A to Zealand

I’m all moved in here at my new home. It’s quite perfect actually. I have my own little back house in Brent’s (my flatmate) backyard.

I use the kitchen and bathroom inside his house and usually hang out in the living room if I’m home. There are always people in and out of the house. Sally, his girlfriend is usually here. She’s from Canada and just a super nice person. Brent’s four-year-old son, Olly, is also here a couple of nights a week, plus Brent’s one million friends that I cannot keep up with. He grows most all of our vegetables in his garden in the back and usually catches several fish for the week. He’s quite self-sufficient and “Kiwi as” which just means he is exactly what you would picture someone from New Zealand being like. I couldn’t have asked for a better place with great people.

Lately, I mostly just work. I really like my job, but there is so much to learn!! It’s crazy. We have so many different trips and there are so many moving parts. It’s quite easy to mess up! A couple of times a week I work in our little booth at Kaiteriteri beach.This is my favorite!! It’s an amazing view and I kind of get to do my own thing since it’s quieter than being at our base in Marahau. Shania Twain even has a house there!

I’ve been trying to take advantage of going out on all we have available since it’s free anyways. My friend Alex from Queenstown just recently came in town and was pretty excited to get into the National Park. We did an overnight trip called the Royale with Cheese. We took the Aqua Taxi (fancy name for a boat) and hopped off at Bark Bay. We walked about a four and half hour hike back to Anchorage Bay where we stayed on a house boat for the night. It’s actually a hostel on water. Pretty sweet idea! The guy that owns it really wants me and my co-workers to book people on for the night while they’re on our trips so he let me stay there the night for free as incentive.

The next morning, Alex and I got up for our five and a half hour kayak trip. We met our guide back at Bark Bay and kayaked all the way back to Kaiteriteri beach. Luckily, it was really windy, which normally would be a bad thing, but worked in our favor that day. The kayak guides set up a sail where basically two kayaks hold on to one another side by side. Each person holds the end of a sail and we high tail it back. It’s pretty fast and cuts down so much on the paddling time.

I also had another friend, Fraser come in town. He and I worked at Coronet Peak together this past season. We did a hike up to Mount Arthur. Fraser was a guide at Franz Josef Glacier so this was super easy for him while I felt I was near death behind him. I’m not sure of the exact altitude of Mount Arthur, but the last Department of Conservation hut said 1,310 meters. Of course I’ll remember that number since it’s my favorite sports radio station!! We hiked a good two hours up from there, so it must have been quite high. The winds were seriously far past gale force! There were several moments when Fraser turned around and I had been blown to the other side of the track. I’ve never in my life felt winds like that. We got to about 200 meters away from the summit and had to turn back. There was too much snow on the top and neither of us had the proper shoes, plus I probably would’ve been blown away. Kind of frustrating we were so close, but for the better.

Well that’s just a little update. Sorry there are no pictures. I almost crashed the computer for some reason trying to upload them!

I was so happy to talk to Whitney before her wedding. I was terribly sad I missed it, but I know everyone had an amazing time. CONGRATS TO THEM! I have a day off today, so it might be time to head to the beach! I’ll try and keep the updates coming! Talk soon!