Time Flew...

As if it's September already! I swear it was only April a minute ago...

Yesterday was the first day of Spring, and it easily feels like it right now. It's been a strange sort of winter, with the snow very late to arrive. Now it looks like it might be pretty early to leave too - so it seems my first snow season here has been short, but damn it was sweet! Normally it might snow in town to lake level once, a rare occurrence - this year it happened three times in the space of six weeks. This meant great snow conditions up the mountain but pretty much made life in town hellish. The novelty value of 30cm of snow is significant, but jesus christ does it make practical day to day living an absolute nightmare.

On the work front, things become very difficult with flights cancelled and customers ill prepared for driving in these sorts of conditions (apparently my job as cs should also mean that I can predict the weather - all too often stingy customers don't want to pay $25 for the privilege of carrying precautionary snow chains and it's obviously my fault for telling them it probably won't snow in town, but it might...), and availability up the left due to cars being abandoned, stuck or damaged in the snow. FUN.

Anyway, the last 2 weeks or so have really started to feel mild, and now I'm worried that the snow won't last much longer. I have been using my season pass, but I fully realise now that for me to have properly taken to snowboarding, I would need much more time off during the daytime to get up there - our night groomers have it well sussed. It honestly doesn't bother me too much - I didn't loose any money on my pass, and I have had a total blast up the mountain. I'm just happy to have been getting up and having a laugh, and to be fair I think considering I didn't get much spare time up there, I've been doing pretty well! On the plus side, I CANNOT WAIT FOR SUMMER NOW. I am truly sick of the cold in Fernhill. I can fully cope with it, I just can't be fucking bothered any more!

JUCY finally saw sense and gave me a senior customer service role. JK! But seriously though, I have now officially got a bit more responsibility in work which is cool - even better, I have now also officially got a visa. I'm all good until August next year now - technically this means that in some ways the February Earthquake worked out in my favour, as I pretty much got the last six months for free on my interim visa. Silver linings and all that, I suppose...

One thing that I have been letting get to me is the steady stream of friends leaving town. It's something that comes as part of living in Queenstown, or I'm guessing any resort town. Nothing really softens the blow when it comes time to see off another good buddy on their way out, especially when you don't know when, how or even if you'll get to see them again. It started pretty much as soon as I arrived back in town, beginning with the 128b boys. First Tris, then Bob, then Tom. Then Kev, Carla & Emily, Craig and Tommy amongst others. It's pretty emotionally exhausting, I seriously sometimes feel like it's too much hassle to make the effort with new friends here, inevitably you find that just as you are getting close to people they move on. It's hard. I suppose it's just the nature of the town. Suck it up, Carolyn, and dry yer eyes!

Rugby World Cup Season pretty much starts now - the Irish team arrived at Queenstown Aiport yesterday, which was AWESOME! Got photos with some of the lads, had a bit of a sing song, generally got very excited indeed. The Irish team, arriving in NZ, but into the town I live in, into my place of work! Won't lie, I nearly pissed myself with happiness. It won't be long now until Victoria gets here, can't wait for a catch up boozathon.


Other things of note:

• Lochy Rd - OH!
• All day, every day, still. My arse is well and truly kicked. HOW!?
  
• Shaka :(
• Tommy's leaving party mayhem - draughty night in my room.
• Blanket fluff gets everywhere.
• Don't ever try and fly out of Queenstown in winter if you are actually hopeful of getting somewhere. Especially not with JetStar.
  

Oh, hai Queenstown! Lolz...

This week I arrived back in Queenstown for the foreseeable future. Christchurch, it turns out, totally grew on me to the point that I could have happily stayed on. We've come through a lot, me and the city - the people and the place.

No need to wax lyrical, suffice to say that February 22nd was just intense. I don't think you can experience something like that and not feel like the city is a part of you, and you a part of it. One of the things that really struck me most about the whole thing was during the Hagley Park memorial service, when John Key was talking about the terrible loss of life at the language school in the CTV building - a huge number of those who were killed were foreign nationals, and the words he spoke really struck a chord with me. If I had been unlucky enough to be one of those who didn't survive the day, I'd like to think that my family could have drawn some comfort from them. Here is an excerpt;

"Above all we remember those who lives were abruptly taken because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There is no justification for their deaths.

