Ode to the Snow

THERE is now a time when meadow, mountain, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me seems
Apparell'd in snowy light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream. 5
Projected on the flanks of the hills great;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The flashes which I have dreamt, to see'th no more I wait.

Ricky Wordsworth: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Late Childhood, 1770 - 2009

Given that I couldn't possibly write a legible original ode ill now stick to my usual format.

Well skiing is incredible, I absolutely love it! it is so exhilarating and exciting and fast and the best thing is you don't necessarily die when you fall down a cliff. What better sport for learning how to do cool things?...

So given that I bought a season pass for one of the ski fields I have been skiing whenever I can, 2-3 out of every 4 days, interspersed with: recovering (from skiing and evenings out); some casual labour; lots of cooking and learning to bake; kayak polo (water polo but in kayaks - awesome fun, a very full on and exciting game, and it quickly gets your confidence up with going under water!); a bit of wood carving; badminton; labouring around on my single speed bike; occasional adventures in to the hills; helping at music concerts and volunteering at ski competitions.... so I have been keeping busy!

The renting has turned out OK, my flatmates are amazing, but the house is cold and dark, so not very inviting, not a place I could ever call 'home', albeit it is a roof over my head.

A couple of the most memorable times I have had have been the tramps I have done. One up to Mt Roy for the sunrise (allready said about) and the other up the Copland Track, which starts on the West Coast and cuts striaght inland towards Mt Cook. The track follows the valley, climbing only maybe 100m in its 17km, so an easy walk through bush, towering valleys and along the stunning river. But that is not the good bit....
When you get to the hut at the end of the track there are 3 natural hot pools lined with the most gloriously soft mud and the perfect temperature. And you wallow and sooth your muscles in the turquose water under the full moon and look at the snowy mountains surrounding you before dragging yourself out 4 hours later in to the chill air, and run back to your bed. Not bad.

Another rather wonderful highlight has been my parents coming over, sadly Alex had to stay at home due to a rather vicious bit of Glandular Fever, but it was a really wonderful time when I could totally relax and be pampered! We had a great time, starting off in Christchurch for a couple of days looking around the city, before coming down to Wanaka where we stayed for 5 days, where M+D skied for their first time ever too, and did rather amazingly! Also in Wanaka we did a couple of day tramps up hills, and inevitably back down again in beautiful scenery and in beautiful weather.
Following that we popped down to Doubtful Sound, the most extensive inlet in New Zealand’s Fjordland where we spent the night before departing on a two part cruise, first by boat over lake Manopouri, then by coach on totally isolated road across a neck of land to the sound, where we jumped on another rather luxurious cruise boat and spent the next 3 hours pottering around the damp and mist fjords that rose imposingly on all sides and disappeared into the cloud before we could even catch a gimps of the tops. Trees and bushed clung to every crevice and where one fell a swath of plants below it were wiped off their precarious perches. Tree avalanches aren't that common on Dartmoor... Nor is the sound of a real avalanche, something else introduced to me by the mountains of New Zealand - if your wondering it sounds exactly like a very short burst of thunder, a deep, powerful, rolling grumble.

Back on track we headed up north past Wanaka again for two nights before the long haul up the west coast, notorious for its rain, with figures of up to 10m a year! But fortunately that comes hand in hand with funnily enough, glaciers, blow holes and stunning temperate rainforest. We were able to explore some forest on a couple of occasions going for one walk to the foot or one glacier, and another day to where a river came out of a cliff. One big difference between native bush and English forest is that NZ has only a couple of native deciduous species so in winter the trees are as green as ever. As well as that there are a few species of palm trees which are all rather beautiful.

Continuing up the west coast we crossed over, inland, to Motueka, to meet up with family friends, from there we walked part way up Mt Arthur, way above the snowline at times trudging through over a foot of snow. That was so pretty. We diverted for one night over Takaka Hill in to the Golden bay area and made our way to the northern most point of the south island, Farewell Spit. The 26km long sand spit is decidedly long and sandy, and that’s pretty much it, apart from sad occasions when a school of wales become stranded there. This is particularly poignant in NZ as whales hold special spiritual significance to the Maoris.

