The Working Life in Tekapo

---

I know, it's been a while since the last update... But there have been a few roadblocks. first off, I was using the internet at work for these updates, and since, the wireless connection is no longer. something about a massive bill or something, so they canned the service. Fair enough. Another problem was my trial version of Microsoft Word ran out, and I don't want to pay the $150 CDN to 'convert' to the full version. It's highway robbery I say.

Life has been good in Tekapo. Lately, or since I've been working here, I've fallen into a life of a sort of routine. I sleep in the same bed at night. I make lunches to eat the next day at work. I wake up more or less around the same time when I have work, and I try to sleep in when I don't work. I play hockey every Wednesday and Friday. I do laundry about twice a week, and every two or three weeks I go to a bigger city to do some bulk grocery shopping. Doesn't it sound interesting? Actually, it was nice to get into the routine after traveling for a while. This time, the blog won't feature daily highlights, but I'll tell you of a few adventures I've had on the way. But every good story or adventure has it's characters. I'll introduce you to them now:

Me: Some lucky Canadian who ran into a job in tekapo after begging for it on three seperate occasions. He wasn't hired for his many qualifications on the construction site (for those at home, that was a ridiculously sarcastic comment), but for his uncanny ability to kiss ass and play a mediocre level of hockey. Oftenn seen around Tekapo with travelling companion Bryan shopping for groceries, or getting into a stupid argument with. Currently works at the Winter Park Tubing Run alongside Bryan, Dale, Tyler and Brendan.

Bryan / Northy - Geoff's travelling partner and roommate at 9 Scott Street. routinely fals for workplace pranks, and vows to return the favour (refer to bucket of steam story below). Plays forward for the Lake Tekapo Bull Tahrs. Currently working at the Tube Park.

Brendan / Smitty - Orginally from Vancouver island, he now finds himself in the unfortunate situation of living with Bryan and Geoff, hence completing the trip known as Three Below Average. Top prospect for the Bull Tahrs. His favourite party trick is shining his bowling ball. Works mostly in skate hire; and boy. Does he like skating.

Craig - A Scottish bloke who manages at Alpine Springs. Likes to work and play hard. Star on the local football club, and developing ice hockey goaltender. Brilliant fellow. Hobbies includce snowboarding and losing poker games with a straight face.

Christian - Austrian who has a passion for Metallica, dance parties and lifeguarding.

Toms - Now resides in skate hire at Alpine Springs, but originally from Latvia. Strong defenceman on the Bull Tahrs. He loves it here, and says the scenery here, along with the complimentary massages are both 'indescribable'.

Tyler - Another Canuck following his hockey dream. Recently returned from Australia with girlfriend Christina. Solid stay-at-home defenceman on the ice, sand up guy off of it.

Christina - Lively lifeguard with a passion for her fellow coworkers. Especially Tyler. Enjoys a good chat about pretty much anything to keep her mind off her monotonous job at the pools.

Josh - Albertan lifeguard. He's currently finishing off some distance ed courses to get his degree from Carlton U in good lol' Ottawa Ontario. He's glad he isn't there and he's in Tekapo instead. Keen reader.

Jo - Irish cook. Salt of the earth woman, who left Tekapo way too early! She made a killer carrot cake, and she likes to read. Enjoyed cider instead of beer at the local watering holes.

Maria - Mexican Beauty. Thinks that all the food here is bland and needs a little more spice.

Fiona - Quiet British barista.

Audrey - She's French, and very cute. Too bad her boyfriend Quinton is a great guy... She works behind the desk, and is the photographer for the Friday night hockey games, in which Quinton regularly shows up the Canadians with some French flair.

Ruth - A Kiwi, and culinary genius. She runs the kitchen with jo, and thank God. She makes a great toastie.

Penny - Kiwi first, manager second. She works with Donna quite a bit.

Donna - Brit who works in the office. engaged to an eccentric electrician named Sean, who is a great guy.

