First Entry - Hulloh!

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Hey there! Its been almost two weeks since I first arrived here in Queenstown. I've been quite busy the whole time training with Queenstown Rafting on the legendary Shotover River! But first a recap of the last few weeks of events...

Sept. 21 - P.M.
- Flew out of LAX

Sept. 23 - A.M.
- Arrived at Aukland International Airport, ran into a few glitches with customs. Apparently, it's not a sound way to enter New Zealand when you tell them that you are planning on staying 6 months, with no work visa, no return ticket, and no job officially lined up. The exact words of the customs agent are hard to remember, but the words "not ideal" stuck out.
Lucky for me, I was able to show some correspondence with the operations manager of Queenstown Rafting via email and provide evidence of sufficient funds for living etc. Additionally, they were having power outages around the airport, so bigger things were going on. The customs agent told me that today was my lucky day, and let me in on a 30 day visitor permit. Not the 90 days I was hoping for, but I was just glad to be let in the country!

Sept. 23 - early P.M.
- Plane to Queenstown was turned around due to heavy winds, so we flew into Christchurch. The airline hooked us up with transportation and a dinner down to Queenstown that night, a 8.5 hour journey. At first I was a bit peeved, until I realized that I was going to be given a "free" tour of the country side!
For the first half of the trip, it was all farmland with snow capped peaks in the far distance. Now, I had been forwarned of New Zealand's sheep population, but I wasn't truly ready for the full scope of it. Over the entire bus ride I saw anywhere between 500,000 and 700,000 sheep and only 4 people, 3 of which were riding tractors. Last figure I heard was 10 sheep per person in NZ, but I think that might be an underestimate! Wind must be a big problem in NZ, every single section of farmland was bordered by wind-breaks composed of trees.
The second half was through the mountains, across the MacDonald Highlands (named after the MacDonald brothers, bandits who stole sheep and other livestock from the farmers and hid in the rather inhospitable region), and by a good dozen or so large, milky blue lakes and reservoirs.
With the ecological and sustainable reputation NZ possesses, I was surprised to see large sections of clear cut forests along the hillsides, but I learned later that they were removing Wilding Pines, one of the many invasive species having a field day (pun intended) with the NZ ecosystem.

Sept. 23 - late P.M.
-Arrived late at night to a rainy Queenstown. Went straight to my hostel, Bumbles Backpackers, and crashed. Had been traveling for almost 24 hours straight!

Sept. 24
-Got up early, grabbed some bfast and started exploring my home for the next 6 months. Later went by Queenstown Rafting (referred to from now on as QR) and talked with the manager Guido. Went to an internet cafe and submitted my working holiday visa application. After this bit of business, I climbed up to the top of the gondola, amazing view of the whole region.

Sept. 25
-I allowed myself another day of before I began training with QR, used my time to climb to the top of Queenstown Hill, which affords a much better view of the region. Lake Wakatipu, the Remarkables, Queenstown, Ben Lomond Peak, and much more were all visible from the top.

Sept. 26
-Training began at QR. The Shotover is an interesting river. Its a low flow river, but is surprisingly powerful! The first 3/4 is all class 2 stuff, with the first 6 class 4 rapids all on top of each other through what is known as the Mother Section. Very fun! It's non-stop and very technically challenging. The later rapids lead into the Oxenbridge Tunnel, a 180 meter, very narrow, very dark little chute blasted out by those never tiring gold miners, way back in 1905. This leads to a shallow, ass kicking class 4 rapid called Cascade and the end of the trip
The guides are friendly, I look forward to doing some guiding

Sept 30
-Guided the Shotover from the top, didn't have the prettiest lines through the Mother section, but everyone stayed in. Cascade sent me flying into my assessor and I tackled him out of the boat. Woops.

Oct 1
-Moved to a cheaper hostel, Deco's, which is more oriented for longer term stays. As soon as I get my Working holiday visa , which should be any day now, I will try and find a permanent living spot in town to rent.

Oct 3
-Guided from the top again, went very well! Hopefully I'll get checked off soon...

Oct 4
-The river rose too much to go rafting, legally that is. Went back to the hostel, took a nap. Im tuckered out! Pictures to come soon...

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