Hey, everyone!  It has been sort of a shitshow of a week in some ways.  From cancelled flights to people I really enjoyed spending time with leaving Queenstown… I was feeling a little stressed and bummed at times.  Read on!

Cosmic Attempts at Interference

When checking my email one day, I received a very alarming email from Air New Zealand.  “Upcoming changes to your flight” is always a bad sign.  Sure enough, they continued to say that direct flights between Auckland and Chicago were going to be suspended as of March 31^st.  NO!  The email continued on to say that flights would be changed to different U.S. “ports” and that I would hear about the new arrangements within 72 hours.  Well, 72 hours is a long time. 

My flight to Chicago is on the 29^th.  Would this flight be changed, too?  What does that mean, a different U.S. port?  Were they going to send me to some random U.S. city and then I’d have to sort out my own flights to/from Chicago?  More money, more layovers… AHH!!!  I started to spiral.

The next morning, I woke up to an email that my flight had not been rescheduled, but had been cancelled.  Immediately, I thought this applied to the entire booking.  Fortunately, it didn’t.  It only applies to my Chicago to Auckland flight on the way home.  In the email, I was told I could reschedule that leg of the trip, free of charge.  Phew.  I looked up some flights before work and then called the number provided.

I ended up being on hold for, I’m not kidding, two hours and maybe five minutes.  Finally, I got through to somebody.  She helped me sort out my new flight. At one point, the phone disconnected and I nearly screamed. Would I have to wait another two hours? Luckily, she called me back a moment later. Phew. But then, just before she was going to be sending me my booking confirmation… the FIRE ALARM went off in the building.  I’m not joking. I apologized to the representative, but stayed on the phone as I left the building and by the time I was outside, she was sending through my confirmation email.  Yahoo! 

I now have an extra layover on the way back from Chicago, but that’s okay.  No extra money spent, and it all worked out.  If anything, I suppose the universe works in strange ways.  Maybe had I taken that flight, it would have crashed or something.

Kiwi Park Shenanigans

I had been looking forward to a return to Kiwi Park the entire week so when Saturday rolled around, I was happy to wake up early.

On the schedule for the day was the Antipodes Island parakeets, the red-crowned parakeets/wood pigeons, geckos, and the fern fronds.

Lexi trusted me to clean/feed the “Antips” on my own which was nice.  I hosed down bird poop from the enclosure, took out their old food, and gave them their new food.  Lexi gave me the hot tip that it’s a good idea to just let them grab a piece of carrot from the bowl upon entering the enclosure… otherwise, the birds would be bugging me the whole time I tried to set up their food bowls. It worked!

Just as I had finished up, I ran into Lexi on the way back to the staff area.  We grabbed the food for the red-crowned parakeets/wood pigeons and off we went!

It will probably be a while before I learn all the bird names but what I do remember is that two of the wood pigeons are named Rick… and Morty.  And funnily enough, not after the characters in the TV show.

Rick is actually a female and she unfortunately has some brain damage after getting attacked by a falcon.  She is blind in one eye and her head looks somewhat crushed.  Lexi told me Rick will probably just land on me at times… and moments after Lexi left me on my own, that’s exactly what Rick did.  So funny! 

After feeding the wood pigeons and red-crowns, Lexi took me to the geckos.  There are four geckos – two are forest geckos.  The other two are bigger.  One of them, Quasimodo, has a big hump on its back.  The other, Esme, looms in the corner.  Lexi told me Esme can hiss and bite sometimes.  To make matters worse, their food is… MEALWORMS!

I immediately felt hesitant as I watched Lexi sift her hands through a box of mealworms to find the perfect selections for the geckos.  Eek!  She taught me how to properly feed the geckos.  With tweezers, the idea is to grab a mealworm and lightly wave it in front of the gecko’s face.  The tweezers need to be angled away from the gecko’s mouth so it won’t stab itself in the throat as it grabs the mealworm.  I was a little freaked out at first and accidentally dropped the mealworms a couple of times.  But then I got the hang of it.  Esme behaved herself and was actually the best one out of them – she snatched up the mealworms immediately and didn’t give me any grief!

