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Published: January 22nd 2008
Christmas in Queenstown
Yeah, Id say this is about par for the course...Hello everyone- wanted to get you an update on the happenings over Christmas and New Year's here in Queenstown...
Christmas in Queenstown turned out to be really good. It was hard to get into the Christmas Spirit much due to the fact that it was sunny and 70 degrees leading up to Christmas Day. I found it interesting that shops and restaurants, despite the warm and sunny weather, felt obligated to decorate their windows and store fronts with fake snow and tinsel- it has never been winter here for Christmas, there has never been snow on the ground during Christmas, and it will always continue to be SUMMER on December 25th. Why the fake snow?? A testament to the “Hallmark-ization” of the holiday, for sure. Anyway, I think the main reason I wasn’t feeling it this year was because I was avoiding the Christmas Spirit all together. You see, I’m a Christmas guy- love the holiday season, getting out and shopping for gifts you know people will love, the cold weather, being around friends and family, the non-stop Christmas station on my Sirius satellite radio, helping my dad sort out the lights on the house, watching Christmas movies over and
over with my sisters- I love all of it. Being on the other side of the world during one of my favorite seasons was not something I was excited about, so I tried to avoid/ignore anything Christmas altogether. As the day drew near, I did do a little shopping for the fam, which was fun, and I caved in and rented Christmas Vacation (Whats Christmas without the Griswolds?), just for tradition’s sake, so by the time Christmas Day rolled around, I was actually excited for it. I was excited by the fact that I had 3 significantly different “cultural” experiences set up- an Argentinean Christmas bbq at Federico’s, a Champagne Breakfast Christmas morning with the Luciano’s crew, and an Irish Christmas Day Celebration at my friends Maeve and JP’s place… It was going to be quite the extravaganza- very different than the traditional Tilley Family Christmas back home…
I had to work Christmas Eve, but was off fairly early- 9pm, I think- plenty of time to make it over to Federico’s for his Argentinean Christmas Feast. He had been working hard in the kitchen all day, preparing stuffed chicken breasts and everything to go along with it. Some of
Our Christmas Dinner Table
Who knew the cabin could look so good?? the girls helped prepare the salads, and before long, it was time to eat. Everything was amazing, and so much food! We popped open a couple of bottles of champagne, and the festivities began. We had Argentinean music playing, people were exchanging gifts, the wine was flowing rather liberally- good times all around. We even got a live demonstration of some traditional Argentinean dance moves- very impressive. It was uncanny- a particular song came on, all of the Argentineans started yelling and smiling, and then just fell into this choreographed dance. I asked Fede if everyone in Argentina learned these dances while growing up, and he just said “If you are born in Argentina, you are born knowing this dance!” Too funny… Just another one of uncountable cultural nuances that doesn’t really equate to growing up in the US. Anyway, the night was great, we danced until late, and celebrated Christmas in true Argentinean style. I called it quits a bit later than I had planned, as I knew I had to be up for the Champagne Breakfast at 9am the next morning, but not too late. I said my thank yous and goodbyes, and headed home, fully in the
Merry Christmas!!
Or, in this case, Feliz Navidad! Christmas Spirit.
I awoke Christmas morning to a beautiful sunny Queenstown day, which was slightly put off by the fact that I felt like I still had champagne bubbles bursting in my head… Not good when heading to a Champagne Breakfast… Regardless, I took a quick shower, and caught a ride up to Davey’s with my neighbor and co-worker Al. Davey, who is the co-owner of Luciano’s, lives in an area of Queenstown called Fernhill. As it’s name hints, it is on a hill, and has a spectacular view of Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, and the Remarkables rising beyond. Not a bad backdrop for any morning, much less Christmas. To be honest, I was a little let down by the turn out at the breakfast- I had been told attendance at the breakfast was “compulsory”, and was expecting most of the staff from the restaurant to be there. It turned out to be me, Al, Davey and his girlfriend, Clarissa and her boyfriend, and a couple of the chefs. Not that that isn’t a good group, we just didn’t have enough people to do the Secret Santa exchange, and the people that I am better friends with at work didn’t
Mmmmmmmm...
The Chef gives his approval... end up going. No worries though- the breakfast was fantastic, though I couldn’t stomach any more champagne at the time. I don’t really enjoy the stuff to begin with- 2 days in a row was overload. We hung out for awhile, shooting lead pellets out of the slingshots that Davey got for all of the guys, just talking and enjoying the sunshine. In my haste to get out the door that morning, I had forgotten to pick up my camera, so no photos from the breakfast. It was a good time though. Around noon, Al dropped me off back at my flat, and I had about an hour to kill before being picked up to head to the Irish party.