Jeff - Manager, and avid snowboarder during the winter season. He's the second person I met after Maria when I first arrived in Tekapo. He knows how to cook a salmon, too.

Dwayne - Another Kiwi manager who takes care of the rink. Recently broke his wrist playing hockey in Christchurch. Generally a hockey nut. If you need anything hockey, he's the guy to talk to. Invites his buddies from Christchurch to play with us on Fridays.

Dale - Dwayne's nephew who is in to help over the school holidays with the snow park. Good young hockey player.

Sophie - Figure skating coach in from Christchurch.

Chelsea - works at the front desk, and hails from Auckland. We won't hold that against her! (I'm just buying into the apparent hatred that most southerners here hate Aucklanders... it's a good laugh). Recently brought me back a cheeseburger from Timaru so she's definitely one of my favourites...

Claire - English girl. Works in the spa, and makes sure they're all organized. Rumour has it she's good with the scissors, and can give you a good haircut for a small fee. I haven't seen proof yet, so I'll wait my turn. she's got a wicked Liverpool accent, and has been to Blackpool as well.

Bridget - Manager at the spa. Her sons Kaleb and Josh regularly join the Canucks on the ice for a quick game of hockey.

Sandra - Massage therapist from Oz. She's a twin, too.

Battina - German massage therapist, who enjoys the pace here in Tekapo. She treated me to a massage and she was EXCELLENT. She even had Christina drooling during her half hour treatment.

Woody - Dave's little jack Russell. Proud new father of six little pups.

Zack aka Buddy - Our dog for a few days. We loved to have him, but he hasn't been over in quite a while.

Dave - Woody's owner, and coworker on the construction site. He knows his stuff. First to request the bucket of steam, and fan of Bourbon and colas.

Nicol - Kiwi coworker on the construction site. a hunter and a gentleman. Has dreams of making it over to Canada to hunt some deer and other harmless animals.

Karl - The boss. The Hammer. Also is a major hockey nut. Provider of income.

Jakub - new import from the Czech Republic, and works in the kitchen. Great guy.

Now for a few stories. First, we'll start off with the bucket of steam. It's a classic.

By our fourth week of work we were getting pretty comfortable at the workplace. One day, as we usually do, we meet Dave and Nicol to get our daily to-do list. It could have included putting tracks onto the snow groomer, digging holes, tightening some loose screws or loosening tight ones, picking things up from the mechanic, or getting firewood. But on this fateful morning, Dave mentions that we needed to get a bucket of steam from Craig at some point in the afternoon. We were confused, but didn't question him, assuming it was something we had never seen before. Maybe it was a Kiwi term that we weren't familiar with. So the morning passed, we did our work, and this bucket of steam kept on coming up. At lunch Dave explained that it would be used to help bend some frozen electrical cable. We kind of nodded. Okay Dave. You tell us to do something, and we do it. That's how simple it was. We wanted to contribute much more, but with our limited experience, we were stuck. So we follow orders. After lunch, Dave told Northy to go ahead and ask Craig to get the bucket of steam from the back of the complex. Craig's response was that the machine wasn't ready for another half hour. Meanwhile, I was at the top of the hill working with Nicol. He was giggling pretty consistently through the afternoon; more so than usual. Finally, over the radio Craig claims that this bucket of steam is ready. I'm on the walking track on the hill, and can see Northy walking back to the main area towards Craig. He's holding a green plastic bucket upsidedown, with great care. It has some plastic wrap on the underside to hold in the steam. Craig tells Northy to be extremely careful with it, or else he'll lose all the steam he collected. It had to be held upside down, with one hand on the top of the bucket, and another carefully on the bottom. At this point. Nicol and Dave were out of control laughing. Finally I realized it was all a horribly cruel joke. there is no bucket of steam. Just Northy carrying an empty green bucket upside-down for no reason whatsoever, while everyone else takes the piss out of him. If it was me carrying the bucket (and I would have been) they'd be doing the same thing. I watched as Northy carefully carried this bucket full of 'steam' back to the construction site. He was determined not to spill the steam. Dave and Nicol could hardly breathe as they were laughing so hard. Northy was still working hard to keep all the steam in there, and finally, as he approached Nicol and me, he realized he and I were the butt of the joke. Nicol couldn't look at him straight. Finally, Northy realized he and I were the butt of the joke. We looked back at Craig who had now gathered a crowd of three or four other employees, and were also keeling over laughing. We were chumps, and everyone knew. In a few days, everyone in town had heard what had happened, and we were asked for buckets of steam from the bar, at the gas station, and even at home. They got us good. We vowed to get them back... Watch out Tekapo!

