Wanaka... My Amazing New Home

I arrived in Wanaka on Sunday 24/04/2011, to start my new job on Monday the 25th. The backpackers was small but nice, and Steve, the owner seemed like he'd be a pretty good boss. My room-mate, the weekend manager (Barbara from Ontario, Canada), seemed really lovely too.

I settled in and started work the next day. It was the most 'cushty' job I'd ever had. Literally just sitting on reception between 5pm and 9pm, watching TV / reading a book, and occasionally dealing with a check-in / request from a guest. This was sweeeet! 5 days per week. But the catch (which would prove to be very annoying) was that I had to stay on the premises all night long to act as 'fire marshall'. Should the smoke alarm go off (which it frequently does), I had to be there to turn ot off. So my social life revolved around the people in the hostel. But that was ok - I made some great friends, and we frequently had fun nights in the hostel.

Wanaka has proved to be amazing. It's very small, completely encircled by mountains, and situated next to a huge lake. It doesn't have any of the commercial fast food chains that can make a place feel generic... no McDonalds. No Starbucks. No Burger King. It's refreshing. The town has about 4,000 people residing in it, which aparently goes up to 15,000 people once the winter hits. It's going to be an epic season. I reeeeally can't wait!!!!

Wanaka : )

Wanaka has some amazing walks. I have to be truthful and state that I'm yet to experience most of them, but I'm here for the long-term, so why exhaust them all now? I'll be here in the summer too, so I think I'll do them then. Yup, that's right... I plan to spend at least 6 months here, in sleepy Wanaka, Queenstown's little sister. Talking of Quenstown, I went over there a couple of weeks ago to have a bit of fun... see the video below =D

Back to Wanaka... The plan was to potentially stay at the hostel for the season. But then I found out that the hostel was being rented out to a Korean ski team for the season. I would still be able to work, but it wouldn't have the variety that attracts me to working in a hostel. I like meeting new people every day. I like chatting to them and helping them find new places. I have no doubt that the Koreans would be lovely - but it just wasn't the 'ski season' experience that I craved. I figured out that I want to live in a house. With friends. And have friends over whenever I want. And go out in the evenings. And chill out on the sofa with friends after a hard day on the slopes. And have my own bedroom. This was the Wanaka experience that I wanted. So I was going to set out to achieve it.

I set about revising my CV. I managed to get it down to 1 page, highlighting my hospitality experience. I went to university for 5 years, graduating with a First Class honours degree and a good Masters degree. But none of this matters here. Management skills don't get you work... it's all about how well you can pull a pint or clean a bathroom. But I do have good customer service skills. And I did used to work in a bar... about 10 years ago... ;p

So I set about hunting for a job, along with hundreds of other people who had arrived for the season. The constant replies of 'we're not accepting CVs at the moment - come back in a month' was getting tiresome. Once the season starts, there'll be jobs... but at the moment, they just weren't hiring. Whenever I'd meet someone, the first thing we'd discuss was how the job hunt was going. It was getting rather uninspiring.

I'd met an awesome guy called James at the hostel, and his friend, Liam, was in Wanaka too. I then met a lovely girl called Hayley, introduced her to James and Liam, and they decided to get a house together. They tried to talk me into living with them too, but without a job, I'd be stupid to give up my free accommodation.

L-R: Hayley, Liam and James (at Fergburger, Queenstown)

  

The 4 of us (and Benny)... at the cinema! 

They looked for a house together, and then the most amazing thing happened... I got a job. It's at a cafe that was to be opening in a few weeks time. Persistence paid off!! I was over the moon. So now I needed to find a house, as I couldn't work at both the cafe and the hostel. So I joined the other 3, to make up an awesome mix for a house - 2 girls and 2 boys, all in our mid to late 20s. So we had the housemates... now we just needed the house. This was to prove to be difficult, as Wanaka has an abundence of 3 bedroom houses, but very few 4 bedroom ones. And they weren't willing to just do a 6 month lease.

