Waking Up to Queenstown

 Today, as I knew and hoped it would, my initial loneliness and sense of displacement dissipated when I saw the first familiar face in New Zealand. Just moments after strolling around town, reaching dead ends at the job centers, the rental office, and even trying to find answers at the information center, I met up with Ant. His warm and friendly greeting caused all my anxiety about being new to Queenstown to fade away. I had woken up at about 4am, unable to fall back to sleep. I decided to go downstairs at 5am to check my email and look up a few things, and tried to sleep again at 6am. My body wanted to rest, but my mind was flooded with the list of things I needed to do and the approaches I should take for my job and room hunting. My desire to go up to the mountain to take photos and video was fighting my need to stay in town and find some answers. I forced myself to stay in bed until after 8am, and after I was up and about I felt a bit more invigorated.

Off to a productive start this morning, I went with Ant to the post office where he was able to renew the registration on Erin's car and I picked up a form to apply for my IRD number. The fact that I didn't have to print the form alone made my day, and the post office was able to make photocopies of my documents for only 40c and allow the mail to be picked up at the post office instead of having to put down a permanent mailing address.

I enjoyed the ride to Arrowtown, as well as a stroll around its perimeter by the brook and a look at the Chinese mining settlement from the late 1800's. Apparently Arrowtown is the site of the gold rush starting in the 1860's, where hundreds of Chinese men would come to mine for gold and take it back to their families. We walked up a hill to a small war memorial near the cemetery with an excellent view of the town. Arrowtown is very small, with a quaint little street with some shops and cafes, as well as a small movie theater. We ate lunch at one of the cafes and I had a roasted veggie wrap, which was amazingly delicious. It had roasted red peppers, sweet potato, spinach and a bit of feta cheese, exactly the type of food I love. Ant had a deliciously heaping pile of eggs bennedict with poached eggs with soft, warm yokes and freshly cooked bacon.

After lunch we headed to Carrie's house; I believe Carrie is a friend of Erin's family and Carrie had babysat Erin in New Mexico when she was very young. Carrie and Wayne's son Tim is an olympic athlete, as well as their friend Ben who was also at the house. I also had the pleasure of meeting Jess, a ski instructor working at Treble Cone who is from Edinburgh. He had just arrived this morning and is living with some friends in Wanaka. This will be his third season working at Treble Cone, and his fifth in New Zealand; during our winters he works at a resort in France, and has a ski racing background. It would be nice to make it over to Wanaka and hopefully up to Treble Cone this season and hopefully I will see him again at some point.

Luckily after jumpstarting the battery the car was up and running just fine. We had visited at Carrie's house for quite a while and eventually continued on our way. I hope to see Carrie again this season as well – she is a very sweet and charismatic woman.

On the way back to town we stopped at the aquatic center, where they have a lap pool, a leisure pool with a slide and some water features, a full gym with resistance and cardio machines, and heaps of fitness classes. I'm tempted to do the three month pool membership, but since I may not be able to get to Frankton as often as I'd like, especially after giving the car back, I may just do the 10 punch pass for the pool, or pay as I go for the fitness classes. There are so many trails to hike and jog in and around Queenstown it would be silly to go inside for exercise.

Feeling quite a bit better about life, we returned to Queenstown and I parked the car just up the hill from the Novotel near the gardens and walked back to the hotel. I headed out to turn in my IRD application at the post office and make a few calls about housing. Each and every one of my prospective rooms had been taken. At least I know what I am up against in this housing market, and if I grab the Lakes Weekly Bulletin early on Tuesday maybe I'll have a chance. I am rather keen to have a place right in walking distance to town even if I have to wait a bit longer to find it or pay a bit more. I looked at a place in Fernhill, and after making the drive, especially up the hill, I realized it's just too far to be convenient. Apparently, though it would be easy to hitch down into town, or take a cab home from work after a late night, the bus costs $4 one way, and in the end it just wouldn't be worth it. The guys who live in the house seem nice enough – Matt is from Melbourne and works in the Red Rock bar in town, and Steve is from Long Island originally but works in Aspen and currently has a day job in IT, recovering from a back injury last season. It was nice to walk into a place and know that if I said 'hey I want this room' I would have a place to live, but I feel like it just wouldn't suit me. I am going to continue my search, even if I need to stay at a hostel for a week.

After I parked the car up hill from the Novotel I walked into town to Red Rock and met up with Matty. I told him straightaway that we had missed him this season in Park City, and immediately after saying so I realized how happy I was to see him. Matty is a very easy going and laid back sort of person and was always quite personable as a supervisor and fun-loving as a colleague. I met his friend Sophie who was out having a drink with him, and especially after Ant arrived at the bar I started to feel a sense of strength and belonging, to a lesser degree the same type of energy I feel when I am with my best friends, either recently with my high school friends in NY, or on a chairlift in Park City with my newer friends.

In addition to catching up with friends and feeling more at home in that regard, I found out that NZone, the skydiving company that Matty works for, is recruiting for a host position to greet guests. Between Matty knowing Ferg, the owner of Good Bars and Ant knowing Cat, the HR recruiter, I think I have a good chance at landing a job in the next few days. Ant and I spoke today of many possibilities, and it would be exciting to work for a tourism company, like one of the scenic flight companies. I feel like working on one of the mountains exclusively would only be closing myself off to all the opportunities of being in Queenstown. There's so much more to do here and get into than I originally expected. It's a fun town in its own right, that happens to be close to some amazing ski fields, and even if I only get up to ski a few times a week, it would be great to explore everything else the area has to offer. I'm also a lot more optimistic about being able to work ski school during the school holidays, and hopefully I can be introduced to the ski school director and secure myself a position.

I am definitely going to sleep this evening with the opposite feeling as I did last night. I feel like everything is starting to come together, and it is only my second full day. The car gives me freedom and an escape, and I have a good sense of where I want to live, though I will have to wait to find the right room, and I have some good job prospects in the area. The loneliness I felt early this morning and last night is gone, and it is just after 11pm and I am still awake, so hopefully I can sleep past 4am!