Three Week

It has already been 3 weeks, time has flown by here in kiwiland. This pas week was fairly relaxed and single goal oriented. Find a job, simple as that. I wanted to find a job that I could not find back at home. A job that would be a part of this whole experience. Before moving here, I wanted to be involved with something "Queenstown-esque," such as bungy jumping, rafting, mountain biking, or some sort of adrenaline junky type of employment. I also would have loved to work on a farm/orchard/vinyard and get a feel of what it is like to live and work on such an operation. I also love working outside, with plants and with my hands. Well my decision has been made...

After arriving in town, I quickly realized that we are kinda far from any of the farm/orchard operations, remove that possibility. Most of the adrenaline type work was popular and usually taken by locals or people who have been waiting for the vacancies long before I, nix that possibility. So i started to get less and less picky about what I was going to be doing to earn my keep in the country. Although, I did not loose hope in doing something I could not do at home. I kept at it and talked to people, put my name out there, even chatted people up during hitch hiking adventures (nearly found two jobs that way). Side note: People are quite friendly here, oh, and hitch hiking is totally accepted. I/we have hitched a few times back to our place from town to save some time and everybody who picks us up is more than friendly and has a unique story to tell. I gladly listen and thank them for the ride. End side note.

I was beginning to get nervous as nobody has shown an interest with a call back, even with applying at the hotels as a last resort. Then all of a sudden, an unexpected call arrived from the Skyline Gondola. They wanted an interview. I was excited and come to think of it had no idea what type of work they wanted as they are a large complex of many activities. The interview went well and turns out it is for a position in the restaurant serving. I just found out they want to hire me, thus I accepted. I will be riding the gondola up to work every day, which will be exciting for a while at least. I have found my "Queenstown-esque" employment. It may not be working directly at the bungy platform, zipline tour or luge attraction, but it is right in the vicinity. Sigh of relief as I now feel like I have a place in this community as a worker. I will have money coming in to save up for our next great adventure.

Other adventures this week... went on a short 1 hr. hike on the Moonlight Track with Andrea and Caitlin. Below are a few pictures we snapped.


I also rode my bike to the nearby town of Arrowtown. Mainly to get a workout in, but also because I had the time and have heard it is a beautiful ride. A great 15 kms there and a windy 15 kms back. Mountain views in every direction as I rode through the hills of farmlands. This photo below depicts how the buildings have maintained the architecture of the old town. This was a small pub where you walk a few steps down and inside and it is quite cave like, yet comfy and cozy.

Last but not least this is a shot of the sun setting over Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown. We were out celebrating a friends birthday and came across this scene.

Southern NZ

Andrea, myself, and the backwards driving Nissan Sunny went on an adventure this past weekend. Picked up the rental car and a few more groceries and headed south along the banks of Lake Wakatipu on highway 6. Beautiful and mountainous, all you want to do is stop nearly every km to take a picture, but alas we had a lot to see in the next few days. A lot of driving too. Day one was sunny and amazing as we were both on a high of just getting out of town and seeing an entirely new world. We drove along mountains and lakes for a while, then the landscape turned to rolling hills of sheep, cattle, deer, and elk farms. It was gorgeous, even from the reverse cockpit of the Sunny. We wanted to see as much as we could, thus we drove through the town of Invercargill just to pop through and see what it was like. Well we stopped at some Irish pub downtown to have a celebratory beer and then got lost a tiny bit on our way to Curio Bay.
Soon we were driving on a gravel road through farms and could see the ocean off in the distance. When we arrived at the campground, neither of us could believe where we were staying. It was directly on the coast and breathtaking. Staked our ground for the night, filled a glass of wine and walked around to get to know our new surroundings... beaches, cloud cover, waves, rock cliffs, fur seals, mice, and many other camper vans. Not knowing our exact plans for the rest of the trip, we made dinner and discussed options. Wanted to play some cribbage, but forgot the game back in Queenstown. Relaxed and fell asleep in the tent. I love sleeping outside.


Day two, still cloudy when we woke to some fisherman who parked about 20 feet from our tent while they prepared. Ate some breakfast consisting of a breakfast bar and fruit, then headed in to the office to get some info. Learned of a nearby ancient coastal forest preserved by a massive mudslide. Checked it out in hope to see some penguins, but only another fur seal lazily resting. Returned to our campsite and decided on a whim to pick up camp and continue along the southern scenic highway in hopes to see more country and discover more. McLean Falls was the next stop, a short hike through jungle like environment and we arrived at the falls.

