on the move again just in time to save myself from a town in limbo. Queenstown as great as it may be, it is dissapointingly caught in the twighlight zone, a town of sceptres. A shoulder season where people are niether here nor there. Waiting for the Ski season or stragglers from the summer i have decided that i must return as i will in the future but until then i bid you adieu.
So long and thanks for all the FISH! Good-bye for now New Zealand!
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anonymous
non-member comment
G day mate!!! great hearing ur news and how u got on in NZ, al half kiwi u know so obv have a huge love for it!! half the family live in auckland!! Guess what? am goin gback to Cusco for 6b weeks this summer!! going to be Crew leader for a group of volunteers in cusco!!! Dont even have to pay to go there; they provide everything!! will think of our wonderful salsa lessons in mythology when i re visit it!!! xxxxx