Hey, everyone! While I didn’t really do much exploring the past week, it was certainly quite eventful. From birthdays to work parties to movie nights and dinners with friends… it’s been busy!

Winter Staff Party

The main event that everyone at the hostel/work was excited for was our work party. It’s not guaranteed, but typically we have one every June. I was especially excited for this party because I had only been in Queenstown for about a month during our Christmas party. I didn’t really know anyone yet. This time around, I knew everyone.

(Prepare for incoming selfies and photo spam.)

The work party was based off of our front office team reaching their sign-up goals, which is getting guests to sign up for a membership blah blah blah. Thank you, front office team! YOU DID IT! (Little did they know, we would have had a party regardless.)

The work day leading up to the party was super busy. While officially the party started at 5pm, I wanted to keep working until 5.30pm, then stop home to briefly exercise and chill out for a moment before the chaos. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one with that plan in mind. When I arrived at the hostel after work, a lot of people were still getting ready, including Jasper.

I did a quick exercise and then once Jasper was done getting ready, we walked to Cowboys together. Cowboys is the name of the venue where we were having the work party.

Upon our arrival, much of the crowd exclaimed excitedly regarding Jasper’s outfit. Pink Barbie Cowgirl Extraordinary moment for sure. I didn’t get the same reaction from the crowd, but I was only there for the pizza and fries anyway lol.

Shortly after our arrival, the Best Dressed was announced. Cindy, our Breakfast Chef, and Jasper both won. Yahoo! Our GM gave a speech. (Our GM has also just announced he is leaving the Queenstown branch and moving to FIJI! He has worked here for 16 years so it’s pretty crazy.)

Jasper, Yvonne, and I took some pictures but were quickly distracted by… a line dance. One of the Cowboy employees came over to teach a small group of us a choreographed dance. It was super cute. We spent about 15 minutes practicing and by the end of it, we had it pretty much nailed.

Not longer after, karaoke began. Some people were surprisingly good singers. Others, not so much. The most memorable of the night was a drunken Cammy singing very confidently and Jesse singing “Baby Got Back.” Nittsy was very confused when the song started. At first, she thought it was Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda remix haha. No, sweet summer child! Still – the crowd went wild for Jesse’s rendition. It was such a fun moment.

Throughout the night, people played pool, danced, sang, drank, talked, and enjoyed one another’s company outside of work. Occasionally, I would sneak away from the crowds to go vape in the smoking section and have a quieter moment. At one point, I met a guy from New Zealand who has been living in Perth for the past few years. As a former resident of Perth, I bonded with him about the city and Australia in general.

Please note: Yvonne & I are Goth Cowboys.

The main event that I was excited for was… THE MECHANICAL BULL (well… bison). I had never ridden one before and the only other time I went to Cowboys, they weren’t running it. My excitement changed to a slight terror when I saw the first person get thrown off the bison. ‘Maybe I’m too old for this. I don’t want to break my arms,’ I told myself. I walked away. Later, Katy found me and asked if I was going on it. Okay… okay. So I got in line.

Jen was chaperoning the area, making sure it wasn’t getting too crowded. Crowd control lol. Typical Jen.

And then Haruka came barreling through with $10 and paid for me, herself, Renee, and two others to get on the bull haha.

Haruka went. Then Renee went. And then suddenly it was my turn.

I walked up to the swinging doors of the arena and stood there for a moment, looking at the crowd of people before me. As soon as they saw me walk up, they started cheering my name over and over. I’m not kidding hahaha it was kind of hilarious. I played up the moment and slowly walked into the arena, walked AROUND the bison and then hopped up on it.

I secretly hoped I would do a killer job on the bison. I wish I could say I did – but I did not. It was probably like ten seconds, if that.

Still, it was a fun time and I’m glad I did it. Later, Katy showed me a video of her on the bison from a few nights prior. The bull operator had gone much slower with her. I think because the lines were so long, the operator was trying to throw people off faster lol. Or maybe I was just really bad at it – which is very possible.

A little before 10pm, the vibe was dying down. Yvonne, Nittsy, Valeria, some others, and I went over to Silent Disco. While it was fun, unfortunately it was just way too crowded for me. The last thing I want when dancing is to be constantly bumping into people. And that’s exactly what was happening. I stuck around until 11 but then Yvonne and I decided to pull an Irish Goodbye.

