Chapter 4: Winter is Wintery

One of the major activities in (around/near) Queenstown is Skiing and Snowboarding during the winter months. Everyone told me that I'd be disappointed by the quality of the snow because I am used to Colorado snow so my expectations were, understandably, low and thus I didn't bring any of my gear or buy a pass or anything. I did, however, make it up two of the different ski fields with friends!
First I went up to the Remarkables Ski Fields with an English friend I met in Tauranga, Karl.

 The clouds were incredible, Elgamore enjoyed watching them while I rode.

 Obligatory on a ski lift selfie

The next day we went up to Cardrona which is near Wanaka, about an hour away. The bus ride there and back was a little...long except for the sleepies that happened :P

 The views were ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.

I was pretty happy, especially since the snow was darned decent.

A couple weeks later I went up to Cardrona again with Lucia

 Still absolutely stunning views, that's Queenstown down there.

 Woo snowboarding!!

This is from the other side, it is Wanaka! (and also super pretty!)
XP: 1670, the height of Cardrona in km

Chapter 3: Jack's Point

On the road in the OTHER direction from Queenstown is a beautiful "new" settlement called Jack's Point which is a VERY posh area with AMAZING views. Moose, Petunia and Renee were joined by a friend from work named Hannah for a walk around, a special adventure and a nice cup of tea to finish the day.

 Moose love the blue!

 Petunia's on top of the world!

LOOK AT THE SPECIAL SURPRISE!!!

 Hannah did it too!

Cup of tea ending a lovely day!

XP: 14 (distance between Goldfield Heights and Jack's Point)

Chapter 2: A Place to Live

After acquiring a job in Queenstown one of the things that was immideatly important was finding a place to live. While many travelers choose to live in hostels (because it is easy, usually fairly cheap and does not require any type of long-term commitment) I did not want to live in that environment for three months (the minimum amount of time I expected to be in Queenstown) and so I began to look for a flatshare. Somehow I lucked out and the third place I looked at was AWESOME and worked out for me! It is a little further away from the town center but I have found that to be quite a benefit because it allows me to get away from the hustle and bustle of the tourism industry that runs rampant in Queenstown (that IS Queenstown). The location is (was) Goldfield Heights.

My room look(ed)s like this:

The view from the outside looks like this!:

 One night I got to make a fort in the living room even!

XP: 3,000 cuz I only had to look at three places!

Chapter 1: Just a Short Jaunt Away...

One of the great things about Queenstown is the view from and around. As many of you know I grew up with mountains and they are forever ingrained in my definition of beauty. While I very much enjoy the mountain-paired with lake view from the town center there are also incredible (and different) views just a short distance away! One of the reasons that there have not been a lot of blog posts while I've been here is that many of the views look "the same" unless you're here and can see the constant change, so here are a bunch of pictures of The Remarkables Mountain range and the surrounding areas of Queenstown.
First, just a few minutes up the road lies the "historic" Arrowtown. Which I find pretty, cute and like a smaller, more tourist-y version of Queenstown.

 There was gold found in Arrowtown, Moose found the "X" that marked the spot :P

There is also a very nice little hike/walk called (very creatively) Queenstown Hill. The walk has some interesting information along the way and the views from the false summit are excellent! (and there's a big fruit bowl!:P )

 Elgamore even came along for the ride!

A further distance along the road is Glenorchy and past that one finds Paradise....

 Moose and Petunia were thrilled (as was Sammy, the lovely car)

 With the clouds and the snow on the tops of the mountains able to be seen all around from the....farmland it was very nice.

 It was so quiet and empty that I could stop in the middle of the road just for a picture!

 At the third river crossing Sammy protested and so I turned around and enjoyed the drive back.

 My feet even enjoyed the view for a bit.

Seriously excellent views and Moose and Petunia are best friends!
XP: 1,000 just cuz

Book 4: Queenstown!!!

I arrived in Queenstown after journeying down from Wellington on the ferry via Christchurch (and visiting a friend). It was a very long couple days of driving but I was VERY happy to get there (here).

Chapter 9: Good Bye Tauranga!

Ok so this post is something like ... a month and a half "late"...sorry....
The last weekend in Tauranga was filled with fun people, fun events...overall fun times :)
The last day of work I drove home and saw this:

I miss all the rainbows I saw, I mean, the rain wasn't ideal but...RAINBOWS!!!
One of the mornings I watched the sunrise from the Mount

I was supposed to wake up Lucia, Ray, Kassia and Karl if it wasn't cloudy...it was cloudy so I didn't wake them and after the sun rose and I began walking back it started raining, nevertheless they were a little mad that I went without them. We still went out for breakfast when I got back though! :)

Later that night we went bowling!!! It was very exciting and all black light and exciting!

Another night Lucia, Ray and I went out for a nice dinner, it wasn't anyone's birthday this time, but we'll be missing mine and Ray's so....

Then without tearful farewells (at least visibly from anyone) I drove down to Wellington!
On the way I saw a few exciting/interesting things:

Rainbow over Taupo!

Moa?