During our construction run, we helped fill in a concrete base for part of the snow making system at the tubing park. Being proud Canadians, we took advantage of the situation. I grabbed a toonie from my bag and put it in the drying concrete, underneath the word Canada. Just like the ice makers at the Salt Lake City Olympics (who put the loonie under the center ice dot), we left a little Canadiana behind.

Hey Nate and Malcolm! When I was working on the construction site, I got to use some cool machines! I used something called a bobcat. It was almost like a video game, and I used it to move concrete and equipment around the work site. I also know how to use a forklift, and how to move a little digger, used to dig dirt! You'd both love it. My boss, Karl, also has a new toy; the snow groomer. It's his little baby, but it didn't come without problems. We did quite a few hours putting the metal tracks on over the rubber wheels. The engine wasn't in perfect condition either, and the mechanic had to come in for a few days to work out all the kinks. Then Karl had to learn how to drive it... It doesn't look easy, but it seems as though by now he's got it mastered. But boy, there are enough big boy toys to play with over here... the other day I used a snow blower with treads on it to clear the stands area. It was much better than shovelling the whole area by hand...

Working construction can be dangerous, but for the most part at Tekapo, I've been safe. I still have all ten of my fingers and toes, so I'm a happy boy. Except for one occasion, I've been comfortable on the worksite. We had to erect these massive poles for the lights to go on top of. Each pole came in four sections. the base of all six poles were set in concrete along the tubing run. The second, third and fourth secions were to be placed on the top of the previous one. The day that we were ready to erect these things, it was cold enough to test out the snow guns. To put the third section on, we were going to get lifted on a wooden skid placed on the forklift, with this 12 foot metal, slippery section of pole. It must have weighed 50 pounds. We were then going to lift it over the second one, and hope it doesn't fall. First off, I went up first, but I suddenly remember how terrified of ladder heights I was. I'm okay with skydiving and bungy jumping, but when it comes to these kind of heights (meaning ones on an icy wooden skid on a moving platform with a tall, cold, slippery and heavy peice of metal pole in my grasp), I wasn't too keen. I was terrified. I'm pretty sure the whole time I was up there, my legs were shaking, and I was mumbling to myself. I demanded down, and I needed an extra set of hands. Northy came up with me, but it didn't make it any easier. I kept on saying 'I hate this, I hate this, I hate this', but the situation didn't get much better. Eventually we got three of these light sections up, and finished the rest of the job with a cherry picker. I hated that day and vowed I would never do that again. About a week later, I was fixing a hydrolic fluid leak on the forklift while sitting on a wooden board that was on the forks. Northy came around the corner, and before I could jump off, lifted the forks all the way up, twenty five feet in the air, with me on the board. He then turned the thing off and went away to tell everyone to look at Brooksie pissing himself on the forklift. I didn't talk to him for the rest of that day. Mind you, I was dry, and it wasn't slippery that day, but still I didn't like it at all. I hope he's been sleeping with his eyes open. Watch out buddy...

Unofficially, I was the first one down the tubing run at Alpine Springs. It wasn't quite ready yet, but the tubes were all blown up, and we weren't too busy. We grabbed tubes and went to the top of the run. It hadn't been groomed yet, and there were some dangerous looking bumps in the run. But we threw caution to the wind, and went for it. All the hard work on the construction site was well worth it.

