In an act of complete selflessness and world-loving-ness, Alex and me have decided to sign up for Dry July. This means we won't drink alcohol for the complete month of July. EESH, I say! Now, to be completely honest, this act isn't completely selfless: with this we also want to limit some alcohol usage to get fit and ready for the ski fields and to watch our bills a bit. But hey, in any case it's win-win!
Obviously, donations are very welcome to support this a bit, and let me assure you- you do not donate to me, but to 13 hospitals all over Australia to help those suffering from cancer. Show your good hearts and click on the link below. Cheers! ... with water :-).
To donate, click on Dry July 2011.
maandag 27 juni 2011
woensdag 22 juni 2011
Snowless in Queenstown
Last Monday in the early morning, Alex and me were en route for Queenstown. Bags packed, food in the car and a list of meetings lined up, we were pretty confident that we’d be back the next day.
The drive started in a rainy Christchurch. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a map in the car and yours truly, who has done the drive from Christchurch to Queenstown in 3 weeks, thought she knew the road by heart. Alex was pretty sceptic about this but we still kept going, until at some point we both realized that it could not be the right way. In Timaru, we asked which way to go and the friendly fuel station manager chuckled a bit and told us we’d driven “a bit out of the way”. We had to drive back to Fairlie and there take the road past Tekapo, Twizel and so on. Whoops, my bad!
The rest of the trip was great. The rain lifted and made way for a clear, bright blue sky. We passed Tekapo, which is where I first realised that I love New Zealand, and the lake was as beautiful as the first time I’d seen it.
The drive then continued through Central Otago, which consists mainly of large tussocked plains with in the background huge impressive mountain ranges. The autumn colours were very vibrant, the sky was littered with slices of cloud and the image was just picture perfect (unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures).
When we passed through the Kawarau Gorge, I knew we were not too far from Queenstown anymore because I recognized the breathtaking type of landscape from a heli-raft trip I did around there: huge gorges with a river swinging down below. It was downright beautiful.
On arrival in Queenstown, we both took a deep breath of air – the temperature there is much colder than in Christchurch, and the air feels purer. Welcome home! We booked into a hotel and immediately had a meeting with a real estate agent for a property viewing.
The next days were filled with the same: property viewing, trying to find something to rent, trying to find a job.
It so happens that finding rentals and a job will not be easy, since the rental market has been flooded by people coming from Christchurch to try and escape the quakes.
We did see a few buying properties that interest us though, and living in Queenstown will be really cool. The city has such a nice vibe – you can’t really find this in Christchurch, and definitely not since the earthquakes have wrecked the city.
Unfortunately, the snow has not yet fallen in Queenstown, and every skier and snowboarder is anxiously waiting for it to happen. The city hasn’t had this problem since years. Hundreds of people don’t have a job at the moment, because normally the ski fields should’ve been opened by now but due to lack of snow aren’t … hopefully the snow will fall soon – do all your snow dances and prayers for us!
Now we are back in Christchurch once more, where – no surprise there – the earth has moved again yesterday. Luckily we didn’t find any extra damage to the house. For now we will just wait, do a bit of work on the station, and then go back to Queenstown – where by then hopefully the snow has fallen – to start the real winter.
vrijdag 17 juni 2011
A scenic flight around Mount Algidus Station
After two nights being rumbled and shaken awake in "Shakey Shakey Christchurch", Alex and me decided it was time for a trip into the mountains to visit the family. Cousin Ned would also be a guest at the station. Reunion with all the familiar faces here was again very nice, and as always Larry the dog was proudly waiting to be patted, chest out and face high in the air. Good dog! Tic, poor girl, is really getting old, and Teddy is just wandering around the place as always.
Ned wanted to get a better look of the station, and what is a better way than to do that in helicopter? ... Yes you here me coming; we got to join him :-). The trip was amazing! The weather was fine, so we had clear skies all along. The flight took us about an hour, and gave us the most wonderful sights of the land around the station, the closest alps and even a glimpse of Mount Cook. There hasn't been much snow yet - to Alex' great frustration - but some of the peaks were covered in a white layer and it was magical.
The heli dropped us off at some lakes in the mountains, still on Algidus domain, which was completely frozen over. Since the sun was shining so well and there was no wind, it was a lot of fun to walk around the place and take some pictures :). I just love it when you step in a fresh carpet of snow and your feet sink away completely. This is winter as it should be!
Tim the pilot then took us for some more sightseeing. When we flew over the Rakaia Gorge, we came upon a whole bunch of glaciers which made me think of the Franz Josef Glacier last year. Again the amazing wave formations, crevasses, blue ice ... wonderful. As it turned out later, we must have not been too far from the glaciers anyway :).
In the end we even got a glimpse of the West Coast ... Amazing how far an hour flying can get you.
It is safe to say that this was a flight well spent - the 3 of us were deeply impressed!