I’m going to stop there for the moment and start again when I don’t have fudge, a necklace and dinner to make before going out to a talk by an English mountaineer [the first British guy to climb Everest without Oxygen…].

x

Here comes the snow

Life is so much more enjoyable with friends! A few days ago I was hitching to the recycle center (after my bike had been nicked) to try and find a new one, and was picked up by 3 English girls, also around for the winter season. I joined them later that day at the spa pools, the next day to do some mountain biking in 'Sticky Forest', a wicked mountain biking area locally, with loads of trails, and then to top it, at 4 o'clock the next morning to walk up a mountain in the pitch black to catch sunrise at 8. It was so beautiful, 1st the experience of walking up a rough track in the dark, then coming through the cloud layer to see all the stars, then seeing the sky lighten gradually from a faint blue to a gorgeous full blown orange across a whole swath of the horizon, with pink reflected on the snowy mountains all around us. We got to the top, trudging through snow, and munched on biscuits and drank warm tea (a god-send given the -8 it must have been) for 30 min as the sky became animated, changing every second, before we needed to start moving again to warm up.

And today the Ski field open!! but I'm nackered after the last few days, and going out last night, plus my skis wont be ready until tomorrow. But tomorrow it will be, my 1st ever excursion in to the realms of skiing. Its rather daunting, as is anything unknown, but we shall soon find out!

I hope to let you know soon!

x

Wanaka - to stay

Wow I have had a full last few weeks. I managed to get from Christchurch to Wanaka perfectly, and stayed with a previous wwoof host for 3 weeks. They are based 15km from the main town, but i was able to go in for a couple of days to get about 30 CVs around to restaurants, shops, pubs, hostels - everywhere really. At the vast majority of places the answer was no, or at least not yet. This is the first time in my life I have had to really look for a job properly, and the most i have ever been rejected, so it has been challenging to deal with the brick wall. Despite that, more recently I have been following up some of the shops, popping back every week, with a vague possibility with a few, so there is light yet. As well as looking for work, I was able to very easily find suitable accommodation, as there are a number of places where all the adverts for that kind of thing are posted. Also in the three weeks with my host I was able to get all my ski gear, including some very good clothing very cheep from a recycling/ 2nd hand center.

I moved in to my 1st renter accommodation ever on the 29th May, which I share with a local 37yr old girl. Although i could have moved in with 8 other 20yr olds, it didn't take my fancy as much, as i enjoy my space, plus I'm veggie, which is awkward if there is group shopping, including meat (bonus as my flat mate is veggie too). I have now been in my accommodation just over 3 weeks, in which time i have managed to get out a lot more as I'm 5 minutes cycle from town, meet like minded people, and sort endless bank troubles, get on to the case of possible employers, buy all my food, cook interesting things in all my spare time, do lots of e-mails, make lots of contacts and experience a whole different area of life.

Tomorrow I'm returning to the shop which has got the most likelihood of employment, so I'm really really hoping I get something out of that. I have also just won an online auction for some ski boots, so I'm pretty much totally ready to ski when the fields open in 5 days. Very exciting, and also rather daunting.

I'm going to be celebrating Christmas in 5 days too, as there are so many English here, and its of course winter, we feel we really need to have Christmas, or life just wouldn't be complete. So I'm heading over to friends for the day, not sure whats in store but it will be wicked fun whatever.


I will up-date you on the job front soon, and I hope its positive or other wise I don't think I will be staying around :(

x

Marlborough

wow, I'm so far behind! Sorry.
Finishing on the amazing shelter I stayed in on my walk in the Kahurangi National Park. It consisted of a absolutely huge boulder sticking out from the hillside under which a couple of wooden beds had been made, one 2 meters off the ground in a crevice in the rock. So it was open on 3 sides to the forest on a hillside, with the sound of a stream not 15 meters away and a fire lit by my side heating my evening meal.
I sat by the stream savoring the comforting warmth of the food while dusk fell. I intended to sleep in but the chill air and the empty fire circle got me moving, plus I had to hitch back to my hosts, which I managed to do with an old deer hunter, returning from his day with out a carcass.

To my delight it was suggested that my hosts drop me in to Nelson the following day, which was ideal as I really wanted to move on, plus I wasn't totally comfortable with them either.

