mmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Im Lost

Look at me! Im 24!

The Season

Well here we were. Jobs sorted, home planted. The season itself for boarding unfortunately has been not the greatest. According to the locals its been a lot better in years previous. Oh well I say, make the most of it, and I believe we have.
The major events that have taken place since we arrived have been, of course yours truly, the fantastico Emily's Birthday on the 8th of July. Sorry its taken so long to announce my thanks to all the lovely happy birthday messages I received. It certainly made a difference. To be honest with you I found it very hard to be away from all my wonderful friends back home, and the wonderful new friends we have met on the way. We had just arrived in Wanaka when my birthday came around, so we hadn't created a base of people to share it with by then. The night before I was missing home terribly. But thanks to the warm hugs and kisses of my fiance I felt complete.
The morning I woke up, I was plastered with presents and cake!!! yum! Jamie even cooked it himself, bless.
Jamie had bought me a pair of God Damn wicked Paul Frank Pj's (chosen by Jamie after all the hints I dropped whenever we walked past the window, he he he), A lovely new leather wallet to replace the one i had stolen from me in Christchurch, and a recipe book for my favourite pudding....MUFFINS!!!!
We then went for a nice walk along the lake and headed to a place called Puzzle World. This place is soooooo much fun. Its a bit of a tourist attraction, but anyone who has been to Wanaka, will always recommend it to another person, if not for just a bit of fun and a few giggles.

Inside is a few rooms dedicated to holograms, which was really interesting, then it leads on to a room that's just nutty. Its all twisted. As you walk in to it you have to walk up a slope, then everything inside is straightened out, but only according to the slope.....if that makes sense......best look at the photos, cause i still cant figure it out. When you sat on a chair it slid upwards, and water run uphill....Its like some crazy dream when you've eaten too much cheese the night before. It made me feel so dizzy and sick, but it was really funny.

Then after you have had your fill of crazy, there is a big maze outside. You have to work your way around to all the four corners (each had a coloured tower) then work your way to the exit. Its suppose to take 45 Min's to an hour...............We still hadn't found the exit after an hour and a half !!!!!! AND WE CHEATED TWICE !!!! Duh !
After leaving by the Emergency Exit Jamie took me to a Thia Restaurant, where I had a much craved after Pad Thia, mmmmmmm. Anyone who has been to Thailand will know you cant get a much better Pad Thia than the street vendors in Bangkok. Oh my god, my birthday Pad Thia was like being flown back though the sky to Thailand.
After dinner we met up with some people from, back then, my new job. Every Sunday at a certain Bar here there has been a pub quiz. We had a little chuckle there, got a bit tipsy, had a couple of whiskeys, then the day was done.
Now I'm 24. ........ next year ill be 25 ....... oh well, at least I'm not 30..HA! And ill get to that story in the next couple of entries. As for this one, its time to sign off, finish my lunch break, and get back to work. Love to you all, and keep reading. xx

Arriving in Wanaka

The first week we arrived in Wanaka, It was the best laying of snow in the town itself that they have had in years.

We had so much snow to play with at the holiday park. It made me feel like a kid again. We ran out into the snow and started to make an Igloo. The guys who where in their van oppersite came out to help. It got to the point where we started to fill a dustbin with snow and started to just poor it on. Snow much fun!! boom boom!!




