All in all, it was a super fun night. While I do spend a lot of time with coworkers at the hostel, it was nice for EVERYONE to be together at Cowboys and to just spend time together. Yee-haw!

Get-Togethers with Friends

Tuesday was Katy’s last day at the hostel. With her visa, she could only work at the hotel for a set number of months and she’d reached her limit. It was a little bittersweet because she is sort of the reason I started practicing Spanish again. Luckily, she hasn’t left Queenstown and is looking for work elsewhere in town. I have already seen her at the hostel since she left. Anyway – on Tuesday, we had a little farewell dinner for her. Nerea made a scrumptious lasagna, since Katy loves lasagna. We spent the evening talking. It is at times a little difficult to understand when many people are talking Spanish at once. I still don’t understand a lot of words – but I continue to try. I practice every day!

Around the farewell dinner, I was working on a drawing, which you all will see further below in this post. Nittsy was working on some drawings, too… of CAPYBARA! She and I constantly send each other capybara memes. She always cracks me up, too. “ABURRIDA!!” she’ll call out about some random thing, which means “boring” in Spanish haha. “Cancelada!!” Which is “cancelled.” What a legend. So glad she is back!

On Thursday, I went over by Josh’s house to have a movie night with him, Liv, and Jack. We all brought snacks and Josh kept our tea cups full. He made me matcha tea which I’m not sure I’ve had before. It was v. good. While we had the intention of watching a movie, it never happened. We were busy catching up on Liv & Jack’s recent holiday to Japan and all sorts of other topics. A lovely evening!

One evening, I walked into the kitchen and was completely shocked to find… LAO! He was back from traveling around the North Island. I had absolutely no idea he was coming back to Queenstown and back to the hotel. It was such a treat to see him again. He ended up doing some farm work up north and was able to extend his visa another few months. He will be here until September, like me.

I am sad to say I have concluded Jasper’s American Iconic Movie Education, with the grand finale being Barbie. I decided since I had the movie downloaded, we could display it on the TV in the kitchen. I sent a message to the group chat and informed the hostel that there would be an 8pm screening of Barbie, if anyone was keen to join. Beforehand, Abby, Yvonne, Jasper and I went for bubble tea. At 8pm, we watched the movie. Also, shout-out to Ian for finding a version with subtitles lol. I think moving forward, we are going to try to do a weekly movie night. We had a pretty solid turnout by the end of the movie. Yvonne had fallen asleep on my shoulder.

The Weekend of Relaxation

While there were plenty of things happening during the week, my weekend was very chill. I needed it. I volunteered at Kiwi Park Saturday morning, but otherwise hung out around the hostel. I took naps on both Saturday AND Sunday, which is unheard of for me. It was amazing!

On Sunday, I went for a walk around town to go check out the art galleries. There are so many galleries here, at least ten in this small little town, and I had yet to enter a single one of them.

Some of the galleries were really cool.

The first gallery I went to was Artbay Gallery. It had this piece called “Edge of Extinction”. I think it was likely my favorite piece of the day. I talked with one of the employees for a few minutes. She asked me if I was a painter. I told her I love to paint, but it’s been a long time and lately I mostly work on… illustrations. Is that what they are? Illustrations? Somehow, that doesn’t seem like the right fit to me.

Later, I went to Cory Marshall Gallery and spoke with Cory about his photography. He told me he goes out hiking once a month to do landscape or astrophotography. He had a photo of the aurora from May 11th which was super neat.

Some galleries were mainly landscape photography, but I was more interested in the paintings. There was one gallery I wanted to check out, but it was closed.

One of my last galleries was Ivan Clarke Gallery. Ivan Clarke does these phenomenal landscapes, but is perhaps better known for his paintings of dogs dressed up as humans. I think I had a smile on my face the whole time I was in there. Adorable!

Afterwards, I mostly just chilled. In the evening was Movie Night at the hostel.

What a weekend! I think it’s exactly what I needed, especially considering I have a four day weekend in Christchurch coming up in a few days.

Miscellaneous

When working at Kiwi Park one time, I was talking with one of the employees about how cool it is that the volunteers have the responsibility to do what they’re allowed to do. He told me, “It’s pretty cool because here, the volunteers are basically Keepers.” Which is true! We get to feed the wildlife, enter the enclosures, etc. It is a pretty special experience. I really love volunteering there. Oh, and did I mention we are getting a takahē soon??? And did I mention one of the kiwi has laid an egg and that it should be hatching mid August before I leave, assuming everything goes well? !!!!!!

