All-expenses paid trip to Luxurious Cardrona Ski Field!

I've thought of so many interesting ways to start this journal today, but I am too exhausted to  go into so much detail today. The range of emotions I've felt in the last 19 hours is intense but normal for me. I truly am a morning person; I'm elated and lively and ready to take on the world, but by night time if I haven't conquered the world already I just can't be bothered. 

I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Cardrona today. I suppose you could call it another babysitting job. I went with Matt, Craig, Luke and Tony to Cardrona for a guys' day out, the deal being they would pay me $200 to drive them home from the Cardrona hotel after having an evening of drinking. They picked me up in the truck around 9:30am, after I had a good rest and breakfast. I don't think I've ever gone 5 days straight in a proper winter season without skiing. I suppose the last time I did that was when I started the job at Schiff and had to train during the day for two weeks straight, but that was the end of April! 

We arrived at Cardrona around 11am, after about an hour's drive from the BP in Frankton. It was an all-expenses paid luxurious day out for me and I was excited to ski Cardrona for the first time. The morning started with a short black, to make sure I had an even bigger boost of morning energy. We kept up a good conversation on the way up as well. 

We first headed down the hill to the lift, reaching a mid-sized queue, and skied together over to Captain's and did three more runs together, then the boys went for lunch and I continued exploring and video taping the scenery. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather – it was cold but the air was calm and the bright blue skies were open to us, as we were on top of the world, able to view the rest of the snow-capped mountains spanning miles and miles around the south island of New Zealand. 

Just before 2pm I stopped by the adult snowboard lineup and asked for Phil. I spoke with a guy named Nick who was nice enough to give me Phil's number and let me know that even though it was his scheduled day off he was on a level 2/3 private until 2pm ('Typical,' I responded). Luckily I am able to recognize Phil's riding from a mile away and skied over to the bottom of the nearby lift where he was talking with his two clients. I waited until he was done speaking with them, during which time one of the girls from the creche called up to see if I could nanny for, I think she said a little girl who had chicken pox, though she had a rather strong accent. I told her I was working 9-5 so I wouldn't be able to, but thanked her for calling. 

I was really happy to see Phil; he had definitely become one of my best friends of my last season in Park City, and he is always good company. It's easy to have respect for Phil because he does his job well, and has a genuine concern for people, which comes out in the way he speaks with  them. On the way inside for lunch I also ran into Kyle and Mike and Kate Wilwert, who were teaching at Cardrona for the week because some of their clients from Mt Hutt wanted to bring them there for a week! It was a Park City reunion!

After being well-fed with some nasi goreng (how could I turn down Indonesian food?) I was happy to take a few more end of day runs at 3:15 when it wasn't so crowded. I did three runs off Captains where I just flew right back onto the chair. At 4pm I met up with the guys to get our shoes on and they had two beers to wait out the traffic and we left the mountain at 5pm. 

We arrived at the Cardrona Hotel, one of the few buildings left from the New Zealand gold rush of the late 1800's, and sat outside by the fire until a little after the sun went down and then went inside to sit by the fire. I had a nice hot mulled wine while outside, and Tony had ordered a big bowl of chips. Inside I had a cup of mango strawberry tea and at 7:30pm began to watch the All Blacks game vs the Springboks. 

Things were pretty mild until we got to heading home. I had some trouble getting used to the truck, and was startled to find out it was an automatic, and the cabin light didn't work so I had to shuffle my things around in the dark and find the seat controls. I almost left without Luke because I didn't realize they were serious about grabbing some bottles of Jim Beam and cola for the road! It didn't bother me at all, though the conversation did get a bit messy on the way down. I honestly couldn't tell if they were making fun of me driving slowly, or whether me going 60kph in a 100kph zone was too fast since they kept telling me there was no hurry. 

At one point I had to stop short because a pitch black furry animal about the size of a fox or possum had jumped out in front of the car and crossed the road. I had to stop all the way because the suicidal little thing pretty much jumped back underneath the car once it had reached the other side of the road and ran back to its original spot. None of us could figure out what it was!

