Snow day

Last week it was freezing in Queenstown!

The snow was creeping further down the mountains

I woke up in the morning to get ready for work and took a peek outside my window to check out my car and try to estimate how long it was going to take me to defrost my window.
And saw this-

My car, blending in to nature with its snow camo

Now I don't have snow chains, or 4WD and I KNEW better...I KNEW I shouldnt, nay, couldnt drive my car in these conditions. But I really didn't want to call in sick to work and I thought if I could just make it to a plowed road I'd be okay....
After slipping and sliding for a few minutes I pulled/slid to the side of the road and was ready to throw in the towel.
I looked into my rear view and watched as a minivan pirouetted into the back of my car, ass first.
Boom.
My car just has all the bad luck.
No one was hurt. But our cars were wedged together at the top of a hill so law enforcement had to be called.
The cop brought chains and got us untangled and everything was all good. Especially since the backpackers that hit me have great insurance and my car is going to be fixed without me having to pay a dime.
Coulda been way worse.
While we were going through the car drama we all took turns falling on our butts walking on the icy ground and watched cars try to come up the hill then slide back down.
I swear it was like living in a highlight reel of bloopers and pratfalls.
And the local news came, you know, to document our shame in print.

I'm on the left, we watched that green taxi do one of the best controlled slides backwards down the hill

One walking passerby even made sure to let us know what jackasses we were (so helpful).
My flatmate, Fiona sent her friend to come rescue me (to be truly helpful and offset the ridiculously cranky pedestrian who was reveling in his presumably scarce circumstance of superiority.)
Hooray for a SNOW DAY!!!!!
No work and all day to play in the snow!
I couldn't have been happier!

The lakeside statue of Rees, founder of Queenstown

I walked into town, being careful not to fall down. Grabbed a nice hot cocoa, bought Fiona some fudge from the candy shop for all her help....
I also decided, it was a great day warm up with some whiskey..
I refuse to believe I was the only one buying booze at 10am that day....

Downtown

Then onto Bumbles, to wake my unemployed friends, Dom and Eric, and make them play with me.
This took quite a bit of effort.
1. The Canadian was completely unimpressed by snow.
    Me: blasphemy! Get up and make snowmen with me!
2. We were all lacking in cold weather gear and they had a heater going full blast in their room with a beautiful view of the lake...
  Me: hmmmm. Got me there. Lets just day drink inside for a bit till we figure this out...

So we sat inside for awhile. Got toasty warm and a bit of a buzz. Finally, I dragged them out to day drink with dignity at a proper pub.

Fiona and Eric

We met up with some other people and made a day of it.
Just walking through snowy downtown and bar hopping. Dodging snowballs.

So frosty!

At our last stop we had become a good sized group and chilled out in front of a giant indoor fire and played tons of pool while we thawed out.

Outside of 1876. I'm doing my best Gene Simmons inpersonation

I love the snow. I am smitten with it. By the end of the day the snow was already thawing so I was stoked I got to enjoy a day of it.

Respectable (non day drinking) worker in downtown 

My week

 I'm having a wonderful time in Queenstown!

I joined a gym. It's such a luxury to have a membership, plus I feel like less of a nomad for belonging to a club. Haha.

I love my place but I'm in the process of finding a new one. Unfortunately, my short term residence is nearing its end. So I'm trying to not take anything for granted, like the view and my big fluffy bed, because I've been so lucky to have them these past weeks.
In the meantime, I've enjoyed some nights out on the town.

Ah cowboys!

Cowboys....

Jo aka Little Spoon, cowgirling it up

Jamie- the bandit of Cowboys

So predictable.

Inside cowboys...note the revolver taps and antler chandelier hahaha

Post cowboys

I've played a game or two of disc golf.

Duck pond between holes 18 and 1 

The lake from the gardens/disc golf course 

Prepare yourself for the following epic action pics.

Ready, set, action!
Uh.
We can try again...

There's no laughing in disc golf!

Showing some heart, finally

That's how you action frisbee. Stone cold face. Eyes on the prize.

And I completely LOVE my job. My coworkers are awesome and I really dig talking to the customers and selling them fun gear.

