OK, so I have been a little slack lately with the whole
making posts to the blog thing, but here’s what we have been up to in the last
month or two…
First up, we had a visit from my little sister who was over
in Wellington for work and managed to convince her employer to book the return
flight home from Queenstown so she could pop down and visit for a few days. At
around about the same time our friends Ash and Kiki arrived from Melbourne for
a short holiday so it was up to us to show them all around a bit. We took a day
trip to Queenstown and had a bit of fun in on the skyline luge track, which is
perched on a high peak overlooking lake Wakatipu and Queenstown. It is
definitely a buzz racing down the trail in your toboggan with spectacular views
at every turn.
We then stopped for a drink in the ‘minus 5’ bar. I think
that the idea started in Stockholm, but they seem to be popping up all over the
globe now. It is essentially a huge freezer and everything, including the
walls, furnishings, bar and even the drinking glasses is carved from ice.
We
had some pretty tasty cocktails inside and then made a rather hasty exit to
avoid the frostbite that was starting to set in! On the way out, we were
pleased to notice a pub offering $4 doubles of Jack Daniels all night on
Fridays. Will definitely keep that in mind for a later visit, especially when
our JD loving mates come over for a holiday! It is good info to have as you
seem to pay a hefty premium for just about everything in Wanaka and Queenstown
due to the high population of tourists. I did come across a pub just the other
day with $6 jugs though, and the other night we had a huge roast meal with dessert
for only $15 so all hope is not lost. We have both started to watch our pennies
a bit though, as we have had a few really big bills recently. Our electricity
bill for just one month was over one thousand dollars! Damn I miss good old
cheap natural gas! It was quite a shock to say the least. I guess that is what
you get for having a large house full of people (there are 10 living her at the
moment!) in a cold climate.
The other little hiccup we ran into was that our car
developed a strange ticking noise that turned out to be a broken flex plate
which is located between the engine and transmission. Not a cheap repair as the
entire engine had to come out. The whole problem was caused by a poorly
executed repair that was done two owners before we got the car and had been holding
on by a thread for about two years! Pity it had to go in the 3 months that we
have got the car, but these things happen. After spending about $1700 at the
garage, we have a good reliable car again and I guess are both pretty happy
that it didn’t fail completely before we had it repaired and leave us
completely stranded somewhere up the mountain.
If it wasn’t for these little financial setbacks, I think
that we both might have quit our jobs by now to snowboard full time! We are
starting to feel pretty sick of our work and certainly appreciating the fact
that it is only temporary. Cleaning poo stains off toilets is not exactly
stimulating at the best of times, but a couple of weeks back, Wanaka was hit by
a massive storm. It rained for days on end , so much that the power ended up
being knocked out for a day. Most of the rooms are apartment style flats with
internal bathrooms and we were stumbling around in the dark trying to clean
them. Obviously the people staying there had been trying to use the toilet in
the dark too, what a mess! On top of that, our work chef seems to have lost his
creativity. We had some pretty tasty work meals when we started at the place,
but lately it has been chicken nuggets and fries almost every day, sometimes
even 5 days in a row. If I see another nugget, I am gonna scream! So yeah, we
are starting to think maybe we can get by for the next month or so without the
measly $12.50 an hour that they pay us!
Went to a pretty cool concert last week for the closing of a
big snowboarding competition they had up here. Picture this, you are in a
natural amphitheatre overlooking an amazing terrain park on top of the mountains.
The sun is setting, the band (The Mint Chicks) is going off, and behind the
stage, they don’t have one of those lame posters with the band’s name on it, oh
no, they have a massive kicker and all the while some of the world’s best
snowboarders are pulling off huge inverted maneuvers above the stage.
To the
left of the stage what do you see, but a steaming hot tub which is full of
bikini clad chicks relaxing and enjoying the show. But wait, what now, the lead
singer is waist deep in the spa with the bikini chicks! Geeese that guy is
gonna have cold legs when he gets out! (remember this is all happening on the
side of a mountain in subzero temperatures). Was a pretty unique night out, if
a little chilly and an interesting drive back home winding down the icy
mountain road after dark and after a beer or two.
Check out my Flickr Photo site for some more awesome pics of the event if you are interested, there is a link in the "About Whiteelephant" section of this blog.
We did a huge hike up Mt Roy the other day. It is only about 11 Km return but over 1000m vertically! It was a killer, I reckon going down was worse than going up too. We have been sore for days! The view from the summit was pretty amazing though.
Well that is about all the news from here for now, I have
booked a ticket back to Melbourne for a week or so, to try and finish my PPL
before I head to London in October, so might get to see a few of you for one
last coffee or beer before we disappear to the other hemisphere.
