Settling In

Trip Start Sep 09, 2004

140

394

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of New Zealand Queenstown, New Zealand
Saturday, July 30, 2005

In the main I've been spending a bit of time settling in, getting my head around and preparing mentally for the tricky demands of the job, and catching up with 'ma bitches'. Shiny was first. The night after I arrived in Queenstown. I decided to surprise her. We'd made a deal long ago that if we were to ever personally recommend anyone for a blind, random meeting it would be a) worth it, b) beneficial and c) a good laugh. She knew that I was up somewhere on the West Coast and was intending to stay there for a while. I'd also spoken of Kieran and Flo before, so when he called her up to arrange a get together over a few beers to discuss their options in Queenstown and for general night out and a good laugh, she totally fell for it. Kieran called me straight back, telling me hook, line and sinker. When she walked in to the Altitude Bar just after 7.30pm I was standing in the middle of the floor with a handle of Export Gold in each hand sporting a feeble grin. It was a 'moment'. She was surprised. Actually, she was probably quite disappointed as she was really looking forward to meeting Kieran and Flo. It was a great night though and there was so much to catch up on. I think it was almost 3am by the time we shuffled home.

I caught up with Chike too but not the Mannion. She's been suspiciously elusive, working all sorts of strange hours at the local care home. Our time will come.

Yesterday I moved house. Actually, from vehicle to house - a slight upgrade. This job provides me with random slots of time at random moments during the night, anything from twenty minutes to just over an hour. It just doesn't seem ongoingly practical to crawl in and out the back of a van all night. So I decided to move. Actually, I hadn't thought all that much about it until I stumbled across a small window of opportunity. The little Chicken has been itching to move in with the girlies up at the hostel for ages but had courteously offered to stay put at the house until they find another tenant. Bingo. 'The fastest house-hunting expedition yet,' as Shiny put it.

I moved in last night after a few celebratory beers with the feathered one. This is much better, though it will spoil me rotten. It seems strange to say but I now reside in complete and utter luxury: I have a bedroom. A real room. My own room. It's like being a teenager again but in a house full of strangers (like being a teenager again.) Instead of having to lug a green bag and a red plastic supermarket basket from the van over to a dirty communal kitchen at every mealtime, I now walk just five steps from my room to the kitchen where I have a cupboard to put my food in. I even have a small shelf in the fridge and a space to put my boots and shoes. There's even a washing machine and a dryer that joyfully spring into action when you press the 'on' button instead of demanding coins from you first. When I stand in the kitchen to wash dishes or make tea, Bang! I'm slapped silly with the view from the window: the jagged contours of the snow-capped Remarkables trailing off into the distance, and the warm, undulating carpet-like coating of the Cecil and Walter Peaks sitting monumentally, almost hauntingly over Lake Wakatipu. The view from the comfy sofa outside on the balcony upstairs is even better. It's like sitting before a huge, magical painting of paradise. All you have to do is open your eyes. And it's completely free!

It's also soothingly peaceful here. Apart from the odd melodic banter between the fantails dancing in the garden, there is absolutely nothing. No road noise or vehicle noise, people, work, kiddy or animal. Nothing. There can't be many people who get up in the morning and make a cup of tea as the scenery right outside the kitchen window dominates the moment. The kind that massages the soul and sets you up for a perfect day, where you spend most of it with a hearty, refreshing smile wrapped around your head. I feel so, so lucky. It almost feels like I've come home.

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