Last week we had a week function at a steak house and hit the town up after. This week we've had a few technical sessions.

Love this sign at my job

Basically, brand representatives come in to talk about their product. Sometimes this involves movies, beer, pizza and free shwag! Can I really be getting paid for this?

The AR-15's in our gun department 

The super sweet German girls that I did the Routeburn track with left for Australia.

Minus 5  ice bar

Fiona. My fantastic roommate! 

Kate aka Killer. My other temp roommate.

So the Bumbles girls had a going away party for them, and we all went to the ice bar called Minus 5.

Sophie and Annalisa on their last night 

Eric and Dom- the unofficial Bumbles mascots

It turned into a big, long and fun night.

Bumbles girls

Me and Jess

Ice sculpture at the bar

Jess, ex-roomie, total crack-up, and my Fergburger hook up

Winter is here and QT is beautiful. I can't wait to go boarding.

The approaching winter from my back deck

Routeburn track, great walk. Glenorchy to Harris Saddle.

I took advantage of my two days off and the nice weather to do the Routeburn track. It's one of the great nine walks of NZ.
http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/fiordland/northern-fiordland/routeburn-track/
The track connects Aspiring Park with Fiordland Park and its a one way hike that can be turned into a loop, if you have enough time.
I  only had 2 days so I hiked the trail from the Glenorchy side, up past the highest point at Harris saddle (then a bit further) and back down to the first hut on the trail.

The start of the trail

I mentioned my plans to Sophie and Annalisa, two incredibly nice girls I met at Bumbles. They really wanted to do the trek too so I picked them up at 6am and we headed to the trailhead.
The track begins in gorgeous Glenorchy an hour and a half drive from Queenstown.
We were all pretty beat that morning from lack of sleep.

Tree beards brother?

Forest shrooms

The first 2 hours of the walk were through beechwood forest and along the river until we finally arrived at Routeburn Flats hut.

 This is the hut we were planning to stay overnight. So we dropped off the bulk of our gear and did the rest of the hike with day packs.

There were heaps of bridges

After an hour and a half of walking uphill.

We arrived at Routeburn Falls hut. It was amazing!
I really wished we could've stayed there but unfortunately it was closed for maintenance. There is a beautiful waterfall right next to the hut and the view looking down onto the valley below was sick.

Routeburn Falls

After the falls we walked through a meadow.

The meadow

Climbing up from the meadow

There were distant waterfalls and snow on the mountains on either side. Then once again we were ascending.

After another hour we had reached Lake Harris.

Lake Harris

 Since the clouds were still hanging around on the trail above us, we stopped and had lunch and took in the breathtaking views from Lake Harris and its waterfall.

Lake Harris

The top of lake Harris falls

Time was running out. We only had one headlamp (I was a dummy and forgot mine) so I didn't want us to have to walk in the dark for too long. There were some really sketchy places that would've been a nightmare without a light. But we really wanted to see the top and I dropped off my pack behind a bush and we made a push for the saddle. Just as we were hiking up the clouds cleared and we could really see the mountains for the first time.

Almost to Harris Saddle

We got to the saddle and the views were just crazy!
So unbelievably beautiful!

Mountain top pond

We walked another half hour down the trail before we reluctantly turned around for the day.

Looking onto the Hollyford Range near our turnaround point 

When we were halfway back to the hut I remembered my backpack.
Way, way, way back up the trail.
I swear, I can't take me anywhere.
So I added another 30 minutes to my hike when I ran back up the mountain to retrieve it.

Lake Harris

Lake Harris on our way back

This also cost us an extra half hour of daylight. But luckily we got past the really crazy parts of the trail just as it got dark. We actually made pretty good time on our way back considering three people were walking in the dark with one light.
We stayed in the hut and played some card games with a few fellow travelers.

View from Routeburn Flats hut

The girls slept in the next day. Once we were up and fully caffeinated, we did the 2 hour hike back through the forest to the trailhead.

Creek waterfalsls

Creek falls

I realized I hadn't taken much of the views in on our way up, I think I was sleep hiking, so I really enjoyed walking it again.

But I was happy to get to the car....
I was already dreaming of the giant Fergburger that I was going to eat as soon as we could get back to Queenstown.