I spent a lovely few days in Wellington with my auntie, uncle and cousins and even managed to catch up with a few friends from Tauranga!
And thus good bye Tauranga! Times were good, fun was had, all the great!
XP: random number.....55!

Chapter 8: The Job

The Job

What did I end up doing in Tauranga for almost 2 months? I worked in a factory, a kiwifruit puree factory to be precise. Every morning I woke up around 6 am so that I could eat before driving ~20 minutes to the factory in Te Puna. For most of the weeks I gave a ride to another one of the women who lived at the hostel and that was wonderful. Occasionally (given that it's becoming winter here in NZ) we were treated to incredible sunrises (though the whole, let's take pictures thing was far from our thoughts). The factory is composed of two major parts: the factory and the fill room. I spent the majority of my time in the fill room, all decked out in a hair net, coat, gloves and crocs:

In the fill room were three “stations” where one could work. First, boxes had to be constructed – I made so many that I got super fast at making them, it was awesome. When we were on top of our game this is what all the boxes looked like:

Due to trade secrets these are the only pictures I was able to take.

After the boxes were constructed they were taken to the next station where they were filled with kiwifruit puree up to 20 kilos. The next (and final fill room) station involved a magic machine that took all the air out of the bag and sealed it closed. Then the bag was folded and the box put through a taping machine before being sent out to be stacked. Occasionally we would add seed to the puree which served for some difference. While the actual stations were rather repetitive we changed which ones we did several times daily which helped create variation.

The other job I did was done in the factory. To work in the factory I had to keep my hairnet and gloves on but trade the crocs for gumboots and the coat for an apron. Because of noise I also put on noise blocking earmuffs. Then I would put on two additional pairs of gloves and plastic sleeves before standing in front of a conveyor belt and sorting out appropriate kiwifruit as it rotated by me.

I ended up with a lot of time to be somewhat lost in thought which was fairly unique. We also did some listening to music and chatting. Overall it was a good experience, although not one I am keen to repeat anytime soon, factory work is pretty boring and I'm lucky I ended up at a good place with fun people. :)

Chapter 7: Kiwi As, Eh?

Renee and Moose topped in Paeroa on the way to Auckland via bus. Lemon and Paeroa is a kiwi soda that Renee is almost fond of, it's strange. The brief history of it is that there is a natural mineral spring in Paeroa and after its discovery it is now mixed with lemon (and sugary syrup) to make a soda...well that's the story anyway. Coca-Cola has now taken over production so it's not as...native as it used to be. Regardless, a photo-op :P  

 

Good-bye Stuart and Tammy!!! Until we meet again (either in the States or Northern Ireland) :D

XP: # miles from Fort Collins to Belfast: 4,322 Miles (not so far :P)

Chapter 6: Hamilton and, more importantly, RUGBY!

Having such a good time with the weekend travels Renee and Lucia and Petunia (Ray was busy so Moose stayed home too) decided to take a day trip to Hamilton and see RUGBY!!! (Renee LOVES rugby. So does Petunia.) On the way they had planned to stop at a cheesemaking demonstration but there was no cheese being made on the day of the visit so instead they had coffee and then walked along the Blue Spring for a while.

The Blue Spring is a natural spring which supplies water to a nearby town and accounts for about 70% of the bottled water from New Zealand. They were all quite surprised at the crystal clearness of the water and found that it tasted quite nice. The surrounding area was also very pretty.

Once they arrived in Hamilton the girls (and Moose) visited some shops and had a surprisingly delicious Indian dinner from a mall shop.

SO GOOD! And cheap!!

Then it was off to the rugby game! Lucia was surprised at Renee's enthusiasm and strong interest in the game itself.

Then was a short visit to the Hamilton night market and a fairly quick drive back given that there were no stops.

XP: Average speed of the Blue Spring: 42 cubic meters/minute (that's 9,240 gallons!)

Chapter 5: Tongariro Crossing

The next long weekend Ray, Lucia and Renee were joined by Kassia (from Canada) to attempt the Tongariro Crossing. The crossing is a 19km “walk” (read hike) that traverses the Tongariro national park. Tongariro park is home to Mt. Ngauruhoe which provided the filming location for Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. Hikers have the opportunity to summit the mountain as a “small detour” to the rest of the walk. Renee decided not to attempt the climb but Ray and Kassia were keen and so made the attempt. Lucia and Renee decided to pass on Mt. Doom and instead summit Mt. Tongariro (which is much easier and shorter). The walk is supposed to take a total of 8 hour with a three hour round trip detour for Mt. Doom and a 1.5 hour detour for Mt. Tongariro. All in all it took the travelers about 10 hours including their rest stops and detours. Many many pictures were taken on the way, here is a lovely selection.

On the way back the crew stopped at Lake Taupo for a coffee (with a great view)

Just outside Taupo to see a waterfall and visit a honey store

We didn't actually do this because it was expensive

This bee is a New Zealand icon thanks to a royal baby

And at Rotarua for a walk-about and dinner (and photo opportunities).

XP: FAIL since Renee forgot Moose, Petunia and Elgamore. Oops. NO XP for RENEE. Moose, Petunia and Elgamore can have an arbitrary 930.