My house, me relaxing on our "balcony" (if you can call it that!)

Me horse riding again!

Forgt a few photos, this is me horseriding last week

Hope you all like the new photos of my trip to Wanaka etc!
am back now, back to work and all that!
Eva is leaving tomorrow so she is coming over mine to have dinner. I'll miss her when shes gone. We are having a little leaving do, for her.. just Ana, Jessika, Olivia, Eva and I so should be good! not that I will get to do much of the cooking as I am working 8-8 today!
I split up with Paul (very shortlived relationship) did I even mention we had got together?!
If anyone wants to write to me (I miss getting post!)my address is
Punga Grove Hotel
PO Box 85
Franz Joseph
South Island
NZ
obviously be aware if its a postcard that its going to my work!

The toilets at Puzzling world!! the painting is so clever and realistic you feel they are actually in there and its 3d but it is in fact a flat painting!

One of the many little posters at puzzling world

This is the giants and hobbits room! looks perfectly normal huh?

But I am not a giant and these guys are not hobbits.

The same tricks were used to film Lord of The Rings

This is a room of faces at Puzzling world. They are actually concave, but if you move around the room they come out and follow you round the room.. theres loads of optical illusions like this..

Pretty much as soon as I arrived in Wanaka I went to Puzzling World, this really famous cool place!

It can keep you entertained for hours!

Lake Wanaka.

Lake Hawea, about 12kms before Wanaka. I got a ride with an Australian couple who have 2 daughters in their 20's. We stopped here for a picnic. I didnt have any food so they fed me!

Haast River.

On my days of I was headed to Wanaka. I got stranded in Fox overnight, stayed at a nice hostel, went on a glow worm walk with a nice english guy.

Watched a long film about Janet Fromes life story (very good!)

Anyway, Haast is on the way to Wanaka

Franz Josef Village from a helicopter

The Rainforest of Franz Joseph

More views of glaciers (just want you to get a feel for where I'm living!)

More views from helicopter

Another view of mountains

Franz Glaciers from helicopter landing

The scenic flight helicopter I went on

Franz Joseph Glacier from the scenic flight I went on

Peters Pond in Franz Josef, Franz Josef glacier is reflected in it.

Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier, landslides cause the ice to be grey and dirty looking

The mountains again! sorry couldnt resist taking so many photos!

Lake Matheson, Mount Cook and Mount Tasman

Me at Lake Matheson

Another one of Lake Matheson, it has Mount Cook (Lord of the Rings) and Mount Tasman reflected in it

Lake Matheson

Mount Cook and Mount Tasman from Fox

Some arty shots from the alter windown at st James Church in Franz Joseph

Me on the street outside my house

Rainforest.. this is how it looks everywhere around here.. you wander in here and your lost.. for a very long time!

The franz joseph glacier from the street outside my house

So what have I been up to apart from working bloody hard. 8-8 the last couple of days!
On my second day off though I went on a flight with a landing on the ice which was good fun (lots more photos) and then I went horse riding which was also great!
Ana, Jessika and I are having a nice pot luck meal tonight, making our own sushi and all of that and Anas going to show us how to make brazilian food. should be fun, have got a bottle or 2 of sauvignon blanc in. I dont finish till 8pm so I wont be able to help with the cooking much unfortunately as they'll start without me or we wont ever eat!
The trouble with alcohol is that even if I only have 1 glass I dont sleep well. Its so annoying. On the bright side though I havent had a hangover since that one from my last night in Nelson.
The last few nights I hadnt slept as had been out and had a glass or 2 so last night when I got in from working 8-8 I was asleep by 9pm!
Am kind of seeing my next door neighbour which is cool. I made myself go over and say hi as I had fancied him for a couple of weeks!
Got woken up by an earthquake this morning. My bed shook!

