Franz Josef: A Drunk Month

March 2014

As the season was drawing to an end there were more and more leaving parties intermittent with various peoples birthdays. This means Ski Runs! Carmen was first up for the 4 shot madness when it was her birthday at the start of the month. She actually did two in consecutive days.

Carmen looking worried

1 2 3 4 GONE!

I had a Friday off so I thought I would take this rare opportunity to go Jug Night at the Landing. This is the place all the locals go on a Friday night before they come to ours so it was really good to see everyone relatively sober for a change well to start off with anyway.

Jug Night

Punching Ester, Alisha and Emily simultaneously

Tony is one of those rare people who everyone likes and nobody has a bad word to say about him so when it came to him leaving everyone was a bit gutted. As he hadn't been paint balling before I thought I would organise this for everyone. It wasn't completely selfless because I really wanted to go paint balling again. It was so much fun last time.

Tony scared with Alex and Donkey

About half the staff came which was cool. The Philippinos bailed and the girls on reception were either too scared or working but the bar staff, housekeepers and a few kayak guides all came plus a few others. It was once again a brilliant afternoon.

The gang

The first game took forever as the other team were hidden right by the entrance so even after we found them it took us forever to get their flag because every time one of them was shot they only had to run 10 metres and back again to be back in the game.

Lumpy head Jon

There weren't any serious injuries but Jon had a massive lump on his head where a pellet had got under is mask and Jared had a nasty looking lump on his neck. I was shot in the face so that paint went all over my visor and I couldn't see but I didn't have any serious bruises.

Not nice Jared

We all went back to monsoon for some drinks and some food when Wozza rolled around in the Kiwi bus. He needed to drive for a bit to charge the battery so we all grabbed a beer and jumped on the bus.

Where are we going wozza?

We went down to the lake where we found Jon and Hamish rolling out the speedboat for some wakeboarding and Campbell was getting his kayaking tour organised. I doubt that lake has even been so busy!

all going off

For some reason Jared and Alex decided they would wrestle! That's about all I can say about that. Wozza took on the winner and lost too.

FIGHT!

The fun didn't stop there. That night was Tony's leaving party. I had the night off which I was very happy about. It was a really good night and Tony was very drunk after his ski run. It was made slightly worse when Terry made him do a Tequila shot straight after.

Tony being a wuss!

Campbell and Tony selfie

With Miesha

Hayleys mum was in town so we were introducing her to the monsoon life. She certainly wasn't refusing the shots we were getting. Although she did get slightly mouth raped by Tony which was absolutely hilarious! Tony asked for a kiss on the cheek and turned his head last minute so that they kissed on the lips! Everyone was cracking up, so funny!

Hayley with her mum and Carmen

People started talking about the arrival of ex-tropical cyclone Lusi a few days before it came. Some people said we would get a battering, some said nothing would happen at all. I thought we would just get some heavy rain which is nothing we not used to in the rainforest and we would be sheltered from any high winds due to the mountains.

In reality, nothing happened and I mean absolutely nothing! Not even a drop of rain or a breeze! Such an anti climax!

Non event

St Patricks day was large! We had a Contiki bus in and the courtyard was a sea of green. As was everything else including the beer and wine we were serving! I was a bit reluctant at first as I thought it was a bit too American and I don't like American commercialisation but I was forced into making everything green as well.

Paddys day

To be sure!

Rowan took dressing up a bit far when he turned up in nothing but leaves! He made such a mess in the bar that we had to sweep up at the end of the night!

Rowan being a tree!

We had another theme night a few days later and this time it was a superhero party. I found a spiderman outfit in the fancy dress box so I wore that. Someone pointed out that I had it on backwards. I tried to make out that it was on purpose and that my actual superhero outfit was underneath my 'normal clothes' and I was in fact the super bar man. I'm not sure I got away with it. If there was a prize for best dressed that night then Wee Man, the Stray driver, would definitely have won for his umpur lumpur outfit. Genius!
 

Super Tara

Spiderman vs super bar man

Wee Man - Awesome!

Bit of a drama now. As I was walking to work one day I could see a police car down the road with some people stood about. I assumed someone had gone off the road there and I carried on my way. When I got to work rumours were flying around everywhere about what had happened and the most ridiculous and far fetched of these turned out to be the truth.

A man had murdered someone in Christchurch and bolted over Arthurs Pass. He then picked up two female hitchhikers in Whataroa on his way down the West Coast. He stabbed one girl in the neck and the other had a broken pelvis which I'm guessing happened when he pushed them out of the moving car just outside Franz Josef clinic. Yes that actually happened! In Franz Josef where people leave the houses and cars unlocked! It was the most shocking thing I've heard since I left home!

Now the West Coast is one of those places where you ask your neighbour for news rather than on news websites. Hamish has a radio for his helicopter pilot duties so he was listening to the police radio and was keeping us updated whilst he was DJing. The police found and pursued the man south of Fox Glacier and cornered him. He then poured petrol around his car leaving him with a stand off with the police. They eventually arrested him and he is now in prison.

It was absolutely mental and the whole town was talking about it for weeks. Thankfully both girls were ok and it seems the hitchhiker culture hasn't been affected too much.

Beer pong

Now back to more drunken antics. At the end of March I moved house again. Now that Tony and Miesha had gone there was only Gavin and I in our house so when Gavin moved to the Compound, Oscar asked me to move in to the other staff house. The one that I wanted to move into way back when I moved the first time.

Of course any excuse for a drink we decided to make a night of it and call it a housewarming. We started out playing beer pong on the pool table and then we moved into my room to play ring of fire. Raili got the king cup twice and she wasn't happy at all because she was on breakfast the next day. Needless to say she was an hour late!

Ring of fire

That's another month gone! People are leaving as numbers are dropping and it'll be my leaving do in 4 weeks time!