Snowboarding

This morning we had our first snowboard lesson at the Turoa skifields up Mt Ruapehu with a nice American guy called Jacob, who has worked the past 12 ski seasons, so hasn't seen summer in 6 years. Poor guy.

We started pretty slow, jumping on the board and cruising along the flat, and then moved onto a really steady downslope. After about an hour or so we moved to the Alpine Meadow, which is the beginners slope, and tried to go down sideways, with the board at a right angle to the slope working on our balance. We both picked it up pretty quick, with Robyn zooming off and leaving me on my bum a few times! We rode the magic moving carpet back to the top and had a pep talk from our new snowboarding dude and we weren't too bad second time. I nearly ko'd someone having a private lesson but managed to jump out of the way just in time.

Robyn's gone off to work at King's this afternoon. I'm not working there anymore, certain 'personality and moral differences' being the reason for the decision. On the positive side it gives me time to look after Canoe Safari Lodge and the guests who stay here, which is actually the reason we came to Ohakune. I'll keep my eyes open for some work, but in the meantime I'm on check-in guests and dog walking duty.

Mardi Gras

This week it's Mardi Gras weekend in Ohakune. All the accommodation is booked out, and we're full both at Canoe Safaris where we live, and Kings where we work. Around 8000 people come to town for a massive street party on Saturday night, so we're expecting a busy weekend!

This week we've been working more at Kings. On the first 'Big Wednesday' there was a snowboard up for grabs, and a couple of customers and a couple of off duty staff members bought drinks and got raffle tickets to try and win. Robyn turned up at 10pm to pick me up, I bought a drink after work and gave her the ticket, and she won! So before we've had any lessons or even set foot on the mountain, Robyn now owns a brand new snowboard. We think the plan will be to see if we take to it, then get some boots and bindings so she can ride it, lucky devil.

Fun in Ohakune

We have been in Ohakune around 10days now and we are loving it! We have started work at Kings, lots of hard work trying to get ready for the season. We have been painting, carrying beds around, cleaning and generally doing all the hard jobs. The season opens on Friday though so we will be working properly then - real shifts and everything!

We went to a charity fashion show the other night to raise money for St Johns Ambulance, which is very important here because the nearest hospital is 1hour away! It was a great show, all the fashion was from local stores and the models worked there, live music and a raffle. We won $100 voucher for the local supermarket - brilliant prize (James was worried we would win a free Brazilian).

A girl called Heidi has moved into the staff quarters of the lodge with us. Luckily she is really nice and has a black Labrador, which James loves to take for a walk. All in all things are going well.

Back to Ohakune

After a great trip to Ohakune we left and headed up to Waitomo. We stopped for one night and went to see the Waitamo glow worm caves. The tour was great, a woman showed us around the caves, told us about the history and then took us on a boat where all you could see was hundreds and hundreds of glow worms! A really great thing to see.

After Waitamo we set off to Hamilton, New Zealands biggest inland city. Mainly dominated by a shopping centre, we had a look around and had some lunch. Next stop was back to Auckland to drop off Rosie (the campervan - named it ourselves in the end!) Sad to see her go we had become quite attached, but onwards and upwards!

Quite literally upwards, back to Ohakune (pic) where we will be living and working during the 4 month ski season. We will be staying at Canoe Safaris Lodge and working here and at Kings Bar. Free accommodation and paid work - result!

Wellington and Wanganui

We had two nights in Wellington and it was pretty cold and wet for the both of them. The city itself was quite nice, smaller than Auckland even though it's the capital!

We had a good look around Te Papa which is a huge museum on the waterfront, filled with lots of NZ history and what not. We also had a look in lots and lots of shops, and realised that on our modest traveller budget we can't afford much of what we want, and even if we could, we would have to carry everything we buy around for the rest of our time here. Had lunch outside 'The Beehive', NZ's parliament building (pic). The original design was done by the architect on a napkin, and you can tell when you see it.

From there it was around a two and a half hour journey back north to Wanganui, which was much warmer! We had one night at a campsite near the beach, and had a morning run along it the next day. Wanganui was pretty nice, and we stopped at the Warehouse to stock up on some cheap jogging bottoms and a pack of Anzac biscuits (the essentials).

Next stop is Ohakune on the southern slopes of Mt Ruhapehu.