We looked at lots and lots of houses. Got excited about some, and disgusted by others. But when we'd apply to live in them, the response was always that we needed to sign up for a longer lease. Grrrrrrr! Then we looked at one, and it was perfect. Everything about it was perfect. It didn't feel that cold inside. I should explain a Kiwi phenominon here... they don't have central heating in their homes. Central heating, radiators and insulation are completely foreign concepts to New Zealanders. Instead, every home has a woodburner which heats the entire home - you just leave all of the doors open. Or you have a heatpump in the main living room. One or the other. Winter is aparently very cold in a Kiwi home!! So when this house had double glazing and felt warm, it was an instant winner. And it was beautiful inside. Unfurnished, so we'd have to supply our own furniture, but beautiful. The kitchen and living room was huge. And it had a huge balcony off the lounge with the most beautiful view of the mountains I'd seen. It was perfect. And affordable. But someone else had just put in an application for it, and they all had jobs. What hope did we have? But we put an application in all the same, and hoped for the best. Visualising living there every day.

The day before yesterday, Hayley got a phone call... we'd got the house! Aparently the other group were all boys, and the owner preferred the fact that we were 2 guys and 2 girls. We were so so so so so happy. Completely over the moon. So we signed the agreement yesterday, handed in our bond and rent money today, and are moving into the house tomorrow. Life is sweet.
So tomorrow's a busy day - we're moving into the new house, AND it's the first proper day at my new job!! I've actually been offered 2 more jobs yesterday and today at different places, but my cafe is so amazing, I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. It's exactly the type of place I'd hoped to work. And it's finally opening tomorrow! I did a bit of barista (coffee making) training yesterday, a bit of last minute cleaning and decorating today, and tomorrow is the real thing! 7.30am start! It' all happening for me, and I'm in a really happy place. Good friends, an awesome job with great coworkers, an amazing house... I love Wanaka, and can't believe I'm lucky enough to actually be able to call it my home. Just one thing's missing: bring on the snow!!!

The Kepler Track Tramp

18/04/2011 - 20/04/2011

I finally set off to start the Kepler Track tramp at midday - a fair few hours later than I'd hoped. But I had to wash my clothes, book my hut tickets and sort out transport to and from the track ends. As I was running so late, I decided to get a water taxi to the first hut, to miss out the first half hour or so of the walk. It was just a flat hike, and I figred it wouldn't really matter if I missed it out!

I walked it from left to right, missing out the first bit of flat...

The water taxi dropped me off at the first hut (at the base of the mountain) at about 12.30pm, and started the uphill climb to the hut that I'd be staying at that night. It was really quite a steep and relentless climb!

Water taxi

 

Thankfully it was mostly below the bushline, as it meant that I wasn't really affected by the rain that was POURING down from above, which drenched me to the bone with painful (yes, painful!) rain for the last 45 minutes, once I'd got above the bushline. I really need to get a waterproof jacket that's actually waterproof!

 

Pure joy at seeing Mt Luxmore Hut (1085m altitude) at the end of the first day

I arrived st the hut, sodden through, and very very cold. I stripped off my 'waterproof' gear, and ran upstairs to get dry and change into some dry clothes. It was a really great hut - really big! I went downstairs and saw the couple that I'd met the day before on the shuttlebus from Queenstown. I met some other cool people who I played cards with. The DOC officer was very creepy. I mean seriously creepy - he was making extremely inappropriate comments towards me, making me feel VERY uncomfortable. DOC rangers do generally seem to be older men who are somewhat lacking in people skills, I have to say. But some are really lovely!

My bunk in Mt Luxemore Hut

That night was pretty cold! But I awoke to a nice sunny day - woohoo! The view was completely different to that which I'd experienced the previous day. So there was actually a lake down there? Who'd have thought??!!

The morning sun rising over Lake Te Anau

As I was walking, I looked up and saw the summit of a muntain... and I could just make out that there were people up there. I thought 'I want to be up there!' - so I when I got up closer, I left my backpack on the track and me and an American guy, Ryan, made a side trip up to the summit. We were rewardid by amazing views! 

At the summit of Mt. Luxmore

We went back down to the track, and continued on. It was just the most amazing day - perfect weather - you could see for miles and miles and miles.

I saw a big rock jutting out from the track, and so set my camera up on 'self timer', to take a few photos. It was a bit precarious getting up there... if I slipped, I would've fallen off the mountain, so I really should have taken my backpack off before climbing up there. And, as you'll see from the photos below, I should have set my self timer to allow me a little longer to get up there too!!