Having left at 8:30pm we arrived back in town at 9:30pm and I dropped them off in Cow Lane to head to the pizza place, while I went home to drop off my skis and change my clothes. I'm not sure why I was chilly when I got back to the house – maybe it was all the wrestling in the dark trying to get my skis and boots out of the back of the truck, but I needed to take a warm shower and change my clothes. Refreshed, I headed back to their apartment building to drop off the truck, gladly relinquishing my driving responsibilities, and walked to Cow Lane.

Starving as I had been all evening, I wolfed down practically the entire pizza they had left. I shouldn't have eaten that much, yet all in all it wasn't all that much food volume-wise, and it had so many different toppings it couldn't help but keep my taste buds' attention! Shrimp, mushroom, sausage, pepperoni, veggies, cheese and thin crust – yum! I felt more like it was distasteful to eat that much rather than feeling any guilt about the caloric intake. I wanted to stay out for a little while and knew I needed energy to do so! I did feel a bit guilty about eating and drinking so much on their dime though – they had bought my coffee, lift ticket, drinks at the Cardrona hotel, then given me practically that whole pizza, two vodka club sodas in Cow Lane, one more at Barmuda and we had all done money shots, as per my request, which was $50 for the lot of us. Still, I knew that they wouldn't have spent the money if they didn't think it was worth it, and I was pleasantly congenial about them making sexual jokes, though I think it was farther than the women would have liked. Still, what happens on a guys' day out stays on a guys' day out. It's odd how I am always around guys, and even though they poke fun, and make dirty jokes, I still feel more comfortable around guys than women. Oh well. 

After they left for home I left Barmuda and stopped in to say hi to Chris, a bartender at Mini Bar, who I met while in the office last week. I checked Winnie's to see what was going on, and almost missed bumping into my friends from the hostel. I really wasn't feeling the vibe in Winnie's at all so in a way I was kind of disappointed to see my friends there, since I had wanted to hang out with them.

I'm just so very much not into a scene like Winnie's, not at all. It was almost bliss when I walked into Surreal, and though I didn't know anyone, I liked the vibe better, and got there just in time to see a fight break out! Feeling a bit better about Queenstown's nightlife – hey, there's a foot for every shoe – I wandered across the street but Pog's was closed, then back into Cow Lane to check out Tardis, which had a DJ playing loud thumping music, but no real character to the place. I liked Debajo a bit better – I really enjoyed the music, though the bar itself was a little empty. I was sorta happy for that; I was able to dance a bit, just to get my blood circulating again before heading out into the cold, without anyone knowing me or caring that I was out alone. 

I left Debajo at 1:27am and walked up the hill back home and arrived at 1:43am, so 16 minutes door to door. My plan to warm up in Debajo worked quite well, and the warmth lasted at least as long as it took to warm up walking up the steepest part of the journey just up from Frankton Rd. I'm happy that even though it's purely up hill it's still closer than walking from Banjo's or the Bowling Club to my apartment in Kirwan last year. 

This journal is so boring – the writing is dull and everything in it is personal, but that's ok.

(Note: This entry was edited from its original draft)

The Gang's All Here

     My Friday afternoon was truly a Friday afternoon and I needed a beer, badly. After an exhausting 2-day ordeal Erin had finally arrived in Queenstown yesterday morning, almost missing every connection from New Hampshire to Chicago to SFO to Auckland to Queenstown! Then she had to go up to Coronet to get all her work issues sorted. Looks like she needed a beer as well!

     We met up at Monty's, where they have a $5 beer of the day, which to my great pleasure is their black beer on Fridays. Erin ordered a Celtic Red, probably my second choice. After a lengthy discussion of her flights and the downfalls of academia we trundled over to Tandoori Palace for dinner. I finally found the perfect dish! (I know I said that last time!) The Lamb Biryani has lamb in a spicy sauce, mixed with basmati rice and veggies with some roasted almond bits as well. I ordered it “extremely hot” and it was finally at my threshold of what I really enjoy when I ask for spicy. It was hot enough to enjoy without saturating my mouth with heat which may have interrupted the enjoyment of the flavors of the food.