Back to the car and the next stop was the Cathedral Caves on the coast. A small $5 fee because we apparently traveled on some private land and another short 10 minute hike to the beach. Low and behold the sun came out during our hike through the coastal forest. We popped out on the beach and it was glorious. I had an instinct to run around, thus I ran and in no particular direction. We walked a few hundred meters to the cave to find it in a towering cliff. It was huge! Huge it may have been, but not very long. The cave was basically a large horseshoe, in one way, make a turn, and out the other way. Amazing nonetheless. On the way back I could not pass up the opportunity to break out the feet and walk around in the water. The sand was amazing and the water cool, but not freezing.

Back to the car for some more driving. By now I am pretty much used to using the blinker and seatbelt on my right side instead of the left. At first, I was always flicking the wipers instead of the turning signal and reaching to the center console for my seatbelt. This driving was fun too. the highways around here are nothing like interstates, only two lane curvy roads. Made me wish I were on my moto. After a few km's there was a lookout we could not pass up. Florence Hill Lookout viewing over Tautuku Beach:

Beginning to wonder where we were going to camp and seeing that we were getting low on petrol, we drove with a campsite in mind. Found one spot that was recommended, but after seeing that our campsite was the size of an average persons bedroom (and basically right on top of the nieghboors) we decided to pack up and head to another recommendation. Kaka Point was our last option. 20 km north and we came across the small town and loved it. Extensive beach right in town, a small pub that overlooked the beach, boogie boarders on the waves, and a campsite just up the hill. We settled into our campsite, which charged per person and had a large kitchen, showers, and laundry. Not an ideal camping area, but we figured we were only going to sleep here, and that we did. Immediately packed our dinner and headed back to the little pub for a celebratory beer. Speights, yum! Then we headed back on the road to check out Nugget Point. It was a place to view the yellow-eyed penguins coming in for the evening to feed their juveniles. We were both ecstatic to see some penguins in their habitat! That we did, but from afar. We read and learned that the penguins are very sensitive to disturbances. Thus, the beach was closed and we had to view them from about 200 yards. Also at Nugget Point was the Nugget Point lighthouse. We had planned on making our dinner at the lighthouse, but the wind was relentless and powerful. We took in the cloudy views, watched some fur seals playing on the beach 250 ft. below and turned around as we were getting quite hungry.

On the way back to our campsite we found a table and chairs made out of large wire spools in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful beach views avalaible, so we decided to stop and cook. Thai chicken curry for dinner. Back on the road, and considered another night cap of Speights at the pub, but it was quite busy and we had some wine and chocolate back at the campsite.

Day 3, woke up to some light rain, packed up and headed back on the road towards Balclutha to get some much needed fuel. The morning was a bit rainy and cloudy, but as we made our way on our inland route the sun started to show its face. Its amazing how powerful the sun is here. We were making our way through the fruitlands of Roxborough, Alexandra, and Cromwell and this work of art was displayed at the gates of Cromwell.

We drove by countless fruit orchards all selling their bounty of delicious fruits. Neither one of us had cash and were thus hesitant to stop, but we looked at each other and we knew immediately that if we did not stop and get fruit we would be missing out. Pulled over at the next stand to see all the delicious fruits... numerous cherries, peaches of all sorts, berries galore, juices, and even freshly made real fruit ice cream. The smells were unforgettable as well. Both of us were making mental lists of what we wanted to munch on as we perused the rather large fruit stall (they called them fruit stalls instead of fruit stands). We were sure they would take a credit card, but I wanted to make sure first. This was the moment of utter despair and the feelings of rejection. Our dreams of eating fresh fruit while we finished the last legs of our trip were crushed. Alas we left the stand with visions of plums and white peaches danced in our heads. We drove on and tried another stall, nope. Another, nope. Another, nope, then finally gave up hope.

As we were leaving Cromwell we began driving through the Kawarau Gorge and saw some amazing views. This photo was early on as we drove along the dammed Kawarau River.

The water was the definition of turquoise. Also along this gorge was THE worlds first & most famous bungy site on the Kawarau River. We had to stop and check out the adrenaline seeking people jump from an old bridge to fall 43 m (142 ft) with a giant rubber band strapped to their ankles. It was crazy. I was never tempted to bungy while here, but after watching this a few times and seeing that this place to jump was breathtaking, I mentally considered doing it in the future. Andrea did the same, so much that she tried to trick me into doing it on the spot while we were there. As we were walking out, she said "I think I'm going to do it now." I could not believe her, but I still was not sold on the whole deal. My heart definitely skipped a beat, but then she said no. She definitely had me going, but I was not about to pull the trigger, just yet. hmmm.....

