Dear God Its cold!

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I take it all back. The whole spiel in the last entry about keeping moving is absolute crap! Re-offer me the choice again after the past two weeks and I may have made a very different decision - and probably sat in the sleepiest bay all winter and felt very disgruntled and resentful. Ok - so moving on is good and all that, but dear god i forgot how hard it is to actually make that move, and then realise you are completely alone -know no one in what now feels like a huge town and have to start all over again....again!!

So - no prizes for guessing the tone of my past few weeks in the South island! Sorry - let me re-cap. So after all the goodbyes in the bay, leaving drinks dinner, and even a sending off party at the bus stop at 7am (very sweet) I head to Kaths for a few days r&r. Feeling a little stressed, but things are all in order, so nothing really to worry about apart from some very sweet girls trying to glue things to an immaculate carpet. I leave my home from home a few days on, still not registering what is happening, and spend a rather painless night in auckland. Probably the most painless she has given me to date. Although I did dye the rather old bath tub in the room purple with a last minute solo hair dying mission - i'm sure it was an improvement on the mould though.

The flight was easy as always, I did however get reprimanded at the gate. Being a non-commital social smoker, I am always the annoying person on a night out who never has a lighter. My dear housemate Kirsty knew this and it drove her mad, so as a leaving present so bought me 4 Maori decorated lighters. These I stowed in my rucksack to be checked. When checking bag, i was told to take them out, and keep them in hand luggage (backwards i know) so i do so, then only to have them stolen from me by some very nice, but jobsworth security dude with a massive mostache, who deemed me to be a terrorist risk, and made me pick my favourite, and said the other 4 would be sent to the scouts or samaritans! So my beloved gifts will end up with some crack addict's paraphanalia or some arsonist boy scout - this did not make me happy.

Anyway, with brain still not registering whats looming - Flight went fine after this trauma, and landed to a very sunny but crisp temperate. I find my new hotel, and get sent to the staff accomodation which i was due to be staying at. Now this turns out to be an old, almost derelict hotel, in the most stunning spot on Lake Wakatipu's waterfront. We seriously have million dollar uninterupted views accross the lake. This is amazing, and before we get too upbeat here - the views is truly the only amazing thing about this whole accomodation debarcle. The hotel, as it stands, should not be standing. There are holes in the rotting wood walls, mould on every inch of bathroom and fixing, and damp infiltrates your lungs leaving a cabbage taste in your mouth. This would not be too bad if it were warm - but all the above wouldn't be applicable if warmness was the case. Rather than take a bed in a domitory which was $25 a week cheaper, i chose a female twin room, and moved in with a rather sweet, but chain smoking Brazillian girl called claudia. She is lovely, and can speak some english to get us by in such a compact living area, and really i should be grateful to her as i'm sure that the smell of her extra strength cigarettes is the only thing that has masked the mould smell to date - either that or i am getting used to it - god forbid.

So - still upbeat, i move in and start to unpack. I get myself an early night under my 4 blankets, and only get up twice to add more clothing throughout the night. Day breaks and it is indeed stunning. With bright blue skies, you hardly seem to notice the chill, and i take a walk into town. My Kiwi mate Lauren is due in town today, and adoptive mum has been on Laurens bus with her this trip, so am looking forward to seeing them both and having a few welcome bevvy's. This makes me very excitable, and loving life. No reality registration anywhere in sight yet. We then spend a very enjoyable weekend drinking, dancing and shopping with the obligatory pizza's and coffee thrown in for good measure. Monday comes around far too quickly and the first day at work is soon upon me.

The new kingsgate hotel is very different to my summer home. Its not in the centre of town so is very quiet, the building is very old and dated and kinda smells of must. They are rennovating the whole top floor, so guests are rightly so, very unhappy and miserable. The staff are pretty much all brazillian or japanese, and english is saved only for apologising to guests, and as this is a chain hotel rather than independant, so new procedures, computer systems and anal red tape makes me have to re-learn the job entirely, and left feeling very out of sorts. It was about then on that monday afternoon reality hit. hard!

With lauren having left town, no bonding happening at work, and me getting very angry at myself and new computers, combined with cold dampness, a realisation my room mate is nocturnal leaving me alone each evening and getting disturbed every night once actually asleep and recieving constant texts about the sunshine in the bay - i cry. I cried for a week. non-stop.

Its very wierd how so quickly your frame of mind can change, and although i am now so much more calmer and confident and settled here in NZ than 7 months ago, it still can hit you like a brick wall and put you back to square 1. So. In an 'About a boy' way, time becomes units. I start to plan each evening or dreaded day off into schedules. A walk into town takes 15 mins if i go the long way. Internet checking can take an hour if playing on youtube in between. A coffee in starbucks reading my book can last an hour, window shopping (dangerous i know) can take and hour, and i became a regular at the 4 pm cinema showings. If you throw in eating and showering, you can actually manage to fill time very easily and forget you have nothing to do with yourself and are pretty unhappy!

This continues for about a week. After a week, i run out of films to watch at the small cinema and i get bored with feeling sorry for myself. Its pretty ridiculous to let yourself get into such a place, but so easily done! I get a pizza for one and sit on the beach watching a pretty cool sunset and decide to get a grip. For once Claudia is in, so i tidy my pit, have a shower, have a few beers with the girl who actually is very very sweet, and suddenly everything doesn't seem so bad. Almost like a chain reaction, i start to feel better at work and start to make friends. Friends of laurens from the first weekend call to go for coffee, a mate who lives here who i met in Paihia texts and invites me out for drinks - meet masses of his friends who are also lovely - and the invites are becoming regular. I found a new house which i move into tomorrow with some lovely guys - who have again since met for coffee, and before i know it, I have not had to consciously fill my time for the past week. This has been a real relief!

A few months ago i was offered an interview for the queenstown ski fields team, and i turned it down having just taken the hotel position. In my depression of week 1, I manage to re-instate this interview which also happens tomorrow. Strangely, the friends i have been making on my drinking invitations are pretty much the whole of the ski team, and seem like a great group to spend a winter working with. It comes at a strange time as i just start to realise the hotel team are lovely too - but maybe a ski season should be just that - and done properly. So i will update you all when next week comes, and it all changes again. I hope you are all enjoying the well earnt turn of seasons and make the most of the sun - i am very jealous right now!!

Ps - anyone fancies a trip to the movies - 'Kick ass' was my favourite by far!

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