Two weeks... big post!

I've been in Queenstown now for just over two weeks, and its been a pretty intense two weeks at that. I've been job-hunting, got a job, played hockey, looked for apartments, went out, double-bunked in a hostel, hitch-hiked, driven cars, bought a car, lost my job, moved into an apartment and been to the hospital, not necessarily in that order.

This is how it played out: The first couple of days I was here I decided to hit it hard and go job-hunting and house-hunting as much as possible. After printing out a bunch of CVs, and calling many upon many landlords and real estate agencies, I felt like I was moving in the right direction. Of course, this ordeal wasn't without distress. The first couple of days of job-hunting I was told, almost unanimously by the bars and restaurants I visited, that they weren't hiring for at least another 4 weeks, and to not even bother leaving a CV as it would just end up at the bottom of the pile... But just like a cheesy chick-flick, I "kept my head held high" and persevered, and sure enough I stumbled upon a restaurant with a job opening for the season! I got a trial shift the next day, and proved worthy for the job, and even though I've never worked in such an 'upper-crust' establishment, the management seems to be cool about me keeping my beard, as long as its moderately groomed, and my ear plugs... sweeeeeeet!
House-hunting was a different story. I went to see various houses / apartments in and around the town, but they were all either too expensive, too far, or too scabby! Mike helped me with the apartment hunt after he arrived, and after seeing ten or twelve, we settled on one we really like, and are currently waiting for our references to be processed, and for the agency to give us the OK...This is a good view of Lake Wakatipu, from an area outside Queenstown, Fernhill

These are more recent pictures of the lake, now that its been snowing for a few days straight

The third night Mike was here we went out drinking with a few of the people staying in his hostel, and amongst all the boozing, and dancing, and shouting, and freezing our asses off, Mike managed to dislocate his toe! Awesome! Hahaha... So not even a week into the season, and we found out where the hospital was... We showed up at the emergency ward at about 3am, and had to wake the doctor on call to come sort out Mike's toe... Neither of us could stop laughing through the whole thing, which became even worse when the nurse gave Mike some laughing gas to try and help with the pain... which was great because while he was flying high, he didn't notice me stealing a few swigs... just to calm my emotions of course!Finally the doctor managed to re-insert his toe into his joint, and suddenly the blood rushed back in making it nice and rosy pink again... much to Mike's relief as at that point it had turned a pretty shade of gangrenous green...

Both tired and drunk... nay, traumatized by the whole ordeal, we got a taxi back to Mike's hostel, and both zonked out on Mike's single bunk, for which the hostel management wanted to charge me the next day!

Over the next few days, I walked around town, with Mike hopping not too far behind me, in search of more apartments, cheap food, good people, and all the miscellaneous tax/bank related issues we needed to sort out before being employed. Needless to say, it was slow... literally.

This is the one of the canyon jet-boats speeding through Shotover river, just outside town. These things go crazy fast, and ridiculously close to the canyon walls!

Over the past few days we've had some fun times hitch-hiking actually. It seems to be a widely accepted form of transport here, and so far the most we've waited was fifteen minutes, which was totally worth it cuz we ended up hitching a ride with these two incredibly... interesting Canadian girls. And then, after they dropped us off, we helped them push their truck back off the lip of a ledge they managed to drive off... hehe, women!
Otherwise, its been really easy. We've hitched with a Brazilian guy, and a few Kiwis, who are all more than accomodating, even dropping us out of their way!

Hockey has been going well, although I haven't been playing at my best, which kind of bums me out. The rules regarding the number of foreign players allowed on any Senior team make it difficult for the coach to pick only 5, out of a possible 7 or 8. Nonetheless I'm on the roster, and the number of playing foreigners per game will just have to be decided by how we all perform. So at least there's an incentive to step up my game.

The weather here is a little ridiculous. It's so cold here, and there's at least another two months before peak season... How much colder can it possibly get? There's snow on all the mountains and hills around town though, which is so beautiful, and a great reminder of the awesome snow season ahead!

Last week we decided to buy a car... hehe, if you can really call it that. It's a 1985 Toyota Corolla wagon, and drives like a tin can on wheels. It can barely make it up hills in first gear, and stalls all the time. But, it's been security cleared, and was only $400! which is about 180 euros!!! So well worth it! Mike and I had to do a little DIY battery replacement, as the old battery was pretty juiced out. But after a little handy work behind a gas station, we managed to get it running just fine! Or at least starting well... We baptised him "Sir Edmund Hillary", or Eddie for short.And then, last Friday we finally moved into an apartment! This is the view from our front porch !! It's unfurnished but after going to some used furniture sales, and garage sales we're confident that we can get the essentials pretty cheap! The second night we were in the apartment we had some friends over for drinks to break it in... which was lots of fun! we played a Jackass drinking game, which is where everybody gets 2 or 3 categories related to the movie, and throughout watching the movie whenever their category / person appears they have to drink... suffice to say whoever got "Johnny Knoxville", "Steve O", and "blood", got pretty tanked!

And then, just like any story that's a bit too good to be true, the next day I got laid off from the job I had so hastily and surprisingly jumped into. It was the first time I'd ever been fired, and the explanation wasn't much of a consolation "You're just a little too casual for this establishment"!... I guess they needed someone a little more 'proper', and conservative... oh well. It sucks, but I'm confident I'll be able to find another job. Hopefully doing some sound engineering for the big Winter-Fest coming up.

And that pretty much brings you up to date on just about everything. Oh, last night I saw Star Trek, and really enjoyed it, especially seeing old-school Spok! Badass!

I hope everyone's well, and please feel free to get in touch whenever, I'll try and get on the net a little bit more frequently from now on...