After the geckos, I checked back into the staff room.  I didn’t know what the “fern fronds” portion of my tasks were, so Adriana showed me.  Basically, it’s a matter of walking around the park and filling up a box with dried fern fronds.  Why?  Because kiwi use it as lining in their burrows!  I quite enjoyed the task.  It was pretty meditative and I was happy to be doing something for the kiwi.

OH.  And how could I forget the coolest thing?  I got to meet Pakō – the kiwi chick they are currently monitoring and doing health checks on.  It was a very brief experience but still super cool to see a li’l kiwi! Maybe one day I’ll have a picture to share but I didn’t want to push my luck. Just seeing the li’l guy was enough.

Starting next Saturday, I am going to help clean the kiwi enclosures, too!  Exciting.

Vienen y Se Van: Elias & José

They come and they go. They really do. 

The other day, I said to myself – Queenstown may be the “Adventure Capital of the World,” but lately it feels more like “The Town of Goodbyes.”  Seriously!  It has been a lot.

I am generally fine with it because I tend to be somewhat reserved and it takes a while for me to get close to people.  And yet…

Elias was here for only a short time, but I always enjoyed spending time with him.  We’ve gone out dancing a number of times.  On his birthday, you might remember we got ice cream and hung outside the Kiwi Park listening to the kiwi calls.  He helped me practice my Spanish and I helped him with some English words he wasn’t familiar with, too.

He (and quite a lot of people from Chile) are rather affectionate so sometimes in the kitchen lounge area, he would play with my hair and rub my back.  “Cariño,” he called it – which translates to “dear” or “affection.”

On his final night, Elias, Vale, and I hung out in the kitchen.  We had tea and Elias brought over some sopaipillas for us to eat, which were so yummy!  Basically a little circular shaped bread, tomato, and mayo/ketchup.  Yum!

We said our goodbyes.  I told Elias I’d like to visit him in Chile one day.  He told me that wherever his home is, I have a place to stay.  And off he went.

But then… José.

José was my first friend in Queenstown.  In the early days of our friendship, we often went stargazing and aurora-hunting together.  He introduced me to the world of slackline and the circus kids.  Our tradition was to meet on Wednesdays at the circus group, practice for a few hours, then go get dessert somewhere and talk for a while.  This has been every Wednesday since we’ve known each other – so nearly four months now. 

Four months isn’t a long time, but José sort of opened me up to the world of Queenstown.  In a way, he helped to kickstart my life here because being at the slackline group helped me meet more people and also strengthen my relationships with those at the hostel who wanted to give the slackline a try when I was out practicing. 

For his final night in Queenstown, we met up at Patagonia with Yinon, Liv, and Akhil.  We had hot chocolate and some truffles.  It was a really nice time.  Before leaving, the “Time of My Life” song from Dirty Dancing started playing. Since Yinon and José practiced acroyoga and balancing so much, José actually did the jump and Yinon caught him, lifting him up towards the ceiling.  My parents would have loved that.

Afterwards, we went to a bar.  Akhil and I drank water while the others got Disney-themed drinks.  Liv and José had the “Rapunzel” haha.

At one point, Liv and Yinon shared their adoration for José and how they were bummed he was leaving.  I started to tear up a little bit which I wasn’t really expecting, but alas.

Yinon informed us he had baked a “slightly-burnt” cake.  After drinks, we walked through the gardens before heading to Yinon’s car and enjoying cake. 

José said farewell to Akhil, Liv, and Yinon and we walked back into town where we met with José’s friends from Chile.  We went inside a pool bar and hung out for a couple of hours.  Vale joined as well.  They were all speaking Spanish and while I’m practicing every day, it was still difficult to understand a lot of the conversation. Occasionally, Vale and José would translate or make sure I understood. The music was loud, they were talking fast, and the conversations were more advanced than what I’m used to.  I’m looking forward to the day where I can understand 100% of what people are saying in Spanish.  Maybe before the year is up?