SNOW CHICKEN - For the chooks back home xx

Queenstown and Wanaka

I'm a bit fed up with always starting these blogs off with a "helloooo" or a "hi everyone" so I'm just gonna say BOO!
After Christchurch, we drove down to Queenstown. The time of serious things, like getting a job, had started. W Spend two days there, literally just spending time handing out cvs, and going to agency's. Also spending time having a few pints, as that's what Queenstown is about, so "when in Rome". One of the nights we actually decided we wanted to save money on staying somewhere, so we went on a hunt for a doc campsite (department of conservation).
We had met a girl in a car park earlier that day. She was also living in her transport ,but just a hiace (a van) with just a bed in the back. We had started talking cause she was setting mouse traps in her van, and had to clear everything out. Lots of people out here have the same problem. As lots of travellers in NZ live and drive around in their vans mice are pretty much invited in by all the smells of food. Unfortunately for the last week or so she had hardly got any sleep, as all she could hear was scratches inside the roof lining. Running up and down, up and down.
Jamie and I got the location of the campsite from her, and promised to meet up there. Unfortunately, we didn't start to make a move till well after dark and it was so creepy making our way. Most of the doc places are out in the middle of nowhere with no lights. I look back now and find it so funny, the amount of times we went driving to look for free places to stay and get ourselves in a pickle. We start saying "where are we", and "i cant see a thing!" then we drive too far and get ourselves stuck in gravel, or sand, or I feel freaked out because we are driving along in a very heavy van, down some dirt track in the middle of nowhere in the dark, and all of a sudden the track becomes horribly steep. oooh it makes me shudder just thinking about it.
Luckily, nothing bad ever really happened, and we did make it to the campsite, and the girl and a friend of hers came round, and we had a really nice evening. The stars where amazing that night too. The next morning we bushed our teeth from the water in the Queenstown lake. I love those random evenings!

That was the day we left for Wanaka and never went back.

Wanaka was the first place we got jobs in, and to be honest I'm glad, Ive really enjoyed living here. Its got much more of a smaller community here. You can walk to everything in max half an hour. If you pop out to the supermarket you will always see someone you recognise. Hell even the people working at the check out recognises you. Due to the job I got as well, working in a outdoor store that is also the place to hire any equipment and book transport to the 3 local ski resorts, ive gotten to know a lot of the people that come here for the season. It doesn't pay well, but this whole season ive had free hire for me and Jamie (and just recently his friend Emily from home) free transport for me and Jamie up to the resort (40 minute drive) and 30 % off anything they sell from there and also the sister snowboard shop across the road!. RAD!

Jamie got a job on a building site, firstly with one guy, who turned out to be too much of a grumpy moaning bastard (scuze the french), but he got a job straight away after he left (who wants to deal with someone like that when they are travelling?!) the other guy. For a while he wasjust labouring but 2 or so weeks ago now he was ut onto plastering, and he is much more enjoying himself. He can be in chrge of what he is doing now, and he is also able to prove his worth.

We have been enjoying the week more and more. We have now met and fallen in love with a lot of really lovely people now, both travellers and locals. This town has a great atmosphere, the locals positivly welcome the travellers with open arms. Everyone gets on, and thats what i love about this place. Granted work for me now has got very tedious and boring (what do i expect, its shop work, and ive always hated it, even when thats most of my experience!), but thats coming to an end soon on the 12th of october.

Christchurch Times

South Island

Well I better hurry up in catching up on this blog, Im begginning to Forget a lot of the little things that hapened on the way down here now. Its been a while, and for that I apolagise, I belive we have gottan ourselves in a lull of work and illness over the winter.
Obviously again Im the one that was ill. I really am always the one to catch everything, but hay ho, such is life.
After being stuck in bed with a chest infection and cold for over a week, im finally a lot better, and i can start to catch up again in the imortalization of chook and wentzells adventures around the world.
I belive from reading the last entry we had just stepped onto the South Island.
The main conversation on the cards back then was how we where gonna "pimp our ride" , as they say. We where quite enthusiastic to get to Christchurch to start our little project.
We had already got in contact with a family friend of jamies who had been living there for 5 years or so, and she had agreed to let us stay with her and her two daughters.
So after a brief stop of in yet another wonderfull picturesque area we hitailed it straight there.

The stay with Val was so delightfully homey. We finally had a bed in a proper family home which felt so good, and we enjoyed it so much to be so welcomed.
For a week and a half, they made us feel like part of the family. We all had meals together in the evenings, which we took turns in making, and val was always there to give us advice or a helping hand when she could. Even when all of our stuff came out of the van and into her living room when we where painting.
Jamie and i had great fun that week with all the work we put in to do the van up. We got rid of the horrible brown veneer and made her what she is today........... a big heap of metal with a paint job...HA! No i cant talk about her that way, she might get offended. We do love our baby.

We also had time to enjoy part of the night life in Christchurch. There are lots of bars and clubs as its a student town. We where taken out a few times by 1 of Vals daughter's and got smashed both times. She is a bit of a party girl, so it was great to let our hair down.