Nelson allowed me to sort out a back account and nearly get an elusive tax number necessary for the Ski Field Job and the following day I hitched on to Picton, the town in the heart of the Marlborough sound, from where I hoped to wwoof with a family out on Arapawa Island, an hours boat ride out in to the sounds. Sadly after waiting 2 days to hear from the host, it fell through, but I was able to pick up someone else, not so far out, which was easier and I could get picked up the following morning, prefect!

This landed me at Sherrington Grange [http://www.sherringtongrange.co.nz/] a family farm that makes high grade Manuka honey and beautiful handmade cow and goats milk cheese, quite an amazing enterprise, the house beautifully set 20 meters from the shore, and from the end of the jetty you could see right down the sound (where the photos were taken that were posted in the last post).

The cheese maker had just lost her goat milk provider, and so had just bought 50 goats, so it was my job to 'goat proof' the paddock they inhabited, which other than building a 3 meter wall is near impossible. But I spent quite a number of day’s tying meshing to the pre existing fence. Ok for the first few days, but it was slightly mind numbing after that. But it had to be done! Sherrington Grange was also a farm stay so they had guests on a number of days, plus they specialized in catering to abnormal intolerances, so the food was always very good, as it has been at all the places I have stayed. One evening me had mussels picked from their beach not half an hour before :)

I ended up with them for 2 1/2 weeks, which was grate but i needed to move on after that, which I did to another host in the Marlborough Sound who is in the long and slow process of setting up a wonderful Nature Reserve on a peninsular, an hours boat ride north in to the Sounds. They shop once a month, spending a night in town before heading back the next day where I journeyed with them to feed their re establishing rare Marlborough Green Geckos and Red Crowned Kakarikis (parakeets) after the 15 minute drive in 2 4x4s up the rough track to their home at 200m with views occasionally of the North Island and in to the sounds. They are a beautiful family of 5, the parents Dutch, making the inspirational decision to live in an amazing isolated environment, making such a commitment to the stunning wildlife and putting every penny they can back in to the project. Their 12 and 14 y/o son and daughter are given their own responsibilities with the animals they are breeding for re-introduction and the up keep of the 41 hectare property.

My week with them was varied and good fun, they were all great to be with and really interesting, the day started at 8.00 and I worked my 4 hours, often with Brian, until midday, but from then I wondered how to entertain myself, so I decided to do a carving. I managing to obtain a perfect piece of Totara, a NZ hardwood used by the Maoris in their carving, to make a Gecko. The piece of wood was a meter long, 40cm wide and 20 thick, a truly beautiful piece of wood that I am honored to get hold of and work with (I hope there is an images attached of the Gecko). So I spent my spare time and, to the end of the week, my wwoofing time carving this thing, and I believe it is hanging now on the Gecko enclosure. Quite proud of that piece actually.

Finishing the week with Brian and Ellen I squished in a final week in the sounds, before I headed down south to Wanaka for the ski job, at Mistletoe Bay - an eco stay, with camping and semi and fully self-contained whares (forays), placed on one of NZs Great Walks (the Queen Charlotte Track). They have a 100k water and waste recycling system that’s very efficient, in 2 years never having to be emptied, despite hundreds of people passing through. The first wonderful job I had was to empty a big festering rubbish disposal skip, yum. Despite that I did get to do quite a bit of work of their 1926 30ft wooden motor launch, which was really gorgeous and totally re kindled my love of wooden boats and again, of course, the place was beautiful, and at night you could watch the bank of bluish glow-works twinkling at you from amongst the foliage. Oooh and they had 2 piggiwiggies that were soooo cute and if you scratched one on the nose if fell asleep hehe.

On the last but one day I was e-mailed the facetious news that I hadn't got the job.................. :(

The following week my time had come to fly South despite the purpose being rather what diminished but deciding to look for work anyway, as I really need to have more people my own age around me, even though I'm having the experience of a life time, Its nothing without the right people to share it with.

So here I am in Christchurch for the 3rd time half way from the Marlborough Sounds to Wanaka, staying with a cousin once removed for a couple of night, having been completely spoilt with a wonderful meal last night in the city and tomorrow the outstretched thumb waiting for a generous passer by.

x