No fairness for why it should have been them.

Instead we must join their families and loved ones in remembering the lives that were lost.

They came from all walks of life and were mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters and brothers.

Many were foreign students who had chosen to pursue their education and dreams here.

Some were travellers.

They were only visiting for a short time.

New Zealanders have come to know many of the stories behind the names of the dead.

We mourn their loss and our hearts in particular go out to their children, spouses, parents, friends and families.

I know there are many of you here today.

We do not know your pain as you do, but your experience haunts us.

I can only say to you that New Zealand is here for you, and we hold you in our hearts.

We are conscious that we are united in our loss with families in more than 20 countries whose fate was to have a loved one far, far from home at the time the earthquake struck.

We say to those families that we embrace them as part of the wider New Zealand community.

Your family members have become part of the story of this city, and of this country, and we will remember your loved ones as we will remember our own."

Anyway. I found a place in Christchurch, much more so than I ever expected, and made a lot of friends I will miss a lot. But there was always a plan, and the opportunity came up, so here I am in Queenstown!

I have organised my season pass for the Queenstown mountains, and am fully ready to get amongst it. This winter should be a belter!

Other things of note:

• Now the proud owner of an ex-JUCY 1999 Nissan Sunny. Big Love, CHR.
• Double fun, doubly.
• Last time catch up drinks are not the same when fuelled by Fanta alone.
• Moved in to Cote du Lac with the girls. Communal nail polish FTW haha!

Casual Racism in New Zealand

I'm not going to go into this in much detail - maybe I will at a later date. But in the past few weeks I have heard some people I am otherwise quite fond of make some pretty hateful throwaway comments...

Example: during a chat about being out in Town dancing, one girl said something along the lines of "OMG I hate it when those random Indian boys come over and try dancing with you like this (mimics crap dancing)!!!! I always try and find the nearest white guy and I'll be like 'Please, pretend you know me...'"

I was so exasperated by this that I didn't have the energy to ask her why she felt this way. I am discovering that this is a pretty common attitude in Christchurch. I don't really know much about how it was in Auckland - save for one or two comments from some drunk teenage metallers in the park, and a party that turned a bit sour, I didn't really encounter any obvious racism of this kind, and both of those incidents occurred while I was hanging about with my almost exclusively Indian friends.

The thing that made me feel so queasy about yesterday's comment was that it was made by a white person, to other white people, in a jocular "Us v. Them" kind of a way - I was expected to agree and giggle along. And as much as I can't really judge because I really ought to have said something, giggle along they did.

It's on the radio, too. A couple of presenters on a well known national music radio channel were talking about the whole Top Gear v. Mexicans 'thing' yesterday while I was driving the JUCY pickup van - you know, the whole comparing a Mexican made car to Mexican people and deciding both are lazy, overweight etc etc. Well, didn't the presenter, with no hint of shame whatsoever, come firmly down on the side of Top Gear because they are 'bloody hilarious'?

Maybe I am being too judgmental of NZ as a whole off the back of a few comments by individuals, but it feels like an in-joke I'm meant to be in on. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of bad taste humour, but there's a level of insight missing here sometimes that starts to feel fucking nasty.

Not keen, New Zealand. Not Keen.


Other things of note:

• Have moved house - in a brilliant house near work with huge high ceilings and amazing windows in the middle of a paddock. Complete with a Marion and her bull-mastiff, Shaka.
• Went down to ZQN to visit the other week, brilliant fun. Misc. bruises and bad behaviour ahoy. Looking forward to Winter!
• Out of date Red Bull shots. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
• Thinking about buying a car...

Yeah, You Shook Me All Night Long...

Well, actually, all day. Alarm goes off at 6am, 6.03am I'm standing in the bathroom having just flushed the loo. You know in some places, you can hear some water pump working to refill the cistern, that sort of rumbly, whirry sound? Almost like an insinkerator? Well, I'm standing in front of the sink thinking, 'It never made that noise before...', when the house starts rumbling. Everything is moving, the light is swinging, and it just keeps going. 15 seconds later, and I have come out the other side of my first earthquake.

