The start of the new year meant that we were well into the main tourist season in New Zealand. There was a brief lull of backpackers over Christmas but now they were flocking in herded by 7 Kiwi Experience and 6 stray buses a week each with over 60 people on and as they all stay for two nights it was a lot of people! That was on top of 100 Contiki passengers arriving twice a week and all the other random tour groups. Yep, we were well in to it now.
I had a new favourite backpacker competition, Frozen T-Shirt which involved 4 or 5 people attempting to put on a t-shirt that was frozen! This was the first time we did it and we had a whole bunch of Americans in and you can tell by Tonys reaction at the end of this video just how ridiculous we thought they were, chanting 'USA'. Bloody americans!
The year started with yet more rain. There was a couple of days of torrential rain which made the river swell a hell of a lot. I went to check it out before work one day and saw the only thing protecting the town from flooding was a huge row of rocks.
It was a tad wet
Raging
When I went to work I found the delivery waiting for me to put it away. It wasn't covered properly so all the boxes were wet and when I stacked them as I normally do this happened.....
Heineken avalanche
Yeah, not good!
Tui being flattering
The weather did improve though as you can see from Tui sunbathing in an interesting way! This was just in time for the arrival of the mother ship!
'Look Al its a glacier' - noooo!
Mum had decided to take 6 months off work to travel around New Zealand and Australia. I think she saw how much fun I was having and decided she wanted a piece of it! After spending a couple of days in Christchurch she came to visit me. It was really nice to see her after over a year away from home.
Okarito Beach
I took her to see as many of the local spots as I could. We spent one afternoon trekking up to the glacier and another at Okarito Beach. I'd never been down there before and its beautiful. Massive cliffs rolling straight into the sea. We spotted a seal at the beach but he swam away before I could get a picture.
Cliffidge
We also went kayaking. I had lots of fun seeing as Mum was terrified of rolling over! I didn't warn her about the pepper leaf either. I just sat back and watch everyone pull faces and spit them out!
Kayak adventure!
I'm doing all the work!
Rebel
Awkward selfie!
Mum stayed for a week and then jumped on the Kiwi bus! Yep, the one with all the kids on. I think she enjoyed it overall.
It was weird saying bye knowing she was going off doing a load of cool stuff while stayed where I was and worked. It was like our roles had reversed! I don't think she realised that travelling by yourself isn't always easy but when she realised that being homesick is perfectly normal she enjoyed it. Least I think so. I hope so.
ITS NOT HARD!
I lost my rag one day and stuck this sign on my head because I was fed up of reminding ignorant backpackers of their manners!
Snows nearly all gone
On one particularly fine day I decided to explore Roberts Point. This is on the other side of the valley to Alex Knob and has been closed for ages because of a massive flood damage done to the track last winter. I was told it was still do-able as long as you were careful so off I went!
The bridge at the start of the track
Heading up the valley
Danger!!!
So ignoring the danger sign I went on ahead. It really wasn't as bad as it was made out. Sure the stairs were all wonky but they were stable. The the bridge that said maximum one person scared me a little. How weak must a bridge be if it can only carry one person at a time!
Wonky stairs
1 man bridge
Crossing the rivers were a bit tricky because of all the lose rocks but that was it. The track was largely ok. In fact the worst bit of the track was the mold growing on all the rocks on the path because it wasn't getting used!
River crossing
Big fan of this photo!
stairs bottled into a cliff
rock side
At the end of the track it opens up so that you can see the glacier. There's a wooden platform with a picnic table on so I sat there for a bit with my picnic (a bad of chrips) and trundled back down the path.
view from the top
Going down on the slippy rocks was harder than coming up and I
completely stacked it at one point! I wasn't hurt but the awkward
walking kept giving me really bad cramp on both my inner thighs. At one
point I was just sat on the floor waiting for the cramp to ease!It was worth the walk but I still prefer Alex Knob.
The AJ Hackett crew came to the bar again and this time it was Gavin and Tonys turn to demonstate to everyone how it was done. It was a really good night with us having a late lock in at the end of the night.
gearing up
The next day was a real crap day and I realised that I really needed a break and it just so happened that Oscar had arranged for me and Gavin to go to Queenstown the following morning for the weekend.
This year I was prepared for the festive period, or rather I saw some decorations on sale when I was ordering clothes from Warehouse and thought I'd get them in early! So up went the Christmas Tree on the 1st December in our new house having moved in November.
TREE
Not Cadburys unfortunately
I was still living with Gavin but now also an American called Miesha, another Canadian called Tony, an Italian called Marco and his girlfriend Erika. The summer season was kicking in and having gone from a maximum of three people in the bar there was now ten people over restaurant hours. Busy busy.
Pretty
One day I turned up to work and there was a dead goat hanging in the keg chiller. Made me jump a little bit. Someone had hunted one and had given it to us to eat. I didn't like it looking at me for the few days it was in there. So much so it completely put me off changing the kegs and I managed to drain 100 lites of Tui all over the floor! That was a bit of a bugger! I was relived but still horrified when I found its head in the kitchen (still looking at me!!!)
ew
One fantastic day in December I was opening the bar as usual when Vicky came to ask me if I wanted to go on a scenic flight. Hamish (DJ Payload!) had rung up offering a spare seat and as Vicky said she had too much work to do she offered it to me! Hell yes!
Going up the valley
I ran down to Heli Services and jumped on a helicopter. It was a beautiful day for it. We flew over the river and up to Franz Josef Glacier. It was spectacular up there. Huge chunks of ice clinging to the mountains. It really was like a scene from a movie but so much better than that. I took as many photos and videos as I could but neither do it justice.
