Big Day Tomorrow

09-09-09 marks a big day for us tomorrow - Steph starts her new job at the Heritage hotel in Queenstown, and we move into our new place - a townhouse pretty similar to the one we had back in Atlanta except for one thing: location. Our new place is fully furnished, about 2 years old, really nice, and right on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. It was a bit more than we wanted to pay, and we're going to have to work at least probably 40 hours a week just to pay all our bills, but being right on the lake is going to be totally worth it. The guy who owns it said there is good
fishing and swimming right below our complex, so we're looking forward to that come summer. Its about 3 or 4 kilometers outside of Queenstown (maybe 2.5 miles), but there is a nice path along the lake that we'll be able to use to walk or bike into town.

As for Steph's job, she'll be working at the restaurant at the Heritage Hotel, which is about 1 minute drive ouside of downtown Queenstown, but on the other side from our place. It's probably an hour walk to get there, but we figure only about 10 or 15 minute bike ride. Tomorrow she has barista training, which she is very excited about. She's not really sure yet what she'll be doing or what kind of hours, but she said that they have a multi-national staff and that it seems like a pretty fun working environment. Her "trial run" at a country club near here didn't go so well - they basically just sent her out there without giving her a chance to look at the menu or anything - so she's happy that she won't have to be doing that.

As for me, well, I've kind of been a bum so far. I've applied for a lot of jobs, but it seems to be a pretty slow process since it really won't pick up around here for a couple months or so. Right now I'm hoping to hear back from a canyoning operation; they had a few jobs available but I'm hoping to get a chance at being a guide. Canyoning, for those not in the know, is basically climbing down waterfalls and swimming in ravines and what not. Kind of a strange "sport" but right up my alley so that would be a great gig. Otherwise I still think I could get a job at a golf course in a month or two when it gets a litte warmer. Until then, I'll be doing any temp work I can. I did 4 hours last weekend helping take down a conference at one of the local hotels. Basically carrying heavy and bulky tables and chairs and stuff up a huge hill to a truck. Exciting, exciting stuff. I've also been playing lots of frisbee golf, which is always good. Lets hope some of the more adventurous stuff comes through.

On another note, we should have good internet access at our new place, so I should be able to upload photos and blog more consitently. Until then, I leave you with another Quirks of New Zealand...

Quirk #2
Maybe it's because they don't actually have bears anywhere near here, but gummy bears are really hard to come by. Instead, they have gummy babies. That's right, little pieces of candy that look like chubby human babies. Actually the good ones are made by Starburst (no regular Starburst chews though) and they have some goo that squirts out the middle. They're called Crazy Babies. Strange.

Job Hunting and other Adventures

We've been in Queenstown for about 6 days now, and the job hunting is going pretty good. It started out pretty rough, with a lot of people telling us that they were either not hiring at all, or not until the summer season ramps up in 2 or 3 months. We persisted, though, and I've managed to score myself a sweet gig as a temp day laborer. This is the life! Tomorrow I have 4 or 5 hours taking down furniture from a conference at one of the hotels. Very glamourous. Steph has actually done much better, despite not applying at the organic grocer yet. Tomorrow she has a trial run waitressing at a big golf course/housing development outside of town. She hasn't done a lick of waitressing in about 5 years, and at this point it seems like they are going to just throw her in there and "see how it goes". We'll have to wait and see. She's pretty nervous about it and spent about an hour googling the different types of New Zealand wines to get ready. Not only that, but she had an interview for a waitressing job at one of the hotels in town. We've been applying at tons of places, and there are jobs out there, so we think we'll be able to get some work for the time being. Then, once summer rolls around, it shouldn't be difficult at all to get a job. There are 5 golf courses within 20 minutes or so, and all that I've talked to have said they'd have work, so I'm probably going to be doing more of this temp stuff until I can start at one of the courses.

As for housing, we've reserved a motel-type room at the Top 10 holiday park, which is basically the same as a KOA in the states, for $210 a week (about $150 US). It's about 10 minutes out of town, but you can't beat that deal. We were pretty excited about it until we realized how cold the room is. The dinky little wall heater they have in there is on a timer, so you have to reset the stupid thing every hour. Obviously this presents a problem when you are asleep, so despite getting up a couple times every night we still freeze our butts off at night. I don't know why I even bother getting up. In order to heat the place up as much as possible before going to bed, we've been resorting to all means possible. The room has a toaster and an electric kettle, which we are taking full advantage of. Every time we hear the "pop" of the toaster one of us gets up and turns it back on. I repeatedly fill up the kettle and once the water is boiling, pour it into a big dishwashing bucket to steam up the room. I hope you're visualizing a pretty sad little scenerio going on, because that's what it is. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Once we secure jobs we're going to look for an apartment or house to rent. Top criteria = warmth.

We've also had a chance to do a bit of exploring between job searches. We drove up to Glenorchy, which is about 45 minutes away along the lake. The drive was probably one of the most beautiful we have ever done. We did a little walk around the town, but hopefully when we get some time we'll go back and do some serious hiking. Many of the "Great Walks" (best hike in the country) start near here. Today I got my first swim in Lake Wakatipu - my first two swims, actually. The park in town has a frisbee golf course, so I bought a disc and off we went. By the 5th hole I had already been in the lake twice, up to my waist in freezing cold water. My underwear was soaked so once I put my jeans back on it looked like I had wet my pants. Still, went on to shoot a 4-over par, not bad for my first time plus a couple lake shots.

The computer is about to die so I've got to upload. Some new pics are up. Be back soon.