It turned out that it wasn’t a strictly “Irish” celebration- it is Queenstown, so it was more like an Irish-Scottish-English-American-Canadian-Kiwi extravaganza. A good crowd on hand, pretty mellow to start out with. We were just chatting and keeping an eye on the weather, as serious clouds had started to roll in. It quickly got quite nasty outside, so we moved the party indoors, pushed the bbq under the overhang on the deck, and carried on. Things were pretty tame
until Stacy, a Scottish girl, decided it was time to whip up her Christmas Day Party Punch. I sat there and watched her make it, growing evermore confident that anyone who went near the stuff would be down for the count within a cupful or two. Upon completing the brew, we all sampled it, and much to our surprise, it was REALLY good, which, as you can imagine, didn’t bode well for us the rest of the afternoon… Card games, Premiere League football, and human pyramids followed- you know, typical Christmas fanfare. Good time, all in all. I stayed over there late into the evening, and then headed home. It was a good Christmas, truth be told. Different, but good.
The next day was Boxing Day, which is apparently a pretty big deal in English-influenced cultures (UK, AUS, NZ, etc.). There had long been stet plans of a Luciano’s staff night out after the restaurant closed that evening, so everyone was trying o get their tables through and out the door as quickly as possible. I think we ended up closing around 1130, and all got together in the bar for out Secret Santa exchange. After that was finished,
it was out into the Queenstown night for some Boxing Day revelry. We ended up taking over the tabletops at Winnie’s, and then moved the party to a place called MiniBar- standard issue for Luciano’s Staff parties. Good times, all around. My first Boxing Day experience was a good one!
New Year’s Eve in Queenstown was MAD… Apparently, Queenstown is THE PLACE to be if you are traveling through NZ over New Year’s. It seemed everything was packed to the bursting point- all of the camping grounds and motor parks were full of campers and motor homes, all of the hostels and hotels had their “No Vacancy” signs lit up, there were even people camping out on the rugby field for the night- anywhere there was a bare patch of ground, you could bet someone was setting up a tent. Insane. I went out into town around 2pm, just to have a walk around and see what was going on. It was RIDICULOUS! So many people out milling around, checking out the shops, drinking coffees at the outdoor cafes, standing in huge lines to get ice cream. You could feel a tension in the air- the excitement was palpable.
It was a combination of all the different people, young and old, in town to celebrate the New Year, along with the fact that it was a beautiful day in Queenstown. All these people in one small area, just enjoying the day, waiting for the festivities to begin... It was pretty cool. I had to be in at work at 530p, as NYE is typically the busiest night of the year at Luciano’s. I didn’t know what to expect, and was kind of dreading work that night after hearing that they did something crazy like 224 people the previous NYE- the most I had done in my tenure was something like 130, and I thought that was BUSY. 224 was INSANE. Luckily, we weren’t as busy as they had been the year before- we did something like 175 think- and I was off by 11pm, just in time to meet up with Maeve and JP for the fireworks at midnight.
I was lucky enough to catch up with them pretty easily, and we headed straight down to the waterfront. Honestly, I though I was in Sydney again for the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Olympics- people EVERYWHERE, packed shoulder
Christmas Crackers!!
Allsion, JP, and I goofing off with our Christmas Cracker presents to shoulder, jockeying for position to se the fireworks display. Insane I tell you! We were fortunate to get a decent spot, and settled in to take in the show. It was really cool sitting there on the beach, with the lights of Queenstown Harbor reflecting off the lake, watching the rockets exploding overhead and the sparks drifting back down to the surface of the lake. One of those moments when you really stop and appreciate where you are and what is going on. It was pretty cool. After the show was over, we shot up to a couple of parties out of downtown in order to let things clear out a bit- thee were so many people, the streets were PACKED. We weren’t sure where we were going to go later on, as all of the bars were charging a cover that night, and we assumed thee would be massive lines everywhere anyway. I got a text from Fee saying that he was at a bar in the Steamer Wharf, and that we would be able to get our friends in for free and without waiting in line b/c we both work in the building as well. So, we
Happy Christmas!!
Luke, Stacy, Maeve, and Lucy- Enlish Scottish, Irish, Aussie. Welcome to Queesntown! headed back into town, and were able to finalge our way into this place called the Boiler Room. It was pretty cool b/c they have a little patio out the back which sits right on the water, and we found some room out there and had out own little dance party. From there it was off to Barmuda, where my flatmate Sebastian was working security. He was able to get us in there with no problems as well, and we sang and danced until the early hours of New Year’s Day. It was so much fun! It turned out to be a really good night, lots of fun with good friends and ringing in the New Year in a crazy place like Queenstown.
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