We were now coming to the end of our journey as Queenstown was the next town. Neither of us wanted to end the journey just yet so we sidetracked to the small town of Arrowtown, a neighboring town to Queenstown. Andrea had already been here with some girlfriends to watch a movie and knew how quaint and 'old school' the town was. She wanted to spend more time exploring the small town. The buildings are all very old and have not changed much. We manged to spend a few hours walking around and exploring the options. Popped into a corner pub called Tap to grab a brew with some locals. Walked around a bit more and then went back to the Tap to get some pizza that sounded amazing from reading the menu the first visit. Sure enough it was delicious! Left the town and drove about 15 more minutes back to Queenstown. We were exhausted, whew... what a trip! We got to see many differing landscapes and heaps of southern New Zealand. Our eyes were opened up to this country and its beauty.

Two Week

Let the job hunt begin. Resume, or CV as they like to call it here, updated and all the pertinent info showing. I began walking around town to get my name out... this included hotels, fruit stands, clothing stores, restaurants and bike shops. After searching and searching, which is very exhausting, I started to get a bit nervous. A few different people were telling me that I am a bit late, that people are getting let go at this time. Others were very helpful and guiding me towards other possibilities. I am still looking and hopefully will find something sooner than later.

On other notes Andrea and I have found it quite difficult to get to and from town being ~6 km (3.7 miles) from town. Even though, I purchased a used road bike, it is a bit of a trek as the terrain is hilly and mountainous here. Thus, after some chatting with our current friends/roomies, we have decided to move closer to town. Searching and searching newspapers and message boards at the grocery, we called numerous people, saw two places and narrowed it down to one. We move in on Feb. 1st. This place is still up a hill, but much closer to town.

One more problem that has been solved is the communication with family and friends. I was not exactly sure how I was going to keep in touch. Skype became the answer, www.skype.com. It allows me to call phones from my computer, and if other users are online I can even video chat, which has proven to be quite fun. My dad, sister and brother-in-law all just got a video camera for their computer and thus we can all skype. I told my dad about the program over the phone on a Saturday night. On Sunday, I woke up to a message saying "Craig and Jackie would like to be on your address book." I gladly accepted and within a few minutes they signed on and we began our inaugural chat. I could see my dad and he could see me, despite we are on opposite sided of the world. Its great and I look forward to keeping up with family and friends as Andrea and I continue our adventure.

Then there was the day that was January 19th, my birthday. It was a great day. Sunny, productive, fun and good food. We caught a ride into town to get some things taken care of and then started a short hike to the Skyline Gondola attraction. A steep ~40 minute hike up the mountain side leads one to a restaurant, luge, bungy jump, giant swing and take-off point to paraglide. Andrea treated me to a few luge rides, and they were way fun! It was an adrenaline thrill, perhaps not a bungy jump or a skydive, but enough of a thrill for my 27th B-day. It was incredibly fun! Just now, as I am writing about it, I really want to go do it again. Then we headed back to our place to grill some delicious foods and sip on a few Speights to celebrate the day. Of course we had some chocolate cake with milk.

In the next day or so, Andrea was offered two jobs at clothing stores and was working with both companies to figure out which one would suit her. She struggled a bit as one was part time and paid more where the other was full time and paid a little bit less. In the end, she had decided and begins work Tuesday. She chose the full time spot as it gave her a better vibe and she liked the clothes better. Right as Andrea was taking the job we pulled the trigger to rent a car and tour a part of the country as it seemed like the right time before we started working. We had the weekend ahead of us and were recommended to drive to the southern coast. Thus we decided that is where we will drive.

27

Cheers to me on 27 years.

One Week

One week of New Zealand is under the belt and what do I have to say for it --> NZ is beautiful, people are great and the sun is powerful. Since we arrived we have been doing more vacation type things, tourist activities. We kinda wanted the quick track to know the town and surrounding area. What better way to do this than watching some rugby in town, visit a local winery to sample the local eats and wines, drive a few kilometers out of town and go on a hike around Moke Lake, white water rafting on the Shotover River and have a few walks around town. All of these things were guided by our gracious local hosts Caitlin and Loren. We have also been eating well. Combined efforts to make amazing meals (mostly Caitlin) have been outstanding. What better to go along with dinner than local brews... Speights, Tui, Monteiths, Steinlager. Although they are tasty, I am missing out on a few tasty selections from the west coast.


Our Seattle friends Rob and Claudia have also been traveling abroad and stayed in Queenstown for 5 days. It was great to discover NZ with them and start our big adventure. From the moment we first landed up until now I am still in awe at the beauty of this landscape. Queenstown is nestled right up against Lake Wakatipu and the backdrop in every direction is towering mountains. Population 13,333, first settled in 1860, 310 meters above sea level. After discussing a few facts, it was brought to my attention that Queenstown is the sister city of Aspen! Funny how some things work out.

