Nothing too exciting has happened since the last time I wrote a post, but in an effort to keep writing fresh content, I decided it was time to give y’all an update on what I’ve been up to these past few weeks.
There was Christmas, of course, and I assume that if you’re reading this you’ve also seen my cheesy, hastily-edited video, but if not, you can check it out below. I had the day off on Christmas, and I spent the day video chatting with my family who, because I’m 18 hours ahead, were having the annual Christmas Eve/Christine’s birthday dinner of macaroni and cheese and German chocolate cake. It was a strange feeling to be sitting there virtually at the table, while they fed me cyber-cake (not as tasty as real cake), but it was nice to spend some time seeing and talking to the family.
I spent the second half of the day baking bread and speaking broken English with an Italian guy who lives near me at the hostel. Bruno is a middle-aged chef at the Dolce Vida, a local restaurant, and he likes to smoke cigarettes. Because he doesn’t speak much English, our conversation was short and consisted of a lot of misunderstandings. For instance, it took three repetitions for me to realize that “the waiter is shit” means that it is raining outside, not that his coworkers are incompetent. But he shared some wine with me and I didn’t have to work, so it was a pleasant little Christmas day, really.
I also had New Years day off, although I had to work until 10pm on New Years Eve. Immediately after work, I decided to meet some friends from my wine-bottling days who were in the slightly larger, and more party-friendly, Queenstown…a two hour drive away. I sped around the windy turns through the mountains, hoping to spend the first few minutes of 2010 among friends, and not in my car en route to the party. On the way, I came within inches of hitting a sheep in the middle of the road. And not a little lamb either…there was a full-grown sheep just wandering across the main highway, and I was lucky that my brights caught his reflective eyes early enough for me to hit the brakes and swerve around him. After this incident, I slowed down a bit, and after my heart stopped racing, I laughed out loud, realizing that hitting a sheep in the wee hours of 2009 would have been an very unfortunate, but very New Zealand thing to do.
I ended up pulling into Queenstown at 11:55pm, miraculously finding a parking spot in under a minute, and sprinting from my car down towards the lakefront, where the entire town had gathered to bring in the New Year. As I rounded the corner of the last block before the lake, I could hear a crowd of people counting down “three…two…one…Happy New Year!!!”.
But I was still half a block away…I missed it…by about ten seconds. I got to the lakefront, completely out of breath, in time to see the first of the fireworks, and stayed down for the fifteen minute show, but I will always remember that I welcomed the new decade in a full sprint, by myself, in New Zealand. Memorable in its own way, I guess.
Anyhow, after the fireworks, I met up with my friends and went out to a crowded, modern bar. While we were waiting outside, someone mentioned that I looked like Moses and soon half a dozen Kiwis around me were cracking biblical jokes. I should have been offended perhaps, but I’m proud of my beard so I went along with it. Queenstown is a much better choice for a New Years party than tiny little Te Anau, and I was happy to have made the trip.
The next day was slow and lazy, and a few of us went for a Polar Bear dip in Lake Wakatipu (it is supposed to be summer here, but it was cold and windy…and the lake temperature was frigid). Later in the evening I drove cautiously back to Te Anau.
Since then, I’ve been making pizzas five days a week, and I must admit that I’m getting pretty good. My pizzas are each a work of art, and I shed a small tear every time I have to take one from the oven and hand it over to someone else to be eaten… But more importantly, I kind of like the job. It is fast paced, so time goes by quickly, and it is surprisingly interesting to me. I think that gaining some experience in the foodservice industry will be helpful for me getting future seasonal working/holiday jobs while I’m in NZ…and the 75% discount on all food is not too bad either.
My car is currently out of commission because it didn’t pass inspection, so I’m spending my free time doing some minor repairs to it to make it street legal again, but because I have no ride, I haven’t been able to do any big hikes on my days off. Also, the weather has been crazy here, twice now the surrounding mountains have gotten unseasonably late snowfalls. Although it makes my daily walk to work ten times more scenic, it has forced many of the tracks in the area to close due to avalanche danger, which is uncommon this late in the year. I hope to get out and do some good day hikes in the next few weeks when I have a car and the weather improves. The numerous outdoor opportunities around me is, after all, the reason I’m staying in this area…about time I added another trek to my list.
Also, because I live directly across the street from the Fiordland National Park Visitor Center, I’ve begun to take advantage of their summer lecture series. So far I’ve only been able to attend one lecture, “Above the Bushline - Alpine Vegetation in Fiordland”, which despite its enthralling title was quite boring, even for a science nerd like myself…but I’m looking forward to future talks on Electric Fishing, SCUBA Diving in Fiordland, and one on the new “self-resetting predator trap” that hopes to cut down on the number of introduced threats to NZ native birds. If any are worth posting about„ I’ll be sure to write up a recap.
Other than that…nothing much is new. Tomorrow I will meet with a landlord about possibly moving into a flat for the next two or three months…I’ll keep you posted. And I’ve been busy watching The Wire, an HBO series about Baltimore crime that is as addicting as its crack cocaine subject matter. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.
All for now folks, hope you’re enjoying 2010.