Since the Tubing Park construction has been completed, both Northy and I have been making sure people are enjoying it. there are two jobs at the park. The first gives out the helmets and tubes at the bottom of the run. We write their finishing time on their helmets, and tell them to have a good time. the person at the top of the run makes sure they people going down don't run into each other at the bottom, and every once in a while might give them a spin or a push. It's really a fun job, and the time passes so quickly. It isn't much of a burden to be working at the park. It has got a little cold lately, but we've been given these Antarctic Canada Goose jackets that are incredibly warm. They keep us going. The past two weeks have been school holidays, which are by far the busiest time for Alpine springs. There have been hundreds and hundreds of people through here. Karl must be very happy. On the first day the Tubing Park was open, a radio station stopped by to interview us. I happened to be working at the bottom of the hill, and they asked me a few questions about the tubing Park. I spoke into one of two cell phones, which the host was onsite taking into the other. Too bad the cell phone reception isn't great at work, and the quick speaking Kiwi host didn't help too much either. I could barely hear what she was saying, and there was a little bit of an echo. I hope that the Kiwis listening to that broadcast don't think all Canadians stutter. It was horrible. I got my point across and answered all the questions alright, but I must have sounded like an idiot. I've crossed out radio broadcasting in New Zealand for future career options from that moment forward.

When I'm not working in Tekapo, there's a few things that keep me busy. I've been watching a lot of movies lately. We got a few copies of movies from teh Tequila Lodge, and I have a few on my laptop. We have a DVD player we bought on trade me a few months back, so we watch disks on that every once in a while. We also play darts from time to time, and of course beer pong when we're having a few. Sometimes we get out of Tekapo and visit a bigger town. Perhaps Timaru, Christchurch or Queenstown. I've been trying to avoid Queenstown lately because every time i go there, I return with very little money... We watched the NHL playoffs when they were on, and watched Sid lift the cup. That was nice. We took an afternoon to watch Craig play on the local soccer team. They won the match handily. We also invested in an N64, and have enjoyed a little retro James Bond action on it. It got old very quickly, but it was nice to have to pass a little bit of the time. I went for one run with Christian, but that trend didn't last too long... it was a good run though; he took me through some woods and we ended up on the crest of a hill overlooking the mountain ranges surrounding Tekapo. It was beautiful. Too bad I couldn't breath too well, or I might have enjoyed it a little more. Perhaps I'll end up running up there a few more times before I leave here. A few weeks ago, Christina, Bettina, Northy and I headed to Christhcurch for a night out and to watch the All Blacks play the Italians. It was a great time. We all needed out of the small town lifestyle. We had a nice Indian meal before the game, then got set to watch the game. It was honestly a very sloppy game. At one point, the second row forward was running down the wing, and had some space. For some reason he tried a grubber kick through the opposing line. the problem was that he missed the ball completely, stumbled on it and fell to the ground. I don't think I was ever that clumsy in my playing days (but maybe I was...). The whole crowd laughed. I felt embarrassed for him. But there were a few good runs, and the All Blacks took the game easily. Afterwards we had a big night out. Once again, we didn't learn our lesson, and the drive back to Tekapo was not fun. Especially when you're driving.

For food, we've been doing pretty well. Breakfast usually consists of some breakfast muesli, but I sometimes spoil myself with some eggs and sausages on toast. For lunch, favourites include tuna melts, mixed meat sandwhiches, soup, or even the classic pb and j. Dinner could be steak and potatoes, sweet and sour chicken, pasta, and for a special treat, chinese food bought from jade palace. When we have salmon from the Mount Cook Salmon Farm, we've had sushi, and I somehow I baked it with a homemade barbeque sauce, and served it with mashies, mushrooms and onions. I must have blacked out, but it tasted incredible. I've actually surprised myself, and I have very rarely bought my meals, and instead used all the groceries that I buy in the bigger cities. I think I might finally be growing up... Strange.

