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!