     Finally all of my friends have arrived, though I'll have to wait another week or two to be able to see them very much, or possibly longer to be able to ski with them. They offered to keep me on as the receptionist at Good Group for another month, and I made the mistake of expressing my distaste at working during the day. I should have just said yes unconditionally and then asked questions later. I suggested maybe doing part time but they said they needed someone every day. I felt distressed after the conversation, both at the prospect of losing my freedom to ski and take video during the day time, and at the possibility of having expressed a distaste for the job and thus losing the job security I had worked so hard to develop. After thinking about it I realized that if I do work a full 4 weeks I would have made enough money to pay for my housing costs for July and August, and if I work 6 full weeks it would pretty much cover my rent for the season. I could still ski on the weekends, which won't be as busy after school holidays, and I'd have a steady pay and be able to go out for beers afterwards, which I'm sure I'll need if I keep doing office work!

     If I am going to stay in the office for a few more weeks I am going to have to change the way I go about it – I will have to take a change of clothes or something to be able to go for a jog during lunch time, and have to go in at 8:30am and leave at 5:30pm to have a full hour for exercise and doing what I need to do, which isn't a problem at all since I'm up early and don't mind staying later especially if I'm going to meet up for drinks after work. I am still planning on buying free weights – it's a shame but I'm not going to join the gym to swim at all – if I didn't make it out there when I had a car I probably won't make it out often during the season.  

Work finally working out for me

 I wish I had my video camera this morning as I walked into work. I strode happily past the line of people holding skis and snowboards lined up along the sidewalk awaiting their buses. I cut between 2 of the buses to continue on my way and after passing through I saw an even larger line of people waiting down the other side of the Snow Centre, all the way down the block. With a contented grin I looked up at my 3-story, glass-wall windowed office building and knew my first and possibly only office job came at the perfect time, during school holidays in July in Queenstown.

Today I continued mostly with data-entry, and also got assigned the task of opening the mail in the morning. I told some of my co-workers that the more they asked me to do on a regular basis, the more job security I would have. I also mentioned to Chris in the morning when the office was quiet that I would be interested in working in the bars if he needed anyone.

I got a chance to get out of the office to do errands around town during lunch time, and then went back and ate my sandwich out on the back balcony in the sun. Somehow I find that the afternoon hours between 1-4pm don't go nearly as slowly as I would imagine. I got a call from Heather around 4pm asking if I could babysit this evening, which it seems could be the beginning of making a small fortune. For 4 kids I suggested $25 an hour, which they thought was fair, and the families that were traveling together were so sweet and though I was only there from 7pm and they got back at 10:30pm they gave me $100 and we chatted for a while. They are from the Gold Coast and also know Tina and Craig Layt (their kids go to school together), who I taught in Park City in January.  

4th of July and End of WinterFest

 The camaraderie, the outdoors, the satisfaction of a hard day's work, the free sandwich from Motogrill; these were the reasons why I dragged myself out of bed on a Sunday morning to painstakingly remove from the ground, separate, haul to the truck, then snap back into place, every tiny plastic rectangle on the lawn of Earnslaw Park set into the wet ground to prevent the park from becoming a muddy pool during WinterFest.

It took us just over two solid hours as a large group to stack all of the plastic plates properly onto the trucks, but I felt that it was a solid end to our labor and efforts during WinterFest, and the last chance I had to do some real 'work' outdoors with an interesting and diverse crew of people. A lot of hours were put into making WinterFest a huge success, and the organizers of WinterFest put on a great appreciation party that night. In the mean time, I went to go celebrate my Southern Hemisphere 4^th of July! If I couldn't make something explode, I may as well go skiing!

On this beautiful sunny day, as I was walking towards the library where my car was parked, I came across a few guys walking down the street sipping beers who had apparently come from the bottle shop around the corner and were carrying a huge case of Budweiser. “American?” I called out to them. This was a no-brainer.