It has also been stressful getting settled. We are staying 4 km out of town and without a car it is a bit of a problem. Despite our hurdle, we have made the best of what we can the first week. We have caught rides with our hosts into town and walked back as it is a beautiful walk. I purchased a used road bike to get to and from the city center and Andrea is still looking for a bike. I have taken temporary ownership of one of our hosts old local cell phone to use while in town. I have also set up my Skype account so that I can call home. We have set up bank accounts, with ambitions to fill them with NZ dollars. We have spent a few hours walking town handing out CV's to potential employers. We purchased groceries. We are now looking at moving closer to town to make things much easier on ourselves. There are plenty of options available for people looking for 'flatmates.' We are going to see a few of them today and hopefully make a decision within the next few days. We have also discussed the option of purchasing a van to live out of and travel around the south island, considering it would cost the same to buy a van as it would to pay rent. Thoughts of it being an investment and having a vehicle to see the country and then hopefully sell the van before we depart makes sense. Just a fun thought for now. Well, our friends just left to travel back to Seattle and that is about all I have for this past week. An amazing expensive week full of great times --> the highlight was definitely finally having nice weather and rafting the Shotover (we rafted 170 meters through a tunnel!).

Wish us luck with jobs!

Welcome New Zealand

The whole travel experience was new for me as I have never traveled abroad, other than Canada, eh. Learned a few lessons, played some games, met some nice people, watched some movies and caught some Zzz's. Everything was going smoothly at first, despite the amount of luggage and bike in tow. When we arrived in LA, we found our airline and learned that when we were to arrive in Sydney we were to go through customs, pick up luggage then go back through ticketing & security. What fun we thought, but had no choice.

Flight to Sydney was 15 hours. We watched The Hangover together then a few other things on the personal TV screens provided. Ate a dinner and breakfast, and were provided with snacks in between if necessary. Slept quite a bit, not exactly sure but on and off for about 6 hours we think. Arrived in Sydney at 6 am and missed an entire day. It felt great to be across the world; it was sunny and beautiful. My first overseas flight complete!

Then on through customs to pick up our luggage, or so we thought. They would not let us through because we did not obtain Australia visas. We kindly explained we were told to pick up our bags by the airline and transfer them to the next flight ourselves. The customs girl, who was very nice and helpful, explained that our bags should be transferred automatically and that we could not make it through to pick them up regardless. Roadbump. I was simply thinking we had no choice so no sense in worrying whether our bags were going to make it to New Zealand. We turned around and started walking where directed while thinking about many things: where are our bags going to end up? what gate are we headed to? how do we get our boarding passes? WHEN IS OUR FLIGHT? (that's right, we did not know anything about our flight). We started to be a tiny bit frantic as those are all very important questions. Why didn't we print out the information? Just forgot, ooops. Once we found our gate, we then had a few more snafus with regards to our visas and boarding pass. We showed our necessary paperwork to the agent and after about 10 minutes and a large line building up behind us we were told everything was ok, other than the bag situation which was still an unsolved mystery. Boarded the plant to NZ thinking it was a 4 hour flight and turned out it was only 2.5 hours over the Tasman Sea. Landed and it was beautiful. We were nervous to go through customs knowing we did not have 2 items we needed: my bank statement showing current earnings and our return ticket. As the line became shorter and shorter, more and more nervous. Finally we were next and a gentleman was pre-checking our passports and arrival cards with declaration information. He calmed our nerves saying that if we had working visas we were fine and dandy. Made it through! Victory! Now onto the luggage situation...

Waiting, waiting and waiting. Andreas large bag came through and I pumped my fist in the air. If one had arrived then the rest should be behind. The bike showed up immediately after, 2/5. Well 2/5 is the best the airlines could do for us apparently. We waited until there was only one lonely black bag circling the baggage carousel before we headed to the counter for file our claim. The gal there was very helpful during the process. We gave all the necessary information about the missing bags and headed through NZ customs where they proceeded to check a few of our items for possible unwanted travelers to the country. It was a process that Andrea and I had never experienced but were impressed with the precision as the two gentlemen began removing every single bit and piece of dirt or plant matter from the bike and then vacuuming it up with a dust buster. It was quite the scene, and the two gentlemen were to chat with as we patiently waited.

Finally, everything was cleaned (well everything we had in our possession) and we proceeded through the doors to wonder if our friends were still there as we were making our way through customs for nearly an hour. Tried and true, our friends were patiently waiting.

The New Zealand Chapter begins.

Adventure

Well, New Zealand is on the dashboard for the next 4 months. Andrea and I will be living/working/traveling in the country for the next 3.5 months. Then 2 weeks in Australia, not bad eh? 2010 will start with a new adventure. It has been a lot of planning and logistics, but the time has finally arrived. Check back for updates, see you in the Southern Hemisphere!

Also, check www.andreafranzen.blogspot.com

John West Salmon

one of my favorite ads out here.