The day after - yesterday - Alex was going to take Ned out for a walk to the peak of Mount Algidus. It took me a while to decide if I would join them, since I didn't have the right foot gear, but in the end I just thought "Whatever, it can only hurt". Well, although now I can tell everyone it is not a good idea to walk mountains with Timberland boots (waaaay to heavy!), it was a good idea to climb the peak: at least now I have got my exercise in for a few days and the views were again - what else could it be - stunning. We made good time walking up (me proud :)) and had a little delicious lunch up the top. Afterwards, going down was easier than going up in the scale, haha, I felt like Gollum in the mountains!
Now it is time to venture our way back to Christchurch-hopefully-still-standing, as we plan to go to Queenstown in the next few days to see some apartments and try to find a place. Fingers crossed that the snow starts falling soon!
Photos of this event can be found in my new album on Facebook: A Trip Around Mount Algidus Station.
Ned wanted to get a better look of the station, and what is a better way than to do that in helicopter? ... Yes you here me coming; we got to join him :-). The trip was amazing! The weather was fine, so we had clear skies all along. The flight took us about an hour, and gave us the most wonderful sights of the land around the station, the closest alps and even a glimpse of Mount Cook. There hasn't been much snow yet - to Alex' great frustration - but some of the peaks were covered in a white layer and it was magical.
The heli dropped us off at some lakes in the mountains, still on Algidus domain, which was completely frozen over. Since the sun was shining so well and there was no wind, it was a lot of fun to walk around the place and take some pictures :). I just love it when you step in a fresh carpet of snow and your feet sink away completely. This is winter as it should be!
Tim the pilot then took us for some more sightseeing. When we flew over the Rakaia Gorge, we came upon a whole bunch of glaciers which made me think of the Franz Josef Glacier last year. Again the amazing wave formations, crevasses, blue ice ... wonderful. As it turned out later, we must have not been too far from the glaciers anyway :).
In the end we even got a glimpse of the West Coast ... Amazing how far an hour flying can get you.
It is safe to say that this was a flight well spent - the 3 of us were deeply impressed!
The day after - yesterday - Alex was going to take Ned out for a walk to the peak of Mount Algidus. It took me a while to decide if I would join them, since I didn't have the right foot gear, but in the end I just thought "Whatever, it can only hurt". Well, although now I can tell everyone it is not a good idea to walk mountains with Timberland boots (waaaay to heavy!), it was a good idea to climb the peak: at least now I have got my exercise in for a few days and the views were again - what else could it be - stunning. We made good time walking up (me proud :)) and had a little delicious lunch up the top. Afterwards, going down was easier than going up in the scale, haha, I felt like Gollum in the mountains!
Now it is time to venture our way back to Christchurch-hopefully-still-standing, as we plan to go to Queenstown in the next few days to see some apartments and try to find a place. Fingers crossed that the snow starts falling soon!
Photos of this event can be found in my new album on Facebook: A Trip Around Mount Algidus Station.
dinsdag 14 juni 2011
Ash clouds, earthquakes and reunions
After 33 hours of travelling, I finally arrived in Christchurch. The first flight, from Brussels to Abu Dhabi (Doooooo) was amazing! There were only about 20 people in one compartment – in other words: just about an empty flight – which meant I could stretch out over 4 seats and have a bit of a sleep. Unfortunately this flight was over in 6 hours. The long haul, 14 hours, was spent in a small seat next to a (nice) Swedish guy but unfortunately with about 5 crying babies around us. Ah well, it can’t all be golden; the food was good and the service impeccable :).
When I arrived in Sydney for my last connection to Christchurch, everything was still ok, but then I got a text from Alex who said he hoped my flight wouldn’t be cancelled due to the ash cloud. I hadn’t heard anything up until then but slowly it dawned on me that a lot of flights were cancelled and the airport atmosphere was a bit hectic. Luckily, my flight was still going, but because of the Chilean ash cloud the plane got in late, which made us board about an hour late. After that we were on the plane for about half an hour when we got the news that “something was wrong with the air conditioning” and we had to taxi back to the gate. At the gate (still on the plane) we heard that the engineers couldn’t really fix the problem, and we could fly via a different route, so now they ‘just’ had to check the route with the route planning people. “It should only take us about 10 minutes more”. About half an hour later (throat getting dry, bum extremely sore, mood getting foul), we could finally take off – via a different flight path, in the direction of Auckland, which also took us an hour longer than normal. Curse you, ash cloud!
Finally, 3 hours late, I arrived in Christchurch … and heard through the grapevine that there had been 2 more (severe) earthquakes just hours before. It was amazing my plane even arrived.
Reunion with Alex was amazing, after haven’t seen each other for about 3 months. The drive towards the city quite gave me a feeling of homecoming. I’ve been in Christchurch a few times now and am starting to know it. Unfortunately, the quakes have really rocked the city once more. The February quake has wrecked about half of it, and the ones upon arrival only added to the damage; such a shame. Yesterday I saw the city in daylight and damage is pretty bad, so different from when I arrived first in September.
Since arrival, there have been a few aftershocks as well, which is pretty scary. Every once in a while, wherever you are (sitting in the sofa, standing in the kitchen, lying in bed), suddenly the house starts rattling and you just look up from whatever you’re doing, wait, count and breathe out when it stops after a few seconds, hoping it won’t start again immediately, for that might mean it’s a ‘bad one’.