They recognized the Park City logo on my hat and Gibson introduced himself to me as an employee of Gorgoza, our snow tubing park also owned by Park City Mountain Resort. We chatted for a few minutes, he tossed me a cold Budweiser and wished me a happy fourth of July. I continued to the car, planning on enjoying this refreshing beverage when I arrived up the mountain, but the more I walked in the sun the more the allure of a few sips of cold beer after a sandwich and a few hours work became all too tempting. Although I didn't really need to, I hid taking a few sips of beer as I got into the car and got my things organized. I stashed the opened bottle underneath my jacket in the center compartment and started my drive up the mountain. I can't help but feel a little odd walking down the street drinking a beer or driving with an open container, just from my upbringing, but here in New Zealand people here are generally more responsible about alcohol consumption and the rules, at least as far as being socially acceptable, and have a lot more wiggle room.

When I arrived at Coronet at 2:30pm the mid-afternoon sun was shining beautifully and I finished my beer as I was getting my boots on. I strolled only a few meters away from my car, put on my skis, and went up the Greengates lift and on the 4^th of July, in the height of what would normally be my summer, I went skiing. I effectively only took two runs that day, but my main purpose for going up to the mountain was to get in contact with Heather at the creche to make it known that I was available for babysitting. She was busy with the little kids when I arrived at 3pm but I left a note and hoped for the best. Little did I know at the time, I would get the best.

When I arrived back home up in Fernhill I put my ski gear away, did a bit more video editing, and prepared for my evening out. I wandered down to the Sky City Casino at 7pm, a brisk but not entirely chilly night, and went upstairs and to the bar area in the back where the WinterFest crew had a hearty supply of red and white wines, Speight's Summit beers and Jim Beam and Coke RTDs waiting for us. I decided to try a red wine, and chatted with Louise, one of the coordinators, about WinterFest, Queenstown, the work situation, etc... By about 8pm a bunch more people had shown up and they put out a few cheese and fruit trays. I was enjoying them while sampling the different kinds of red wine.

I had recognized both Stefan and Richard from earlier in the day; they had been out in the park with me monotonously breaking up and reassembling plastic bits. Stefan is from Germany and Richard is from England – like most of my friends they are living in a backpackers and having a rough time finding work. I also met many other very international people, and chatted quite animated to a guy from Argentina about his home, especially since I aim to make South America my next big trip and I am eager to immerse myself in Spanish language. The WinterFest volunteer crew brings together a huge assortment of people, and I also met Shane, who does aerial photography, something that combines two of my greater passions.

Later in the night, perhaps around 10pm or so, the party moved on to Skybar, a bar I had really only heard about and seen on the Good Bars website before I got to Queenstown. I had the impression in my mind that it was a fancy cocktail lounge that would be quite exclusive and far too expensive for me to have the opportunity to go. Thus, I took the opportunity presented to me when we were promised free drinks. When we arrived upstairs at Skybar the first round of drinks were paid for, and I ended up chatting with my friends from WinterFest along with a whole new crew of people who were already drinking in Skybar. It wasn't terribly crowded, just a few patrons at the time, but our group filled up about half the bar and were having a good time. Then I got introduced to the Money Shot, and my world changed.

Ok, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but the Money Shot is as much a part of Queenstown's night life as the lake is a part of its landscape and bungy is part of its history. This creamy dessert shot is a specialty in most of the high end cocktail bars and I haven't met anyone I've suggestively sold one to that hasn't liked it. In fact, most people order another round or two; the thing sells itself, really, and all you have to do is introduce it.

I didn't stay out too late, but I did have a great time. I went out to the esplanade and hitched a ride up to Fernhill with Scott, a snowmaker at The Remarkables who works with Nate; once again my small world got smaller. Tonight marked the end of WinterFest and the beginning of being on my own, both because I would move into my new house the next day and away from the company of hundreds of transient residents, and because any connections I would make regarding finding permanent work were left in my own hands at this point. I felt well-equipped to handle the next stage of life in Queenstown, though even looking back on it months later, I have never had the pleasure of seeing town so lively and crowded as the week during WinterFest, and if I could go back, I would do that week over, and over, and over.  