Around 2am, we left the bar.  The others wanted to go dancing.  José and I walked back to his apartment in a soft rain.  He had some clothes he was getting rid of and I told him I’d have a look.  So, for the first and last time, I went to José’s place. 

I sorted through his clothes and took a few of them.  He also gave me a golden pair of nail clippers which were much appreciated since mine are on their final days.

We took one final photo together and, since he had to be up in 5 hours to leave for his flight, it was time to say goodbye.

We hugged for a while.  José is a damn good hugger!

I felt emotional again and nestled into his neck, where I started to cry.   I didn’t want to be feeling sad and potentially making José feel bad, but I couldn’t help myself.  I was in the emotions!  And I tend to be quite sentimental anyway.

While I am happy for José and the next phase of his journey, I was feeling sad to be “losing” him.  He will be in Wellington for a few days and then back to Chile to visit family before going to Australia on a Working Holiday Visa.  I plan to visit Perth in summer of 2025, so I hope we can find a way to meet up then.

While we are both hopeful we will see each other again one day, you never know.  I am glad to have had him in my life for the time that I did.

José wiped my tears away and told me one final Spanish phrase – “cuidarse,” which means “take care.”

Te amo mucho, mi amuigito.

Tiki Trail

The next day, I was still feeling quite weepy about José leaving.  I know it will be okay, but it just sucks.  While I initially planned to not do a damn thing on Sunday, I decided instead to go on a short walk.  

I had heard of the Tiki Trail probably almost immediately upon my arrival in Queenstown, but I haven’t yet done it.  The trail goes from town up to Skyline and then continues to Ben Lomond if desired. 

Honestly, I had been hesitant to do it because I thought I’d heard it was a super steep trail.  It wasn’t bad at all and was quite enjoyable.  Along the way, I saw a couple of the ziplining stations which was cute.  I even saw someone ziplining!  I’ll have to try that one day.

There were some interesting features along the trail.  There looked to be a cave in the side of the mountain and it actually went down pretty deep from what I could see. 

There were also some wooden chairs along the path.

The trail went through forest which is my favorite because it provides shade from the sun.  The smell of pine was very fragrant along the walk. 

Before long, I had made it to the top.  I enjoyed the views at Skyline for a few moments but then wanted to head back to town to relax the remainder of the day.  I told myself I was going to have a super chill day and that’s what I did. 

Miscellaneous

Some nights out dancing with the gang…

Art of the Week

Did I mention my RedBubble site is now live for purchasing art? You can find that here!

Reflections

In a way, it feels like the end of an era here in Queenstown.  I leave for the States soon (less than two weeks).  By the time I return, a lot of people will have come and gone in my absence.  Summer is now officially over and winter will be arriving.  No more slack line (except on sunny days). There will be much more snow on the mountains.  I think “chapter two” of my time in Queenstown will begin.  I have already been in Aotearoa five months as of today.  Time is so strange.

But despite the loss of the above mentioned, there are things to look forward to – as always.  Family time for three weeks and then I will go to Stewart Island for a week.  The cooler weather means darker nights which hopefully means better success in aurora-hunting earlier in the night. I’ll be getting more involved at Kiwi Park, too!

It is weird to compare my five months in Aotearoa New Zealand to my five months in Perth.  It felt like I was living in Perth for SO LONG.  And here, it has gone by really, really quickly.  I’m not sure why that is.

I have a full week of work ahead of me, followed by a three day weekend.  I’ll volunteer at Kiwi Park and then I’m looking into camping at Mount Cook with Marion for the long three day weekend.  Then a three day workweek and I’ll be off to America on Friday!  Yahoo!

Until next time, I’m sending you all my love. xx