Life in Queenstown...

We've been living in Queenstown for nearly two weeks now, and very nice it is too. Technically speaking, we're actually living in Frankton, which is just a few kilometers from Queenstown, but it's pretty much all the same place. Me and Clare have been settling into our new home for the next few weeks, a caravan in a caravan park! Our caravan is a somewhat 'vintage' affair, with some interesting decor, but we've managed to make it homely enough, and it's not too cold thanks to our electric heater. Our friends Vick and Rich also have a caravan here, although theirs is a little more 'compact' (at least it's cheaper to heat guys!).

The main advantage of our new home is that it's a pretty cheap option compared to the hostels we've been so used to. Therefore, we've ploughed our surplus cash saved from not staying in a smarter place into other 'investments' instead; namely beers in the next-door Frankton Arms Tavern (FAT for short), snowboarding lessons for me and horseriding for Clare.

My snowboarding has come along well. After 3 days of lessons, practice, and a lot of falling over, I can now snowboard to a reasonable degree, which is nice. I even managed to do a few runs yesterday when the snow was coming down so fast that I could hardly see my hand in front of my face, let alone where I was going!

I was surprised to see that Kiwis seem as poorly prepared for snowfall as us Brits. When the first snowfall came the other day, the roads were littered with abandoned cars, businesses shut up shop early, and the pub was rammed!

Despite the snow, we did actually manage to get out to Arrowtown last week for a mooch about. It's a 'quaint' little town, full of 'bijoux' shops, cafes and a historic Chinese gold miner's settlement, or what's left of it. All rather picturesque.

Anyways, me and Rich will undoubtedly be out snowboarding again next week, weather and funds permitting, and Clare and Vick will continue to quietly work their way through the entire DVD catalogue of the local video store.

More photos soon!

-Si