Suitcase Race at Coronet Peak

 The Suitcase Race sponsored by GrabASeat, not to be missed, certainly. Of all the events at Coronet Peak during WinterFest this was probably the most exciting. I unfortunately had to miss the dog race because of my first day of work, and was not ambitious enough to volunteer for the Skin to the Summit race at 6am, but was definitely keen to head up on Saturday the 3^rd of July for a little fun in the sun, skiing and watching Nigel and his work-mates, Sam and Will, put on one of the most entertaining shows Coronet Peak has ever seen.

The Suitcase Race is as you might expect: the first person to get down past the finish line while sliding down the lower part of the M1 on a suitcase is the winner! Oh, and costumes are a must. Nigel was decked out in a huge blue afro wig and a dress so hideous your grandmother's mother wouldn't be caught dead in it. Sam was fitted daintily in a short bright gold dress and Will decided for the aquatic approach with full wet suit, snorkeling goggles and flippers – and if that wasn't outlandish enough, a Santa hat.

A description of the event just wouldn't do it justice, so you'll have to go to the video I produced on YouTube and check it out yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iwsixvEhc8

The excitement of my day neither started nor ended with Nigel's exciting victory on the slopes. In the morning I had quite a few good mogul runs* off of the top of Greengates and also had a bit of a social night when I returned back to Nigel's house in Fernhill. It was Jazz Night during WinterFest, the fanciest party of the week, up at the top of the Skyline Gondola complex. Nigel and his housemates had a few guests staying overnight and had dinner and a few drinks before heading out to the party. I entertained both myself and our guests with the video from earlier in the day, getting quite a few laughs out of the slow-mo replay of Nigel down on the ground grabbing Will's leg and tripping him as he ran headlong down the hill in huge swim flippers, resulting in a tumbling mass of snow, suitcases, and crazy men in costume down at the finish line.

I had been hoping to have been called in to volunteer for the Jazz Night event, but unfortunately I would have to forego this $80 event in search of alternate entertainment. I wandered down the hill into town and found my friends from Deco at Buffalo Club, drinking and playing pool upstairs. I was happy to see familiar faces, and also met Claire's friend Gloria from California. We stayed at Buffalo Club a while and then headed back to Deco to continue the merriment. The crew eventually decided to head down to Ministry to watch the Argentina v Germany game of the quarter finals of the World Cup. At the time I wasn't terribly keen to stay out so late (or maybe I was just really cold) but I had been wanting to see at least one World Cup game, and even though I was cheering for Argentina, they really got their asses handed to them, but I had a good time anyway!

The game lasted well into the night, and being the crazy hardcore skier morning person that I was during my first month and a half in Queenstown (hahahahahaha) this was actually the latest I had been out since my time here. Around 4am I walked out to the esplanade and before long was able to hitch a ride back up to Fernhill, just in time to miss the craziness that ensued in the house. I decided to sleep curled up under a blanket on the couch.

*Note: 'Good mogul runs' is a relative term used to express the fact that lumps of snow located near enough each other to facilitate mogul-style skiing are in fact present in small numbers in the Southern Hemisphere.  

Second day at Work and it's already Friday!

 The best part about starting a job on Thursday, is the next day is Friday already! My second day on the job grew more intense, as I had to stave off quite a few angry callers chasing payments, yet a bit more relaxed as I was getting more comfortable with my co-workers. Giles came into work for about two hours in the morning and brought his two daughters with him. They looked to be about 7 and 9, and were going to go to Coronet to go skiing with their dad; what a fun day! It was actually much easier to take calls without him in the office because I could just take a message, or listen to an earful of complaints about invoices and returning messages. Whatever.

I actually felt quite useful running the dishwasher when I first got in, finishing filing the papers in the file cabinets, and disposing of to-be-shredded documents all afternoon. I was actually complimented by Russell after he poured me some wine into a large Bordeaux glass on the way I handled answering the calls and offered to be available as a reference if I would need it.