Top of Franz Josef glacier
bit snowy!
We flew up to the snow fields at the top of the glacier and as we came around a mountain it revealed the entire southern alps as far as the eye could see. Simply amazing! We flew over to fox glacier and landed on the snow right in front of Mount Tasman - New Zealands second highest mountain!
Mount Tasman
Fox Glacier
Time for a panoramic
leaving my mark!
It has to be said that the Asian dude sat next to me seemed completely unfazed by the whole thing. He could have been riding the bus to the supermarket to look at him. Crack a smile man!
Fox Glacier
We flew down Fox Glacier and back around to Franz. The best and most unexpected surprise ever, well until that point. January and February are awesome months too!
Hut in the hills
Time for festive activities to begin and first up was our Christmas party starting with paintball. I've never been paintballing before so I was a little nervous about what to expect but OH MY GOD! It was a ridiculous amount of fun!!
Getting ready to shoot someone!
A selection of bar staff, hosts and housekeeping staff gathered on the edge of the rainforest just down the road from the bar and geared up. We played capture the flag which is when one person on your team has a flag and you have to get the opposing teams flag. I thought it would be all out warfare but really wasn't like that. One minute after entering the playing area the whistle blew to single the start of the game and there was silence. I couldn't see anyone. Everyone was going for the stealth approach. It was like being in a computer game. You hear a shot and your heart starts pounding while you try to figure out who's shooting at you. Do you run? Do you hide? Do you just shoot in the bush wildly and hope you hit them? So often I had to stop breathing just so I could listen for some movement. A twig snap or a leaf russell! SO MUCH FUN!
Meisha with our flag
We won 5 times against the woofers. Pros! I got shot a few times, once in the head which was fun! It hit the mask so it actually hurt the least. The last game was a free for all, no teams, and you just use up all your balls. I unloaded all mine on someone and then ran for it. I couldn't see anyone so ran straight for the exit but little did I know there were about 5 people hiding around there who all shot me as I made a run for it. OUCH!
Head shot!
Oscar (boss man) offered to pay for Gavin and I to get a Duty Managers
Certificate which would allow us to be in charge of the bar. We went to a
2-day course and completed the LCQ exam which is the first step and
allowed us to be temporary managers.
As I was now able to be in charge of the bar that meant James and Sarah would get to go enjoy the Christmas party whilst the rest of us 'newbies' had to work.
GRINCH!
Big Boss Man
It was a really quite night so we still got to be included in the festivities. We had some of the roast dinner which was really good but the lack of chicken, yorkshire puds and stuffing was noticeable! Oscar then played santa and dished out the secret santa presents. I got a pen knife and a big block of mint chocolate a bit like After Eights. I still to this day do not know who my secret santa was!
Santa!
The party started with Payload Vs Panda. Our DJ against one of the stray drivers. He does singing and wrapping over songs and he's really good but there was a distinct lack of Christmas songs from both of them. So when they finished up I crammed as many Christmas songs into the last hour as I could!
Payload Vs Panda
Once we had all closed up Gavin, Edo and I had our own Christmas party with a few of the stragglers and it was dawn before we got home.
suns up - time to go to bed!
A couple of weeks later it was actual Christmas! Working in a hospitality in a tourist town in the middle of the season means there is no chance of christmas day off. We weren't open all day though. We opened at 6 for an epic christmas buffet where me and Gavin dressed up as santas for a bit! Then everyone just got drunk. Standard christmas really!
Double christmas
Jess, Jose, Meisha, Moi and Laura partying
There was some great weather on Boxing Day so before work Meisha, Edo and I went for a walk up to the glacier. We went down the secret track to the front of it which had changed a lot since I was first there. The hole at the bottom was a lot bigger and gushing water out whereas it was just a dribble before.
Waterfall!
Glacier valley
Animals!
Prettiness
Melting!
With the weather so good I decided to go for another trip up the Knob. I thought I would go up late afternoon as the middle of the day usually clouds over. This meant I was up there just before sunset and as I predicted it was clear up there and view was a stunning as ever!
That's me that is!
This picture should win an award!
Obviously being up there just before sunset meant as I was going down it was getting darker and darker. I brought a torch with but by the time i got to the bottom it was well into nighttime and my head was hurting from concentrating and my eyes were aching from straining with only a beam of light to guide me. Worth it though.
Sunset
ARGH!
New Years Eve was beyond epic! Its hard to know where to start! We expected a big night obviously but it was just insane. The place was rammed. I don't know if there is a maximum capacity in the bar but if there is then we were definitely over it! The courtyard is often busy but now it was standing room only and that's on any floor space, stool or table you can find a space to put yourself. We took so much money that we were only a few thousand dollars behind one of Queenstown's biggest clubs!
face pulling with sarah
Even Vicky was helping
The new year moment involved me, Sarah and Jon climbing on the bar and spraying everyone in champagne like something off Formula 1! I ran around and said happy new year to everyone and then went straight back into it as the bar was still rammed! It was about two hours later we got to say it properly!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
When Wagon Wheel came on (basically the Franz Josef theme tune) everyone abandoned Edo on the bar and went to sing along on the dance floor with everyone.
WAGON WHEEL!
New Year Celebrations!
So at the end of a 14 hour epic shift, which was a real effort to work, we welcomed in the New Year in style. It was probably the best New Year I've ever had, so much fun was had and it capped what had been such a fantastic year! From Sydney to Adelaide, Melbourne to Bundaberg, Cairns to here now in New Zealand. Literally living the dream!
