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Spending nearly 2 months working in a kiwifruit packhouse with some amazing people that include ngapuhi Maoris (they are mean as) I was ready to head south to Queenstown to catch up with some travelling friends , go skiing and let loose for a while. My last day at kerifresh was one I won't forget my Maori friends cooked me a traditional
hangi lunch, seafood chowder, deep fried Maori bread and kiwifruit pavlova. I was given a bone carving necklace meaning 2 cultures bonded together for eternity, tee shirt, cards and little gifts followed by plenty of drinks after work.
It was sad to say see ya later to these people who
became my whanau ( family) but I had to go have fun and get on the mountains for some skiing. Arriving into queenstown airport it was evident they were still waiting for the snow to arrive so the ski fields could finally be opened. Staying at nomads, I left my bags in storage ( as it was too early to check
in) and went to visit a travel buddy at the lab hostel.
A pub lunch followed drinks all afternoon then we hit the bar crawl. Drinking in queenstown is almost as extreme as doing bungy, skydives and snowboarding. Hitting bars like Winnies, the boiler room, fraser's and the world bar ( not my favourite) gets you into a drunken state very quickly. The next day I was heading to wanaka to stay with a friend ( who later turned out not to be a true friend I thought she was). Wanaka sits pretty with mt Aspiring, sitting proud at the end of the Lake. Not as extreme as it's grand neighbour but I did promise I would come and visit. So I met her housemates both from England and not really approachable so my friend said I could borrow her laptop and watch episodes of House and Glee I had missed so I spent my time doing this and walking round wanaka. After being there for 4 days my mind was screaming Get back to queenstown. 2 days after, her housemates texted her to ask when I was leaving. From that moment, I planned to go back to queenstown. I did finally 4 days later. My last night in Wanaka, we did nothing, we had plans to get tattoos, go to zumba, ski cardrona none of this happened and I left feeling disappointed and her housemates asked me to pay 1/3 of their power bill.I didn't she asked me to stay for free. She dropped me at the isite to get the bus back. Arriving into queenstown to say I was deliriously happy and ecstatic was an understatement. Staying at southern laughter hostel, I was back playing drinking games with a group of Aussie guys and ended the night in the buffalo club.
Ice skating then getting a fergburger, a queenstown institution, waiting an hour to get a burger was worth the wait. Most nights friends from kerikeri, Auckland and Blenheim would be out drinking and socialising. Skiing is what I really wanted to do so hitting the rental shop green toad and nzski centre to get a day pass for coronet peak and the remarks I went and had fun. A travel friend and I did the remarks on a very windy day but we had a good day skiing and did night skiing at coronet. The sunset over the mountains was stunning. As night drew in the slopes were lit with minimal lights, music played and the snow blowers were on full covering you in the face when you skiied past. More drinking ensued and the bank balance was completely destroyed so too was my liver and I think everyone elses.This was the downfall of our friendship because I had too much fun. The housemates sent texts saying I was non existent and selfish. None of this came from my friend, so after 4 years, our friendship dissolved faster than the snow when it finally arrived. Work was hard to find if you were not a chef and
with up and coming travel plans I had to act and knew only one place where I could get work: kerikeri. Some friends were not happy with me leaving but it was the only solution to make some dollars. An 8 hour bus ride with lunch at Lake Tekapo on a beautiful day made the journey to Christchurch airport bearable. Arriving late afternoon into chch I needed to get some cash from an ATM and with the cbd fenced off due to the devastation and demolition from februarys earthquake, what I saw was immensely sad churches ripped out , buildings half destroyed so my only solution to get money was the casino. The kind people in there let me put my bags down while I went to the cashier. I had an hour to get my flight to Auckland.
Back in the city of sails one more time, I stayed 2 nights at Nomads Auckland and left Wednesday am to travel back to kerikeri and hideaway lodge. My roomate dani needed work too, so we drove to another packhouse and got work to start the next day. I had only been back 2 hours. Queenstown was a blast but it destroyed a friendship, my liver and bank balance. Christchurch was devastating. So I'm working in kerikeri again it's not as fun as kerifresh and the people aren't as nice the ones I left behind but i'm heading across the 'ditch' to Melbourne and Sydney to see other friends, I guess a new chapter has begun, I miss queenstown for all sorts of reasons but being back in keri it was the right thing to do. Having travelled new Zealand 2 x before I feel I have seen most of the places I wanted to see. But damn it's a been a great ride though :-)
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