I really enjoyed the view from the balcony off of the lounge room across from our offices. The lounge room overlooked the lake and from the balcony we could see them trucking in and shoveling the snow for tonight's rail jam in the park down by the lake. Earlier in the afternoon I had been admiring the view from our third floor office building. It's no Manhattan skyline, but to me it's every part a beautiful city. Our streets are just as bustling as an equal-sized chunk of Manhattan, but instead of smog, or hundreds of planes taking off from nearby airports, when you look above the roof line you see towering hills and snow-crested mountains and off in the distance our white fluffy ski resorts and paragliders enjoying the fresh mountain air as they sail about the breezes. Even when I went downstairs to look for the recycling bin and took a step out the back receiving door I felt the mid-day sun shine on my face as I stood there while people walked by going about their business and thought to myself, 'Yeah, smells like city.'

After a day's work

 I quickly dug right into the steaming bowl of rice set before me and dumped about half of it on my plate, fighting the pain of the hot glass stinging my skin. I've been waiting for this all day; I picked up the small round metallic bowl by its gold-colored handles and scooped the warm chunks of curried lamb and vegetables onto the rice. I began by lifting a small piece of green capsicum with my fork up to my mouth and tasted the pure, unadulterated taste of the curry, gauging its spiciness, and being pleasantly satisfied. The physical temperature of the food was almost as pleasing to me as the spices and I slowly began to scoop rice and chunks of lamb into my mouth, savoring each bite and relishing in its warmth.

An absolutely perfect way to end my first day at work. My meal consisted of a perfect combination of filling and nourishing mint-flavored lamb, savory onion and capsicum, crunchy flakes of sliced almond, a slightly creamy brown curry sauce with just enough spice to satisfy my need for something pungent and comfortingly hot steaming basmati rice. All for only $9.99!

The first of many $10 curry nights

I ate my meal alone and in peace, but after an 8 hour work day, my first day of work in exactly two months, and my first 8 hour work day in... I can't remember how long... I was happy to be alone with my thoughts, gazing out the window at the cars and people making their ways up and down Shotover Street. I could finally relax a bit, knowing I had finally earned money, and even was so bold as to pay for my dinner in cash, no longer having to rely on credit. I know that from this point on, finding work will not be as much of a chore as in the last few weeks.

After my meal I met up with Sophie who was meeting up with another friend, Liz, staying at a brand new hostel next to Patagonia on the Wharf called Absoloot. We walked over to Monty's, and after they purchased their drinks at the bar I noticed Dottie and Viviana sitting at the cozy booth table next to ours and waved and said hello. I got into quite a lengthy discussion with Dottie about work, both my new job and Coronet, followed by our decision to go to the Top Blokes show the following night and make a girls' night out of it.

I think I am going to be the only person who will be friends with the entire ski school at Coronet without actually working there. I met Herve, who left soon after I arrived, Jan from the Czech Republic who was sporting an exceptionally large purple one-piece, Will from NYC who works at Aspen, Gavin from the UK, who I had met the previous week when we were at Monty's with Ant, Patricio from Argentina, saw Natalia as well, and also met Grant from Scotland, who I think may be her boyfriend. I didn't get a chance to meet Gavin's girlfriend, Heather, but Dottie suggested I make a connection with her since she works at the creche at Coronet and could hook me up with some babysitting jobs. Though I wasn't drinking I felt very relaxed and at home with this group, and chatted away with Dottie animatedly for quite some time. I wasn't my normal worn-out at the end of the day self. I must have been revitalized by the curry, and working in the office I found to be quite pleasant and cheerful instead of a draining day on the hill.

View from Nigel and Cat's house

After a while longer I met up with Sophie again to give her a ride home and came home early to relax. I am quite looking forward to my slumber being facilitated by the electric blanket I found in the closet last night after almost sniffling and shivering myself to death. Who knew an electric blanket would be the answer to my problems? Instead of using the heater in Park City and waking up not being able to breathe I should use an electric blanket. I haven't used one since about when I was in high school, when my mom didn't turn the heat up very high and I was freezing every morning when I had to get out of bed for school. The easiest way for me to get out of bed on a cold morning is to make sure it's warmer outside my bed than inside! Only four more nights until I will get to sleep in my own bed!