Have had a great day! The sun has been so hot.. have caught the sun and am feeling all summery!! yay!! we've had a couple of gorgeous days in a row! Not that I saw it yesterday as I was working 8-8 and Marie and Dean went to town leaving me in charge.. my god it was busy!! But I'm still alive! the cleaners (specifically heather) were testing me a little as a new manager but I didnt let her get away with it.. Its funny as now I wake up in the morning and think things like "hmnn did I send that fax to Taiwan?.." I make international phone calls with one hand and send worldwide faxes with the other hand. Am learning tonnes, rushed off my feet but its great!!
I had the day off today and so did Eva so we hitched to Fox, had a look round the shops (all 3 cafes) and then hitched to Lake Matheson where there are perfect reflections of moutains in the lake on a still day. There was a little wind today so it wasnt perfect but still beautiful, mount tasman and mount cook were reflected in it (look out for photos soon). We did a circuit of the lake which took about 1.5 hours which was lovely in the sunshine. Then we hitched to fox to have lunch, hitched again to the fox glacier which we walked up to (about 10 metres away and then they have a rope to stop you - you can of course pay lots to go up it..) I picked up lots of stones! yes I know like I'm going to be able to carry them around with me?! but I can put them in my room here for the next 6 months.. There were loads of cool ones, silver glitter stones which you could rub onto your skin and get a free glittering (free make up!), white crystal stones, white crystal stones with a silver layer on top and these red stones.. Anybody got any clues as to what type of stones they are?
Anyway, then we hitched back to franz josef glacier, walked to peters pond and took photos of the franz josef glacier reflected in it (wow - was amazing..)
Then we hitched back to the village (its about 4 kms from the glacier - although there are views of it from the village), went to a cafe for carrot cake and I chatted to a few people about tomorrow. I have the day off tomorrow as well and would like to do a scenic flight. they said if there was room I could squeeze on tomorrow. I specifically would like one thats usually $550.. not that I want much huh? I have been booking loads of poeple on helihikes since I did one so that worked for them to put me on one of them! (their $340) if u think most jobs are $10 an hour thats a shit lot of money!
Last night was beautiful too so Ana and I went on the Terrace Walk which has tonnes of glow worms. It was great! NZ is definately getting busier now.. summer season is beginning..
Eva leaves next week. her parents have come over to see her so she is going to go on a tour with them. I'll miss her. She also only has a 1 year visa so has to leave in December, she has been trying to extend it but having no luck. Us English are lucky to get 2 year visas! I would cry if I had to leave in the next couple of months!!
Anyway, has been a long day and am tired.. went on MSN but none of you are awake..! lazy lot!! its 8:15am there so I would have thought at least some of you would be getting to work by now.. I think its 12 hours time difference again now? our clocks just changed - giving us longer summer evenings which is great!
Oh nearly forgot.. we had 3 earthquakes the other night! One was 4 point something on the richter scale and the whole house shook and everything in it.. I think we get lots of mini ones we dont feel all the time. We are apparently due for a big one at some point but I think thats just a scare story to scarr the visitors!!

a crevice that I had to jump over..

More icy caves

Thats what we looked like from a distance trekking around in the snow!

Ico pool like the one I fell in! chilly!!

then the 5 of us got out, got kitted up with our crampons etc and set off on a hike!!
Oh my god!! Not long after we started I fell through the ice into an icy pool well past my waist! This meant I had to do the rest of the hike in wet clothes (they kept checking I was okay as sometimes they have to helicopter ppl out due to hyperthermia).
I felt fine apart from being a tad chilly. I was glad I was in shorts, It sounds mad to be in shorts on a glacier, but if you get wet then clothes take ages to dry so your actually warmer in shorts!! However a few minutes later a person behind me noticed that the snow had these little red bits in. I hadnt even noticed I was bleeding!! Fact for the day.. ice is razor sharp. I have tonnes of cuts.. and the most massive bruises!!!
From then on I was terrified of falling, you had to jump over crevices and squeeze through them... scary but great!! I couldnt look down when jumping over these crevices!! sometimes there wasnt enough room for feet on a flat surface to you would to walk along a crevice legs apart each foot at an angle.. hoping your crampons would hold...
The next day I ached!! and I went swimming so evreryone was commenting on my cuts and bruises!!
I spent the day with the manager of Glenfern Villas. We went to the nearest town which is Hokitika - 2 hours away and we also went to greymouth. Franz Josef locals do their supermarlet shopping in either Hoki or greymouth so its a bit of a day trip!
We took the kids swimming (and I went for a swim too) then lunch at KFC and then while they went to the cinema I went and got some shopping done (I desperately needed more smart clothes for work so I got another pair of smart trousers and a black shirt, luckily I get the shirts and jackets supplied from work as they have logos on.. then we went to the supermarket and i got lots of supplies in! The little shop in franz in very expensive (they can charge what they like as theres nowhere else for hours you can buy anything..!)
Today after work (I finished at 2pm) I went on a walk (1.5 hours) to the glacier and varoius viweing points and various other tracks of about 30mins each. It was a nice walk. theres toones of tracks around here.
I'm now going to get back and try to get to know Jesika, she arrived with a very surly bloke who I'm guessing is her boyfriend.. who I'm hoping smiles occasionally..!
There will be more photos everyone.. even more stunning amazing ones of the glaciers but am getting bored waiting for them to load so you'll have to wait for another day...

So what have I been up to lately?!
Well working alot obviously! have had so much to learn that my head has felt like its going to explode!! But its great!!Its good to have the challenge of learning new things!! My boss says I'm doing great and they are going to go away for a couple of days next week and leave me as manager! So thats a good sign! I'm happy as so far theres nothing I cant do, have learnt all the computer systems and booking systems etc and we have a new cleaner starting tomorrow so everything is running smoothly!!
I have now moved out of my luxury suite in the hotel (unfortunately couldnt stay there forever, we do have guests that want it)! I now live about 3 minutes down the road in a house share. I have a nice ensuite room. At the moment I live with Ana from Brazil and Jesika from California is moving in today. Its been good so far. Ana is quiet but friendly.
I had 2 days off work this week and guess what I did!!?? It was one of the best experiences of my life.. and maybe one of the scariest!!
I went on a helihike!!
I got helicoptered up to the top of the glacier
Photos from the helicopter...

This is me and the jade I carved MYSELF in Hokitika