Hi, everyone! Last week was a good one. Birthday parties, charity fundraisers, and a trip up to the summit of a mountain with friends. Read on!

Juanito’s Birthday

Juanito had a birthday party on Monday night. After work, Jasper and I got ready and drove over to his place. Similarly to our recent staff party at Cowboy’s, it was nice for everyone to spend time together outside work.

There were plenty of snacks and, my fave, empanadas! I think Ian made them.

I’ve mentioned it before, but Juanito has such a nice home. A super welcoming place and lots of space for people to hang out.

There was a certain moment that I alluded to last week where Jasper, Yvonne, Abby, and I were all dancing together. Jasper’s song Na Na Na came on and we were all just doing our thing – being together, laughing, dancing. I had to stop to snap a couple of pictures because it was just like. Wow. This is one of the last times we will all be together like this since Abby is leaving soon. A very melancholy feeling and yet it was a beautiful time. I’m glad we all met, became friends, and have shared the memories that we have.

ANYWAYYYY, not to steal Juanito’s thunder haha.

We spent the night dancing, having fun, chatting, and celebrating Juanito. It was so gracious of him to open up his home to probably forty people haha. He sure knows how to throw a party! Feliz cumpleaños, Juanito!

Cure Kids Quiz Night

Cure Kids Quiz Night has been on the work agenda for ages now – so it was wild that it finally came to fruition. Jen and I had been busy working on silent and live auction lists, posters, sorting out the prizes, etc. After lunch on Friday, we headed over to the Memorial Hall to start decorating.

Quiz Night is an annual fundraiser that Novotel (and specifically our GM) has been putting together for the last 16 years. Last year, they raised $75,000 for Cure Kids, which is an organization specializing in kid’s disease research. They are the organization that discovered what Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is, and during the covid pandemic, they provided a lot of medical equipment to people in need. Amazing!

The night was extremely busy, but went by fast. After decorating, we got a briefing from our GM and before we knew it, people started flooding in.

The night was a special one because our GM is moving to Fiji in a few weeks so this was potentially his very last Quiz Night. He is the one who organized the Quiz Nights every year.

Oh, we also had a super special guest star – Shaun Wallace of The Chase which is this trivia show. V cool!
AND the Quiz Night was “Party in the USA” themed – so lots of people dressed in American Flags, Trump hats, etc. It was funny to be celebrating 4th of July… in New Zealand.

We also had ANOTHER surprise guest! JOSH came in from Christchurch for the event. He was ridiculous as always.

My main objective of the night was to act as photographer, but I had some other duties as well. I paired with Jen throughout the night to collect payment and give out raffle tickets. And at the end of the night, we sat at our laptops as people came to pay for the silent auction items they’d won. Some people got really crazy! There was one item in particular that people went crazy over and they were actually fighting over who won it haha. Someone tried to get rude with me and Jen told them we would be sorting it on Monday, since everyone was a little drunk and being slightly hysterical.

At one point, Jen remarked how she was amazed by how quickly we got the silent auction payments done. Apparently, it usually takes forever. She said it was ’cause I was there. So sweet!

Finally, the crowds had cleared out. After taking down the balloons and posters, it was time to go. Jen, Josh, and I went back to the hotel to drop off some things and get a rough idea of what amount we raised. It was somewhere over $60,000 which is incredible!

It was around midnight at this point. They were going to Ballarat for a drink and I decided I’d go for a little while but after walking in and being bombarded by live music and drunk people, I decided… NOPE, time to go home! I quietly told Jen I’d had enough haha and I was going home. We hugged and parted ways. It had been a long day.

If interested, consider reading more about Cure Kids!

Coronet Peak

Abby, Yvonne, Jasper, and I had plans to go on an adventure on Saturday. We had a couple of options. Lake Alta (finally?), Skippers Canyon, Roy’s Peak, or… something else, maybe?

Abby and Yvonne were worried Roy’s Peak would be a little too tough for them, which was a bummer because it would have been cool to go there together.

After some research, we discovered Lake Alta is notoriously hard to get to in the wintertime. You have to pass through skiers on the skifield and there is a lot of snow – making the hike difficult. It was not advisable.

Our brilliant Abby came up with an alternative solution. Why not go up to Coronet Peak? It was a $30 return bus fare and then $40 to take the gondola up to access the Coronet Peak summit. Hmm.. why not?

I had really wanted to go with Abby to experience snow up close for the first time, so this seemed like a perfect option. The lovely Tiago ended up joining us as well.

The five of us met up around 10.45am and went to the bus stop. There was a bus there, but it had signs to Mt. Cook so we dismissed it. Around 11am, Jasper said, “wait… what if that is our bus, actually? It’s 11am?” Sure enough, it was. But they said they were full! We were like, ummmmmmm we pre-booked this yesterday, so why is it full?

They ended up organizing another bus for us (as well as some other stragglers who had tickets). Crazy, though – how could they allow more people to book than there are seats available? Annoying.

Anyway. We got on the bus and began our journey to Coronet Peak.

I had never been to Coronet Peak before and to be honest, I never thought I would make my way there. I always viewed it as a ski field and not really a place to go explore.

The views on the way up were lovely. To see The Remarkables across the valley and then the view of Coronet Peak with all the snow as we began our ascent was cool. Yay!