the party life here is fun. I enjoy the company of everyone here, and I think that makes the difference. Since the ski season started here, there have been a few more faces around town, and I've had the pleasure of meeting most of them. The members of Three Below Average had a meeting a few weeks earlier, and decided to throw a big party. Firstly, to honour Canada's birthday, as well as Brendan's 27th birthday. It was quickly decided we would host a killer Canada Day party, and everyone was invited. We threw it on July 2nd here, which fell on July 1st at home. Christina and Bryan had arranged to have some flags, ballons and tattoos sent from the Canadian High Commision in Wellington down to help celebrate. The place was decked out, and by ten, everyone was there. It was so great to see everyone out. Most of the guys were sporting some terrific moustaches. I named mine Saskatchewan, Northy's was named Le Metro, and Brendan's was the Truckstop. All the Canadians at the party got together for a picture, and an impromptu recital of the national anthem started. It was just beautiful. We belted it out; I think I might have cried a little bit. Nonetheless, it was the best version of Oh Canada I had heard or sang in a long time, and I felt like I was home again. It was a fantastic night, and everyone there, regardless of their own nationality, was there to help us celebrate Canada Day! It was just awesome. I had a little bit of a lie in the next morning, but we were forced to stay for eight hours to open the tubing park that night. It was a long day, but well worth it.

The hockey in Tekapo has been fun. Before we started getting really busy, we played every wednesday and friday. Now, for the most part, we're on the ice only once a week on friday night. A good game is always rewarded with a few cold beers at the Tavern or Pepes. A few guys come down every second friday from Christchurch to even out the teams. This past Saturday, we had quite a crowd come out to watch the Bull Tahrs play a travelling team from Auckland. It was the biggest crowd that has come out to see me play ever. the team we were playing were mostly beginner hockey players, but they all had heart. It was a lopsided affair, and I swapped jerseys for the second and third periods. It was great meeting all the guys and swapping stories. the guys were a mix of air force cadets and uni students. All of them had a passion for hockey. After the game we took a great team shot (which unfortunately I don't have), and we took off. Next weekend is the Erowyn Cup, being held in Gore. I'm looking forward to it. It's the first 'away' hockey tourney I've played in since high school. All the boys are pumped to go and it will be interesting to see the competition. But I'm pretty sure that Karl is expecting us to bring home the Cup. It could mean our jobs... 😊

So I'm still waiting for the Olympics to get back to me about my volunteer application for Vancouver. As soon as they get back to me I'll be able to settle my plans for the rest of the year. Right now It looks as though I'll be staying until the jobs finished on September 15th, and then flying from Christchurch to Brisbane to catch a flight to Bangkok on September 20th. I'm getting very excited about that adventure, and I'll need to start doing some reading. I know Clark Davis is reading this in his cubicle at work just dreaming about those white sandy beaches, tropical vistas and ping pong shows... Northy has looked into changing his trip around a little bit, so he might be in Asia a few weeks before we get there. We might still be able to meet up with him, which would be sweet. But we'll see how it works... I think that's the really exciting part. I don't really know exactly what's going to be happening from September 20th onwards... but I can't wait.

Anyways, that's enough for now. Send me an update if you can from home or wherever you are.

All the Best,

Brooksie

---

Photos

Scary
But happy to be at the game

and the crowd goes wild!
Actually, the stadium wasn't filled... there were quite a few empty seats left. This wasn't the top All Blacks Team

The ladies
with their new scarves

the whole gang
from left to right - Bettina (Germany), Geoff, Northy, Kristina (all Canadians).

Huddle
Or is that just a big Italian group hug?

GAME ON
hardcore fans

the set up
We treated ourselves to a classy sushi meal. Sweet as. The salmon was awesome.

Brendan
Driving the Zamboni in Tekapo: Priceless

The digger
Trying to get down from the ridge... it was very slippery. Here Karl's brother Christian helped get it down.

Tubes
Northy and his tube during the early tests. He survived, but came away with a few cuts and scrapes.

The boys
GB, Northy, Christian and Brendan.