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Published: October 27th 2008
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Rafting Van
The rafting van, in the rain. It has been an interesting last couple of days, to begin:
I am still waiting on my first trip down the might Shotover. I am rostered on at the bottom of the list, so the name of the game is waiting for the planets to align and bingo! i've got my first trip.
In the meantime I have applied for a part time position at a number of Queenstown's fine hospitality establishments. With a part time job I will be able to cover food and rent and wait for the fable "busy" season to hit Queenstown Rafting.
This last Saturday was a rather odd, but good day in Kiwi land. It all began with the night before, me being called by the office letting me know that I am on standby as only 6 more people would have to book for me to be on the river. I got up early to a nice warm day and hitched a ride with the morning carpool, as it would have been a major pain to have to try and run or bike the 3.8 km from my house to the shop, and then the 10 min. bus ride from the
The rafting people
The rafting people. In the rain, :P shop to the base if in fact they needed me that morning.
Upon arrival I helped out with packing the trip etc. etc. etc., however it turned out they didn't need me after all. I casually asked the head guide Michel if there was anything that needed doing, and lo and behold there was! So I got to work with the task he offered, which was to paint the border around the floor of rafting base. Before I could begin, I got word that they needed a driver to shuttle one of the vehicles out from the put in. Skipper's canyon road is one lane wide with 300 foot cliffs on either side for most of the way, so it was going to be an interesting drive out, especially considering the fact that the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the vehicle, I was going to be driving on the wrong side of the road, and the gear shifter was one the wrong side with all the gears backwards and upsidedown at the same time!
After a harrowing, yet fun, drive out I got to work on the painting. At this stage it was 11 am
A nice sunny day
The weather when I started painting, after the rain! and quite warm out, perhaps summer as promised was on its way! As I was finishing, one of the drivers, Grant, asked me if I knew anything about painting. I told him that you just have to paint in the same direction and be neat around the edges (As far as I know, that's all there is to painting really). He then offered me a job painting the ceiling of the resteraunt he is planning on opening in the near future, as the workers he hired to nail the boards to the ceiling walked all over them and left white footprints on the black painted boards. Footprints on the ceiling, quite funny really!
Seeing as how I am getting desperate for work, I naturally accepted. At this stage it was 12 o clock and starting to get cold. By the time the morning trip showed up it was raining, and when they had left for the afternoon it was pooring. I finished the work around the rafting base at 4 pm, which at this stage was sunny and warm again, and made my way over to Grant's resteraunt. At 5 pm I began work painting the ceiling and finished
The walk home
Cold, windy, snowy, what happened to my nice day???? around 7 pm, when the paint ran out. I called it a night and started the long walk home, however the day I remembered leaving upon entering the resteraunt was not how I left it. It was snowing!
It wasn't just snowing, it was snowing sideways! The wind had picked up and the lake was crashing and angry and snow was hitting hard at a 90 degree angle to the verticle. So much for the sunny day I encountered in the morning. I only had shorts and sandles on, so the walk/run home was a bit chilly, to say the least.
The weather in this town is unbelievable. Sunny one moment, raining the next, windy the next, hot the next, snowing the next, on and on..
Anyways, on Sunday I tagged along for the afternoon trip to see the river at 17 cumecs, much lower than I have seen it so far. It is amazing how this river changes so much on a daily basis. Some rapids are harder some are easier, it all changes as the flow changes.
And today I got some more work helping Grant with his biz, its good to make a
Painting
enough said! little cash to keep up the coffers. Ill probably be helping him out a bit more in the coming weeks, and hopefully Ill get my first trip this week!
That's all for now gang, see you next time...
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