When the bus arrived, Abby ran over to the snow and touched it. We spent some time watching her admire the snow. For the first time in her life, she was properly seeing snow! It was really cute to see. As someone from a place where it is very cold and snowy in the winter, I have experienced enough snow for a lifetime haha. It’s interesting to keep in perspective that some people have never seen snow in their lives.

We had a few mini snowball fights, walked around the base of the ski field, and then stopped for snacks. After eating, someone let us use their sled for a few sledding rounds and then we got tickets on the gondola to get up to the summit of Coronet Peak. The gondola was VERY fast at some points. We were all screaming and making funny noises, cracking each other up. A rambunctious group, that’s for sure.

After the gondola dropped us off, we stopped at a small viewpoint with a boardwalk. We took some pictures, admired the view, and then had a ten minute hike up to the summit.

The hike was STEEP and slippery, covered in snow and icy patches. Luckily, we had guardrails to hold on to for support. Some of us didn’t need to use them (looking at you, Tiago!)

Of course, we paused for photo ops.

And then we were at the peak. Aotearoa New Zealand continues to amaze me. Everywhere I go: beauty. It is maybe the most photographic, beautiful country I’ve ever been to in my life. Sigh.

(I’m sorry but the photo of Tiago and me is maybe the coolest photo I’ve ever participated in.)

The thing that I loved most about the summit was that we were able to see the OTHER side of the mountains. It seemed to be an endless range of mountains, reaching out to the horizon. So, so many snow-covered peaks, stretching out further, further, further. Absolutely beautiful. If you’ll remember, this was also my favorite thing about the Ben Lomond summit as well. The perspective is just incredible.

So many photos but it was A+ up there. (Our group is also composed of millennials & Gen Z, so… lots of pictures.)

Afterwards, we basically slid down the track. It was steep and slippery, so the best way to navigate was to sit down on our butts and slide down haha. We always have a good time.

We took the gondola back down, then got the bus into town. We decided a warm meal of ramen was in order after a chilly adventure up to Coronet Peak. And after that, we watched a movie on Yvonne’s projector in our room. So cute!

Afterwards, we all kind of went our separate ways for the remainder of the evening. I didn’t do much else the rest of the weekend and ended up calling sick to work early in the week. Lots of people have been getting sick at work, lately. It is certainly doing the rounds.

I am really honored to have been with Abby for her first proper snow. What a First to experience with somebody! It is now just about a week until Abby heads back to Australia. As mentioned before – bittersweet. It will be strange to not have her around, but this is how it goes here in Queenstown. I will be leaving not long after her. And so the cycle continues. Vienen y se van.

Miscellaneous

Just a few minor miscellaneous things.

At Kiwi Park, I learned that the kiwi egg ended up being infertile 🙁 which means no kiwi chicks. Such a bummer – I was looking forward to having a li’l kiwi chick hatching before I left Queenstown! Alas.

And after months and months… I have finished Dawson’s Creek haha. FINALLY! Despite not really being a huge fan of Dawson himself – I loved the show and I am mostly happy with the ending. SPOILER ALERT – could have done without Jen dying, but alas. In some ways, it makes sense because she was sort of the catalyst of the show in the first episode. Having her “exit” felt apt in some ways. And it was very beautifully done. Gone are the days of shows with 23x hour long episodes a season. I love getting absorbed in a series like that. What will I watch next?!

We had another movie night at the hostel. This one was a Double Feature – Silence of the Lambs followed by Insidious. Love it!

Art of the Week

A piece from Christchurch. This is very subtle, but I have decided to start trying to draw “cracks” in the body – inspired by the earthquakes I’d learned about in Christchurch. I am digging the new theme.

Reflections

What to reflect on?
Going through my list, I have visited nearly all the places I set out to around Queenstown.

These are the ones that are left, and unfortunately, most of them are unlikely.

Roy’s Peak
Earnslaw Burn
Milford Track
Lake Alta
Doubtful Sound
Skipper’s Canyon

Earnslaw Burn is a six hour hike one way, which usually involves camping overnight. With avalanches and lots of snow in the winter, it isn’t gonna happen. Same with Lake Alta. And Milford Track is such a process to get to. From Queenstown to Milford Sound, a boat over to start the Milford track and then it’s a multi-day track. Again… not really a winter hike. While I would love to get there, I think it may end up being a Later in Life adventure, when I make a return trip to the South Island… like in my 40s or 50s lol when I’m rich as hell.

The most likely ones that are left are Roy’s Peak (which may be next weekend), a drive to Skipper’s Canyon, and then a boat cruise along Doubtful Sound. I recently reached out to a tour agency to see if I could get a locals discount for Doubtful Sound – hopefully I can go on that puppy soon!

I hope I don’t sound like a broken record, but it is strange to think about the fleeting time that I have left here.

Abby leaves next week. Two weeks after that, Jasper goes on holiday for three weeks. And once he’s back, I basically have three weeks before leaving Queenstown. Wild. As we all know… time is weird.

I am ready for it, though. I need to just save up a little bit more money (as I always seem to be doing) and then I’ll have enough for all the tours/activities I want to do while driving around New Zealand until mid November. Anything extra, I can spend how I’d like (or have as a reserve in case my car falls apart lol. Fingers crossed it does not!)

I think that’s all for now.

Until next time – sending you all my love. xx