At 5.1, it was substantial enough - were it not for the Big One in September past, this would have been a fairly major sort of seismic event, newsworthy in it's own right. It was big enough to have it's own little subset of aftershocks all throughout the day - most of which I missed as I was walking about, others big enough to really give to office a good rattle. As it was, this is still technically just one of many aftershocks following September 4th. Apparently, the eighth biggest.

I have become a bit of a GeoNet fan, it is constantly open in a tab in my browser. It's nice to know what the earth beneath you is up to!

Other things of note:

- Really, really, really need to get paid.
- Really, really, reaaaaally need to get my Work Permit application in.
- Really, really, reaaaaaaaaallllly want to be in ZQN.


(And I miss you.)

Oh, Whoops There... Anyway, Commence NZ Phase II

True to form, I have been very, very bad at keeping this anywhere near what might resemble 'up-to-date'. For that, I am truly apologetic. I'm not even going to try to fill in the gaps since the last time I posted, it feels like a different lifetime.

Instead, I'll try and string a few thoughts together on how I feel about where I am now. This is easier said than done, as I really don't know for sure to begin with...

I went home to Belfast to visit last month, from the start of December right through to just after New Year. It was, to say the very least, odd to be back. My parents and sister were at the airport to welcome me back, and it was truly overwhelming to see them after nearly two years away. On arriving back in Moneyrea, I went up to see the new house they are working on, and Purry Mason was there - oh, man, I missed my kitty cuddles! After the haul over from Auckland, I was pretty wrecked, and I found this one of my more difficult bouts of jetlag. All the same, it was good to be back - on my first walk though town, I had this dirty great big grin on my face. I tried hard not to; you know you get some funny looks when you look happy whilst alone?

The first re-meeting with an old friend is always super exciting, so much to catch up on, old familiar rhythms of conversation to fall into... Getting back into synch with Belfast didn't take long. When I think of the trip, it feels like it's divided in two - the first 3 weeks or so, right up until the week before New Year I suppose, and the last chunk. This is largely to do with the fact that a number of family members died in quick succession - my Great Aunt Pat, my Grandad and then Purry Mason. And yes, cat = family.

This contributed a great deal to the diminishment of my sense of excitement at being back home. In fact, I got a bit reflective and introspective and really began to question where home is for me. Physically, it's just not Moneyrea, or Belfast any more. Of course, my family are always 'home' to me, but I can't help but feel like I don't belong there anymore, and it doesn't belong to me. By the same token, I also don't belong to NZ, nor it to me. This instills a very deep seeded, uneasy sort of feeling in me - limboish, sort of. At the same time, I feel like here in NZ is where I need to be - I am definitely not finished here yet!

It was hard to leave Belfast again, all the same. I reinforced some old friendships, while at the same time I felt forced to leave some behind that didn't live up to my expectations. Living so far away is kind of an acid test for these sorts of things...

I'm now totally focused on what is next for me here. I have already made the move from Auckland to Christchurch, but the eventual goal is to end up back in Queenstown - a place I felt pretty much instantly connected to more than any other place here. I made some really good friends there, and I am stupidly impatient to get back over. Unfortunately, I don't know when I'm going to make it just yet, as no-one seems to be able to tell me how long I'll be needed to work here in Chc. As long as its sooner rather than later. Now I've got a solid goal - a good friend is arriving in Queenstown on June 8th, largely after I encouraged him to take up his Working Holiday Visa. I'm delighted he is coming, it's going to be amazing to have him here and I'm looking forward to getting some season passes for the mountain and getting into boarding! I have to get there in time to get us a place sorted out. I'd leave here in a heartbeat if I could - no offense Christchurch, but my heart belongs elsewhere!

Other things of note:

- Last night in Aucks incl. party, dancing, S + M (hahaha not quite what it seems...)
- My Homeboys
- Linwood with J, S and the hens
- EPIC journey back from Belfast - 4 flights, 5 airports, 3 days (BFS-LGW-LHR-SIN-MLB-AKL)
- Amazon Kindle, genius.
- Some friends, you can kiss and feel OK about it. Others, you can't.
- Manuka Honey flavoured 42 Below Vodka. Waoow!