Tales from Aotearoa

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Hi everyone, and welcome to the 5th instalment of our fantastic electronic diary. Its July already and its flying over, so heres what we have been up to over the past few weeks...

At the end of the last blog entry Phil had found work but I was still looking. It was frustrating sitting about doing nothing all day and I was eager to get out and start work, so it was a relief when I got an interview for a job as a lift operator on one of the local ski resorts, Coronet Peak. I thought the interview hadn't really went that well considering I told the interviewer I basically couldnt ski (a bit silly of me really, even though i've never skied in my life), but it turned out he liked me and I was offered the job. I started about three and a half weeks ago, and its a very cold yet beautiful place to work up on the mountain. And so we both have money coming in now, which is a relief!

One of the perks of the job is that I get to ski free of charge, so the week before I started we both decided to head up and get some practice in. Phil hasn't skied since he was at Lord Lawson about 14 years ago so we were both expecting to be eating snow most of the day, yet we both took to it well. For Phil it was like riding a bike, after one run he was pretty confident, and I was pretty happy with the way my first day skiing went too. Coronet Peak is quite high, and we were lucky enough to ski above the clouds that day, which sat low in the valley below us. That evening we were invited to the home of Phils gaffer, Darren, for a mid-winter barbeque, apparently quite common over here - though we can't think why anyone would want to stand outdoors at night here for any longer than a minute in these temperatures (it was a nipple hardening minus 8 the other night). There were a couple of others at the bbq, including a strange little creature named misty who had no quarms with vomiting infront of us for a solid hour.

Two weeks ago was the 35th annual Queenstown Winter Festival. Its a week of festivities which generally involve people jumping into the freezing lake, sliding down Coronet Peak in a suitcase, and various music gigs. We headed down to the packed lakeside harbour to watch the fireworks on the opening night, which were pretty spectacular mainly due to how close we were to them. They were being set off only a few feet away from us and so were exploding directly above us, low in the sky. Definitely the best fireworks we have seen. As part of the festival, a local band were performing Pink Floyds album 'Dark Side of the Moon' live in the local town hall, so, feeling deprived of good live music, we went along to see them. They did an excellent job of recreating one of our favourite bands, and they even roped the local primary school kids in to sing "Another Brick in the Wall'.

While we have been here in New Zealand we have tried to do something new every two or three weeks. Last week it was decided that we would try out the Shotover jet, a "thrilling super-fast jet boat ride" through the canyons of the Shotover river. We arrived there reflecting upon the tragic (ahem) news of Michael Jacksons untimely demise, and were kitted up with our knee length waterproof macs and life jackets. Once inside the boat, it became quickly clear that it was the driver job to get as close to the canyon rocks as possible, as fast as possible, without tearing the boat asunder. He treated us to some adrenaline inducing 360 degree spins, and made sure everyone in the boat thought the next rock was going to be the scene of our messy deaths. Parts of the river canyon were really tall and narrow, and there were some impressive 6 foot tall icicles hanging from the sides which created a beautiful and otherwordly backdrop. The driver of the boat was telling us how the river used to be the richest gold mining river in the world at one point, and how it is still quite common to find flecks of the stuff under rocks and in amongst the sand. We saw a place that sells panning equipment in town so when spring turns to summer we are going to head out to a quiet spot and do ourselves some prospecting. We aren't expecting to find big chunks of the stuff, but it certainly would be nice to come across some. Theres gold in them there hills.

We recently have been considering a move away from the small studio we have been living in. Although our little flat has provided us with everything we need, it has become evident that we are paying quite alot of money for something that should be costing us less. Having found out that other residents in the local area are paying around 350 dollars a week for a three bedroom house, and we pay 200 for what is essentially one room, we decided to make a move. The flat we are in is constantly damp, and we seem to be living on top of each other as we perpare food, eat, sleep, drink, watch telly, hang washing and get changed in the same space. We havn't quite found anywhere yet, but we are looking at 2 bedroom accomodation at the moment and hope to have somewhere more spacious and comfortable very soon.

I doubt it would have made the news thousands of miles away in good old Blighty, but there was an earthquake here last night! We were happily sitting watching some local Kiwi rubbish on the telly when the beds started to shake a little, quickly becoming more violent. The light hanging in the centre of the room was swaying and flickering, and it was all pretty surreal. It was recorded as being 7.8 on the richter scale, which has been known to flatten buildings. Luckily it was centred on a remote part of the south island, so no damage was done (we are about 100 miles from the centre point). There were some aftershocks too throughout the night.

We have both been feeling terrible this week with what we initially suspected to be the dreaded swine flu, but turns out to be a case of man-flu. We are hoping to get some more skiing practice in soon, and get onto some of the harder slopes. They have started night skiing up there now on Friday and Saturday nights, and its generally quieter which suits beginners like us.

And thats about it for now! Again, we hope everyone is well back home and we miss everyone alot. There will be more from the bottom of the world very soon. Haere rā!

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