Climbing up... and... I made it!! :)

I tried again without my bag - a bit more successful!

The track wound around the mountain sides, and then followed over the mountain ridges for a few hours. This meant that, on this glorious day, you had unobstructed views of the spectacular beauty surrounding you. On a bad day, however, I can imagine that the experience is somewhat different, with the wind threatening to blow you off the mountain ridges in either direction!! The ranger at the the hut that night said that sometimes people actually get down on their hands and knees and crawl the whole way (with their big heavy backpacks on!) because they are so scared!

I am happy to report that I was about as far from 'scared' as I could possibly be. In fact, I was absolutely elated to be alive. I couldn't stop grinning at the fact that I was there - so lucky to be experiencing this epic place on such a perfect day. I stopped for about half an hour, sitting on a small rock jutting out from the ridge, at a spot that I deemed my 'happy place', because it literally did just make me rediculously happy. I even felt the need to get my journal out and write in it just there and then, to proclaim just how amazing I was feeling.

Jackson Peaks

Walking along part of the mountain ridges.

Happy =D (and accidentally zoomed in...)

South Arm of Lake Te Anau in background (my 'happy place')

Jackson Peaks (again) - Mirai finally came out again!

Lake Te Anau (again)

I carried on, walking around on top of the mountain ranges, loving every second of it. New Zealand is always beautiful, but I felt that this was the most beautiful I'd seen it. Or maybe there was just great energy there, which made me even happier. I carried on around the side of the mountain, along the ridges. Just me and my backpack... =D

Lake Te Anau

After descending for a few kilometers, I saw a side-trip going up to a look-out point. So I thought, why not? But then I realised that I'd lost my hat. Booo! It must have fallen off my belt-clip when I took my backpack off... but that was about 45 minutes before, and I'd been descending steeply since that point... I wasn't going to go back for it! I felt bad that I may have littered on the mountain, but I was sure that someone would pick it up. No-one had found it whan I asked them about it at the hut that night, but maybe they'd found it the next day. I hope so, anyway...

At the look-out

I set up the self-timer, and had a bit of a 'photo shoot' on top of the mountain!! Haha ;p

After rejoining the track, it was just really steep descent down to the next hut. Zig-zagging down through the bush on such a steep track really started to hurt my knees, bit it was still beautiful.

What looks like snow in these pictures is actually just the sunlight reflecting off the leaves!

Wilbert!!

I'm not sure what these are, but they're very strange, growing half way up a tree...

I arrived at the Iris Hut, after taking a 40 minute side-trip to a waterfall. The next day I was chatting with some guys, and they told me that they'd walked this track later in the night and had managed to spot a kiwi!!! I was flabagasted!! I thought kiwis were a myth! I was extremely jealous... I'd really really really love to see a kiwi bird!!

The night I spent in the Iris Burn Hut was great - I met some more great people! It was a family from NZ, who were all tramping together - grandad included. One of the ladies offered for me to go and help them muster (gather up sheep on horse-back) sometime, which I'm fully intending to take her up on!!

My new friends inside Iris Burn Hut (497m altitude), and sunrise the next morning.

The next day's walking was pretty much flat, with just a few hills to climb. I walked pretty fast, as I wanted to make sure that I could catch the early shuttle back to Te Anau (3pm), as I'd booked a spot on the 5pm shuttle. I managed it with plenty of time to spare :)

This tree was shaped like a rhino!!

A carpet of moss :)

Back down at sea level

At the end of the tramp

I was really sad that the tramp was over. It had been a phenominal 3 days, and I'd met some really lovely people, and been in quite possibly the most beautiful setting of my life. I'd have to say that, of all the tramps that I've done in New Zealand (the Heaphy, Kepler, Routeburn, Abel Tasman,  Queen Charlotte, Tongariro Crossing) that the Kepler was the most spectacular - the one that had made me feel the most alive. I have no doubt that the weather contributed to this massively... it would have been a completely different experience if I was having to hide my face from the wind and the rain, if the cloud cover had've affected the views, or if I hadn't met such wonderful people. But it was perfect weather. I did have amazing views. And I did meet wonderful people. And I thank Lorraine and Trevor (whom I met whilst travelling the East Cape, and then saw them again on the Routeburn track) for suggesting that I tramp the Kepler Track. It was definitely an epic experience =D