It’s not too bad of course – I’m happy to be back. We already had a nice dinner with ‘cousin Ned’ and ‘Mr. Smiley’, who are truly nice people. I’m looking forward to finding a place in Queenstown to spend the winter there, find a job and get some snowboarding in. But before that, we’ll stay in Christchurch for a few more days (fingers crossed...), combined with a visit to Mount Algidus Station (can’t wait to see Larry the dog again!) and the Lyttelton Festival of Lights this week. Good times ahead, oh yeah :-).
Finally, 3 hours late, I arrived in Christchurch … and heard through the grapevine that there had been 2 more (severe) earthquakes just hours before. It was amazing my plane even arrived.
Reunion with Alex was amazing, after haven’t seen each other for about 3 months. The drive towards the city quite gave me a feeling of homecoming. I’ve been in Christchurch a few times now and am starting to know it. Unfortunately, the quakes have really rocked the city once more. The February quake has wrecked about half of it, and the ones upon arrival only added to the damage; such a shame. Yesterday I saw the city in daylight and damage is pretty bad, so different from when I arrived first in September.
Since arrival, there have been a few aftershocks as well, which is pretty scary. Every once in a while, wherever you are (sitting in the sofa, standing in the kitchen, lying in bed), suddenly the house starts rattling and you just look up from whatever you’re doing, wait, count and breathe out when it stops after a few seconds, hoping it won’t start again immediately, for that might mean it’s a ‘bad one’.
It’s not too bad of course – I’m happy to be back. We already had a nice dinner with ‘cousin Ned’ and ‘Mr. Smiley’, who are truly nice people. I’m looking forward to finding a place in Queenstown to spend the winter there, find a job and get some snowboarding in. But before that, we’ll stay in Christchurch for a few more days (fingers crossed...), combined with a visit to Mount Algidus Station (can’t wait to see Larry the dog again!) and the Lyttelton Festival of Lights this week. Good times ahead, oh yeah :-).
donderdag 2 juni 2011
A new adventure ...
... and a new blog to write about it. That's how it goes :-).
The interim job at Decathlon (where I actually had a serious amount of fun) is done and I said goodbye to some people hoping that we might stay in touch. All the paperwork to get to the southern hemisphere is finished. The visa is paid for and acquired and sticks shiny in my - now getting rather impressive - passport. I haven't started packing my bags yet, but am going to do so in the next few days. I know it's a bit early (after all, I'm "only" leaving in 10 days) but you never know - I'm heading towards winter and while packing, it could be that I notice there's a lot missing. And anyway, I'm free from now on; what else should I do but getting packed and excited? :-).
In the mean time, 'empty' moments are easily filled with friend meet-ups. Although I shouldn't be gone for too long this time, it is (and always will be) a difficult matter to say goodbye to people you love. However, I am more experienced now and know that when I return, while some things might have changed, in basics everything stays just about the same - loved ones remain loved ones, no matter how many kilometres are between them... and isn't that the bottom line? :-).
So on the one hand I'm standing with one foot still in Belgium, whereas the other foot is already reaching for New Zealand. I keep close and ever closer contact with Alex, who I'll be staying with, which makes me really look forward to arrival in Christchurch and a new life in Queenstown. There's even already a winter festival waiting for us :-). I'm also slowly starting to look for jobs while Alex has already started an intense search for apartments. Curious about that!
But hey, what's the rush. Before I head to winter, I'm still here for a few more days, to enjoy the gorgeous weather (and hope I get a tan to freeze off in Queenstown), to spend time with family and friends, and to take a deep breath before the big plunge.
New Zealand - I said I'd return, so here I come :-).
The interim job at Decathlon (where I actually had a serious amount of fun) is done and I said goodbye to some people hoping that we might stay in touch. All the paperwork to get to the southern hemisphere is finished. The visa is paid for and acquired and sticks shiny in my - now getting rather impressive - passport. I haven't started packing my bags yet, but am going to do so in the next few days. I know it's a bit early (after all, I'm "only" leaving in 10 days) but you never know - I'm heading towards winter and while packing, it could be that I notice there's a lot missing. And anyway, I'm free from now on; what else should I do but getting packed and excited? :-).
In the mean time, 'empty' moments are easily filled with friend meet-ups. Although I shouldn't be gone for too long this time, it is (and always will be) a difficult matter to say goodbye to people you love. However, I am more experienced now and know that when I return, while some things might have changed, in basics everything stays just about the same - loved ones remain loved ones, no matter how many kilometres are between them... and isn't that the bottom line? :-).
So on the one hand I'm standing with one foot still in Belgium, whereas the other foot is already reaching for New Zealand. I keep close and ever closer contact with Alex, who I'll be staying with, which makes me really look forward to arrival in Christchurch and a new life in Queenstown. There's even already a winter festival waiting for us :-). I'm also slowly starting to look for jobs while Alex has already started an intense search for apartments. Curious about that!
But hey, what's the rush. Before I head to winter, I'm still here for a few more days, to enjoy the gorgeous weather (and hope I get a tan to freeze off in Queenstown), to spend time with family and friends, and to take a deep breath before the big plunge.
New Zealand - I said I'd return, so here I come :-).
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