I took Goldie to get a car service. $485 later and she’s got a new tire, fluids filled, and more. There are a few other issues that may need to get fixed further down the road but honestly just hoping I won’t have to put any more money into her until I sell her lol. Next owner’s problem???

I received a card from my family which is always super nice. Yay! My nephew is so sweet – “still waiting every day!” for me to come home. Soon, kid!

Jasper made me some soup and rice one evening and Renee made me some sweet treats. Oh, and Daisy came back from the Philippines and gave me some sweets! God, I’m loved.

It was Jen’s birthday on Thursday and so I HAD to design her a god-awful birthday card – with clashing color schemes, spelling errors, and more.

Oh, and I got ANOTHER KIWI PLUSH TOY! The collection keeps growing.

Art of the Week

This is the first drawing I’ve done in a while where I’ve been like… okay, fuck yeah. So happy with it. Inspired by the brief bouts of seasonal depression I was experiencing. Available to purchase on RedBubble as hats, phone cases, shirts, etc. Link to merch is on the sidebar!

P.S. if anyone is familiar with Attack on Titan, the character kind of reminds me of Eren in retrospect.

Reflections

Somewhat related to the car service, I suppose, is that I’ve been feeling better about money stuff this week. As I’m sure you all would have picked up on, I was pretty thrown by the additional expenses of the car service/tire and then the tourist visa situation. Well, I woke up one morning and suddenly I remembered a little trick I used to do back when I was trying to save for Australia. The trick is this – just don’t look at the bank account, because it isn’t going to make the money grow. I think I was checking too frequently. And it doesn’t do me any good. So, that’s definitely been helping!

On the 21st, we had the Winter Solstice here in Aotearoa New Zealand. The darkest day of the year. From here on out, the days will be getting longer. I am ready for more sunshine. It has been super cloudy lately. I haven’t been feeling bummed, though, which is good!

Which leads to… Fiji? Over the past week, I had almost fully convinced myself that I didn’t really want to go to Fiji and that it might make more sense to do the medical stuff instead. The Fiji loophole seemed a little iffy. I just wasn’t sure about it. And plus, I want to spend as much time in this beautiful country as I can before I go. But THEN, I called Immigration today. For the third time. I just wanted to be 100% clear on the situation – on what the Fiji option looks like, what would potentially cause issues in terms of me coming back to New Zealand for the final month before going home.

So here’s what it looks like.

If I go the medical route… I can’t take the medical tests until AFTER I’ve applied for the Tourist Visa – which I can’t do until I finish work. This apparently is a recent change because you used to be able to get the medical before applying, which makes the process go by much faster. It kind of threw a wrench in my plans because I was thinking I could get everything done before leaving Queenstown. In this instance, I would need to really plan to be in Wellington for the tests by a certain date and blah blah blah. So, suddenly it wasn’t feeling as necessary.

In terms of Fiji… The Immigration official told me that it is definitely a valid option. Since I will have left ahead of my 12 months, it is perfectly find to come back to the country on a NZeTA. So I can go to Fiji on October 17th (day before visa expiry), stay a week, and come back to New Zealand on the NZeTA. The reasons for getting denied entry would be if I had criminal convictions or if I didn’t have a flight out of the country, etc. So basically, I’m fine.

I had been comparing the financial costs of these two things. It is basically $1,000 for the medical + tourist visa. And it is… Ehh, $500ish for a round trip to Fiji. I had forgotten before that I actually already saved up for the two months of travel once I finish work. In that case, I am covered in terms of the Fiji hostel and food for that week.

SUDDENLY FIJI IS BACK ON THE TABLE, PEOPLE!

We will see. While I know it will be incredible to go to Fiji and experience warm weather, beautiful beaches, and snorkeling… I just want to make the most of my time in New Zealand while I can.

Anyway. I have a short work week. I took Thursday off work and I fly to Christchurch that morning. I come back to Queenstown Sunday night. I have no idea what Ash and I will be getting up to in Christchurch but I’ll let you all know next week!

Until then – I’m sending you all my love. xx